and that they’ve always agreed with its messaging until recently.

I actually get this one. Someone else opined on lead poisoning, but I really think it's just the overton window shift, propaganda from fox news, and social groupthink. The overton window has definitely been shifting right since reagan (and probably since fdr, but I'm not old enough to remember what that time was like). As our general culture became more extreme, fox news changed as well. Not only was it covering republican/conservative foolishness with palatable assholes, but now it's pushing the stuff that was never said out loud.

Combine all that with the way that politics has now become entrenched, and increasingly your social surroundings are dictated by political leanings, AND that the extremists are the most likely to be vocal, people are being pulled into ever more extreme views by dint of not wanting to cause a commotion and then slowly acquiescing to the views. I think we've all seen several of the 'how did my parents become fascists?' questions on various lemmy communities. People who may once have not wanted 'those types' nearby but would have stopped and helped them if they saw them stranded on the side of the road have now shifted into rabid hate, and would throw something as they passed.

I can totally see someone who once thought the first interracial kiss on star trek was silly, and not for them, but were otherwise okay with it now spitting venom at the actors/directors/writers/producers for daring to foist such horrors on them and **the kids (, ooooohh!!!!!!) on tv.