Media is paid by clicks & traffic.
Controversy & outrage create engagement by appealing to our lower instincts.
Creating divisions & high emotions serve the business model.
Society at large is being degraded as a result.
What was common ground is left with ever less real estate.

Now I'd like to think that because of all this the image presented is an exaggerated one & that real divisions are not as extreme.
At the same time it is concerning how many may be swayed by all these warped perceptions & their attitudes are changing because of it.

We know advertising works to create brand images & people are responsive to it & buy products.
Selling controversy and outrage for clicks & traffic I suppose accomplishes the same.
Create political brand loyalty and buy that created product.

The end result: A fragmented society that makes effective governance & democracy virtually impossible.
A doom loop that we, as a society, better get out of or the structural trends that have been merely masked by cheap money & debt expansion will catch up with all of us.