Comment by Intralexical

Income/wealth inequality, stagnating wages, regulatory capture, racial tensions and inequities, and deindustrialization, are absolutely real and a problem.

But yes, the divisiveness and corrosive, adversarial dynamics of the discussion around those issues is largely synthetic. And it's not just from other countries. A lot of American citizens that have power in the status quo would prefer if the status quo were not possible to productively challenge. And a lot of other American citizens that care about nothing simply don't mind fracturing and dismembering the discourse if doing so is the most convenient way to maximize paperclips— Uh, ad profits.