Scared sheeple run for their lives at the slightest sign

We live in the safest time and place in history surrounded by people desperate to convince us that things have never been worse. They're at a protest because someone already scared them enough to make them act. Hard to blame people for being scared when they're being force-fed a narrative of fear.

I had multiple college professors take 10 minutes out of class to talk about mass shootings and "provide students with a place to vent before we get into today's material" the other week, even in STEM classes. Of course, it's very well understood what "a place to vent" means; everyone present knows who's allowed to vent and what they're allowed to vent. The Right People stand up, say the Right Things, we acknowledge their having said those things and affirm their Rightness, and then we can go about our normal business.

You can replace my school with a workplace or a website or a fan community, and it'll likely still hold in many cases. People in positions of authority are using some pretty soft indoctrination tactics to encourage and discourage certain attitudes, in the hopes that restricting the range of thought that your average Joe will encounter can more efficiently funnel him towards the "correct" conclusions.