The rise of fascism and reactionary sentiment is easy for the rich and powerful to orchestrate. All they have to do is create misery and massive inequality and tweak cis-het white people and men's sense of entitlement, redirecting their ire at the marginalized and vulnerable who have it worse than anybody.

For example, cis-het men even in progressive spaces are turning increasingly misogynistic -- and thus homophobic and transphobic as well -- as they are bombarded with fascist and grifter messaging that it's all "woke" women and queer people's fault that they aren't getting laid or paid or whatever as much as they think they're supposed to.

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

It's easy for politicians and profiteers to convince white people it's the desperate non-white refugees arriving on foot or in rickety boats and who work for scraps in dangerous conditions who are the "real" problem.

Because most people's brains apparently have a hard in-group, out-group switch, they aspire to be like their elites, and punching down is systemically encouraged.