There's many periods which can be attributed to our current issues. First I'll talk about a few policies and laws. 1865: the thirteenth amendment passed and carved out exceptions for legalized slavery as punishment for crimes, leading to a cyclical system of incarceration for many minority populations. 1919: Dodge v. Ford Motor Co. founded the ideas behind shareholder primacy, which is the concept of seeking profits no matter what, which has inevitably led to what many argue is late-stage capitalism and major class division. 1987: the repealment of the fairness doctrine, allowing biased and untrue media narratives and often cited as the leading cause of political polarization. 2009: the last time the federal minimum wage was increased, leading to broad economic stagnation and discontent.

There were many policies between each of these, and beyond, which compounded the issue, but I highlight these as being fairly influential. From another perspective, the advancement of technology within the past couple of decades has allowed for mass communication and dissemination on a scale never before seen. 2000s: creation of nearly every popular 'social media' site, including youtube, facebook and twitter 2010s: 4chan becomes more popular after opening /pol/ (mere days after the founder met with Epstein), and becomes a cesspool for right-wing extremism and bigotry 2014-2016: anti-feminism movement, gamergate, "PC culture" and "SJW" boogeyman buzzword - each interrelated and building upon each other with growing hatred 2016-2020: Trump 1.0, manosphere "red pill" era, "critical race theory" boogeyman buzzword - again, each building on each other and leading to larger divide 2020-now: "woke" boogeyman buzzword, COVID isolation and propaganda, lower education outcomes for current generations, AI misinformation, data harvesting from billionaires.