Cult tactics. You get your targets to alienate themselves from the rest of society, their friends and family. You get them isolated and then you become their family. It’s a mix of Republican think tanks and Democrats taking advantage of whatever the other side is. Abortion, LGBTQ, Racism. Obviously bad actors from across the globe have stoked the fires and accelerated it, but it’s been a political tactic since forever. Competing interests do exist, but not at the societal level. Political actors have convinced the religious that they are being oppressed by the “other side” and that they should be able to spread their ideas because they see other groups having their ideas being imposed on people. In reality out groups such as LGBTQ want the equal rights those religious people enjoy,. It’s just been taken to an extreme because it’s a divisive topic and religious conservatives have been told that their manufactured beliefs are wrong. In reality, they should support those out groups because they enjoy the constitutional protection that those groups are asking for.