how individuals are turned into symbols of systemic problems

or certain groups. In the early 2010s there was a lot of liberal talk about the hatred of white men, the hatred of cis people, etc. It was punching up culturally, but not always economically. The systemic issues of capitalism had found a partial source: indeed white men have done a great deal of evil over centuries, but the evils of capitalism were often not addressed. The cultural backlash to this led to the rise of the alt-right.

Crucially though, I suspect that the “anti-men” tweets were also attention-grabbing and pushed by various algorithms. It’s even embedded in Hexbear’s algorithm: ever notice how more controversial posts show up on the front page? More nuanced critiques of capitalism are buried by the algorithm and steaming hot takes are dumped onto the internet to stimulate it.