Jack Cook7 said:It’s actually pretty straightforward. The principle is the same as any religion or any arbitrary belief system—whether it’s Catholicism, Orthodoxy, Buddhism, Hinduism, or even Satanism, Nazism... if you want to count Communism, Capitalism, democracy, or dictatorships too...
Public confirmation, a public display of obedience to the IDEA.
When a certain group relentlessly repeats an IDEA in the public square, it gets forced into a specific social circle as the primary axiom; if there’s financial backing behind it, that circle expands until it suddenly becomes the only discourse available in public communication—just like what we see happening in the US today. It’s about securing mass media support for hypnotized crowds, pushing mentally unstable individuals or just plain agitators into the spotlight who will constantly engage in increasingly intense verbal and then physical aggression. That’s how the initial snowball starts.
Back in the day, Jesus told his disciples this parable: "Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit? A student is not above his teacher. Even someone who is fully trained will be like his teacher. Why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye but fail to see the log in your own? How can you say to your brother, 'Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,' while you don't see the log in your own? You hypocrite! First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye."Luke 6:39-42 ☕
(All societies function this way; everything is essentially the "selling" of an idea, whether it's a religion, national myths, or a set of beliefs. I guess your frustration comes from the fact that Western societies are much more aggressive in pushing their ideas, leaving you to just point out the manipulation and try to open people's eyes. Go ahead, no harm done. On the flip side, you have poverty, misery, and blatant, vulgar aggression (vertical, as you put it); the followers survive, while the strong get canceled—not just on Twitter, but much more directly. In these so-called free countries, the individual means nothing; they are crushed and degraded. They claim to uphold so-called traditional values, yet they have nothing pure or healthy left in them; it’s all just Sodom and Gomorrah, alcoholism, violence, and hatred, because these are societies without hope, so what else is there? Most people want more, and they regularly seek it in developed liberal democracies rather than in filthy, Satanic death traps (🙂), no matter how much those places might consider themselves unhypnotized (🤣).
TL;DR: For those of you who finally had the scales fall from your eyes, an alternative does exist. But hey, maybe you just can't bring yourselves to take the leap.
Edit: shortened