Re: "lucky few who have managed to avoid hearing about the boiling cesspit ....
Welcome to the world of grown ups. The current hard right push is mainly down to a decade of political liberalism being thrust upon people in the west whether they wanted it or not.
All that treating people nicely obviously had to backfire one day, right?
As someone who sits in the political middle I've watched the pendulum fly past me in both directions a number of times with a forlorn hope that one day it might stop.
I have to say I don't have your certainty that that I've never changed my political views.