The messaging of the Democrats is full of fear, hate and insane ideas. The Republican messaging is essentially to pass around the Democrat messaging to show how insane it is. Doesn't this end up with everyone seeing the hateful and insane messaging?
Fear, Uncertainty, Demoralization for everyone!
Indeed. Fox is full of "coof, sniffle, vaccinate" anti-"antivax" messaging. They think they're better than CNN because they're "pro-vaccine but anti mandate," but I'd argue they're almost worse in the fear department. They've still got all the covaids fear porn, just with extra neocon war mongering about sending troops to Ukraine and Taiwan while standing ready to invade Iran with our greatest IDF allies when Israel starts throwing nukes into Tehran.
Exactly this. The entirety of media, from MSM, to fringe, to youtube, has learned that fear = engagement. People are becoming, for lack of a better term, addicted to being angry and outraged. Rightwing media seems particularly effective in this endeavor.
Say what you will about Glenn Beck, but he has his moments. He wrote a book about this in like 2018 called "Addicted to Outrage." Basically consoom outrage, then get excited to consoom more outrage. The political class use it to sweep things under the rug because they know that in a week's time people won't even remember what they were originally outraged about.