A lot of things are happening here, including the mess that’s been the 2020s, but also the combination of
a) news publisher abundance
b) media negativity bias
c) social media amplifying high-arousal negativity (eg, outrage)
turns the news into a virtual realm of negativity
The more powerful communication technologies become, the more people will fight wars over words instead of territory. Language, when wielded at scale, is among man's most powerful weapons.