What's that old line, the cruelty is the point? One of our least attractive human instincts is the desire to hurt someone when we're angry. These days, the right is angry all the time. About damn near everything. Science tells us they're already highly motivated by fear and lacking in empathy. So they constantly lash out. It should be embarrassing, so they build a mythology that the "other side" isn't just wrong but evil, justifying whatever they do.

For anyone who says it isn't just conservatives, what do you expect? The right has been at this for decades, now it's become that norm. And that's what happened to kindness.