It's been brewing for a long time. Don't be fooled. These cultists existed. Even in the 90s they were out there. A whole lot of 'em. The pro-militia movement, the attack on the federal building in Oklahoma City. That was a preview of what was to come. The right in this country was co-opted by an extremist, anti-liberal, anti-minority, anti-government message that has built over time.
They existed with Bush, just as they existed under Clinton. But, like a lit fuse, its trigger point took time.
Truth be told, Bush's election pacified a lot of these groups. But remember the reaction we saw out of 9/11 - the firebombings of mosques, the assaults on Muslims and then the rage of France for having the audacity to not support the War in Iraq (remember Freedom Fries?). That was an extension of the hate we see today. It was bred out of talk radio in the 90s and Fox News in the 00s. The messages became more and more hateful and paranoid and then you had the creation of the internet, which only amplified the message. In 1994, only 5 million American households were connected to the internet. The sharing of hate was almost entirely confined to newsletters, word of mouth or AM hate radio. In 2004, it was 37 million and growing. Now you had new avenues to tap into. But even then, it was still limited. There was no social media in 2004 - at least, compared to what we have today. Social media in 2004 was universally tied to smaller IRC-like chat rooms and message boards. There was still, even at that point, an overall limit in connection. As of 2018, 14 years from 2004 and 24 years from 1994, 110.5 million households are connected to the internet. In 14 years, it's grown by 73 million households.
In that span, you've seen the creation of Facebook and Twitter and other social media platforms that never existed in 2004. It's not only made it 1,000 times easier to share the same type of hateful, paranoid, anti-government information than 14 and 24 years ago - it's given these messengers access to millions of other people instantaneously.
Think about it this way: In 1994, you may have used a Usenet group to spread your message to, maybe, a couple hundred people over the span of a week. Now using Facebook and Twitter, you can reach that many people in seconds. If you have a following, which a lot of these right-wing personalities do (upward to 100,000 followers), you send out a tweet and, within hours, it's already been RT'd 75,000 times - and those tweets are now going out to the followers of those 75,000 users. In a half of a day, one tweet could hit 20 million people relatively easily. It's the same with Facebook. Think back to the 37 million households in the US who had the internet back in 2004. As of today, there are 221 million Facebook users in the United States (2019). That's more people on Facebook in the US than households that had internet access 14 years ago.
It's so easy to share misinformation and gin up hate nowadays because of the creation of social media.
So, that's why it seems more prevalent now.
In 2010, the right used Facebook to create Tea Party events and posts and rallies that spread through the platform like wildfire. THAT was our first sign that social media would be a toxic, horrible platform in spreading disinformation. In 2008, there was no twitter. In 2008, Facebook was largely still on college campuses. Grandma was relegated to Free Republic or, more likely, stuck listening to Hannity on FOX News or Rush on AM radio. That platform wasn't there.
But then started showing up. In 2008, there was 100 million Facebook users worldwide. By 2010, that number was at 608 million. By 2016, 1.8 BILLION.
Now you had coordinated events and Russian trolling that really blew up during the 2016 election. That disinformation preyed on the vulnerable - the same folk who bought the lies a decade and a half before that said Saddam was responsible for 9/11. They just now had a voice on the internet, where, in 2003, their voice was very limited.
It has spread like wildfire and, unfortunately, it's penetrated an entirely new generation. These protests aren't just boomers - a lot of 'em are Millennials who have been corrupted by the influence of the alt-right.
Hopefully that answers your question. They've always been there. It's just now much easier to reach these people, coordinate events and get their message out than it was even 15 years ago.
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I just gave you a six feet away hug.
