The Extreme Danger of Conspiracy Nuts.

[Hortensis]

10. Extremism grows in times of social anxiety, and in this time

it's now grown into and infected the previously far more stable and rational mainstream.

Fear of course. It causes some people seeking safety to run to instead of away from the glow of extremist fire, where with great relief discover they extremist sanctuary. Distress is replaced with the serenity of joining a great people with a great cause, fear of the unknown with great wisdom, confusion with certainty, and lack of conviction with extreme confidence and moral superiority.

Of course the hidden costs are enormous.

Adopting a new trumpish zero-sum, us OR them, view of political interactions,
Rejecting reality for the groupthink, dishonesty and conspiracism intrinsic to extremism,
Developing contempt and hostility for not just differing views but the problem people who hold them,
Inability to ally and compromise with others to achieve goals, and of course
New ruthlessness that justifies the righteous abandonment of all previous principles for the greater good.

Including democracy itself.

After all, it IS extremism.

RW or LW, religious, QANON, socialist, fascistic, the emotional comforts of the sanctuaries are very similar. And of necessity they all use conspiracies to various degrees, to weave conflicting truths from the exterior world into a protective wall.