My take: It's not a natural phenomenon we're witnessing, it's an effect of the commodification and sale of aggregated personal data. There is a point at which enough kinds of it are out on the market, new forms of analysis, derivatives, that new opportunities form. Not just collection for the sake of understanding people's desires in order to serve them, but instead actively targeting and manipulating them into serving the interests of political movements. Something that has been a constant throughout history, but began to be perfected in the early 20th century with the advent of public relations. It's a dangerous weapon that may only get worse as AI lowers the marginal cost of its use and tunes the effectiveness of new campaigns.

I'll pull the flash-light away from my face now.