They don't need to be individually gullible at all - the causes they fight for are real and important to them, and the social schisms already exists. Outright m

They don't need to be individually gullible at all - the causes they fight for are real and important to them, and the social schisms already exists. Outright misinformation is not necessary to drive a people apart, it just helps if you can get away with it. Long-lasting societies have a complex dynamic of cohesive and repulsive forces between people - causes that unite them and causes that divide them. It only takes subtle nudges to move the balance, to de-emphasize compromise and stoke conflict. Modern internet surveillance makes it possible to do this with precision, like a finely monitored industrial process. We're not nearly at the end game yet and we don't know how to protect a society from this kind of attack. The two-party system adds perverse intensives where you win by pushing people as far as possible to the extreme. Moving for conciliation and moderation is ceding ground to the other side.