Damon Linker:

Beginning with September 11, we entered an era shaped decisively by militant populism and disruption. From Occupy Wall Street and Bernie Sanders’ 2016 insurgency to Donald Trump’s hostile takeover of the GOP to the Women’s March and George Floyd protests to the insurrectionary riot of January 6, 2021 and Trump’s 2024 re-election and so many other, smaller examples, both here and around the world—militant populism and disruption targeting establishments and the people who run them have become the predominant fuel for politics, as well as the lens that at once focuses and distorts our public life. …

We now live in a world shaped by constantly churning popular anger and grievance arising from the periphery and directed at the perceived core of power. Those in genuine positions of authority can try to suppress the fury through acts of repression. But such efforts often just end up fueling the next round of outrage from outside and below. The outraged, meanwhile, aim above all at provocation. Their primary goal is to embarrass and shame the powers that be. Hence the popularity of “owning the libs” on the American right and, on the left, of denouncing racists and xenophobes. …

— a form of politics motivated above all else by the compulsion to take the other guys down a peg.