There have always been countercultures which exist on the far-right (and far-left) of the political spectrum. But merely being far-right and far-left does not i

There have always been countercultures which exist on the far-right (and far-left) of the political spectrum. But merely being far-right and far-left does not itself mean that its members belong to a counterculture. A defining feature of a counterculture is that its members consciously and deliberately reject mainstream values and norms. The people on the far-right/left may lead perfectly mainstream lives but hop on social media to prattle on about their extreme (compared to the median) political views. Political extremism has always existed, but social media algorithms (and yes that includes the HN comment system) incentivize controversy while penalizing moderate, rational viewpoints as "unpopular." So these extreme views tend to bubble to the top of people's feeds, making them appear "very prevalent" to the average person. This is one of MANY reasons that I have nothing to do with (most) social media anymore.