The problem - the VERY BIG problem - is that it is VERY productive for some very, very powerful people. That’s why the words of people like Zegler and Mackey, often ripped out of context and framed in as inflammatory a way as possible, get blasted through a sophisticated network of media outlets catering to an enormous audience. It’s intimately tied to the explicitly illegal pressure campaign that we are now seeing force studios and news outlets to censor themselves in a way that should outrage and terrify everyone who respects American ideals.
There’s a desire not to see what’s happening, not to examine why some comments get amplified through the network or why the network exists in the first place, to make ourselves feel like this is all normal with vague mentions of human nature. Ultimately, however, this is happening because certain individuals and groups want it to, they want to chill speech as part of a larger project, and something that seems silly and inconsequential is actually a manifestation of something tremendously significant.