The last couple years, especially, but there always seems to be some stupid fucking pop culture “thing” that American conservatives just universally latch onto. I’m not talking about them complaining about BLM or CRT, which I at least understand why they’re complaining about, but it seems that every few months there’s some IMMENSE outrage over something stupid like the plastic potato’s implied gender or stopping the print of some Dr. Seuss books no one was buying or Aunt Jemima or now a fictional character claiming to receive a COVID vaccine. There always seems to be some cultural lightning rod for conservative outrage that NEEDS to exist, no matter how frivolous or stupid the concerns are. Why is this? Why do American (though I could imagine conservatives elsewhere do the same, I’m just speaking from experience) conservatives feel the need to latch onto and be offended by SOMETHING?
I think decades of atomization has made people see others as adversaries or threats. It’s harder to dehumanize people if you are in a diverse community (which is why you also have those conservatives who are like “I’m not racist because I have a black friend” or similar).
The whole outrage media keeps this sentiment alive. It’s easy to have a “target” to blame for the problems you see in the world and all it does is further divide people and draw attention away from the real systemic problems.
