Provocation Arms Race in Politics

Instead of pursuing stable ideological goals, left and right increasingly select messages, aesthetics, and tactics that most irritate the other side—especially its moderates—while keeping plausible deniability. This dynamic mirrors historical anonymous pamphleteering, the 'respectable leader + attack dog' pairing, and the psychology of bickering rivals who poke to trigger outsized reactions. — It reframes partisan conflict as a strategic provocation game, explaining why policies and culture-war choices often seem designed to elicit backlash rather than solve problems.