Not fully agreeing with everything you say here. E.g. in the Rittenhouse cause many on the left got technicalities wrong, but others had really good analysis such as David Pakman. The right on the other hand strongly manipulated Rittenhouse to make a political case out of this and he called them on it. They cared less about him and more about how they could whack democratc over the head with it.
Anyway the more important question you raised is how to deal with it. Let me use an extreme example which may not feel fair but which I think is needed to highlight the issue at its core.
The Nazis of the 1930s were furious at what the called "Fake News" or more directly translated "Lying press." They constantly attacked the media just like Trumpists do today.
My question is, was the media wrong to stifle the expression of the Nazis of the 1930s? Were they wrong to expose all their lies about their Jews and put them in a wrong light?
If you take the "both sides" approach where we assume each side is equal and must be balanced then you are left with the absurd conclusion that the views and perspectives of Nazis must be equally represented as liberals and socialists.
I am not saying Trumpists are Nazis, but I am trying to get across the point that it cannot be a universal truth that each side must be equally respected. Modern day American right house a lot of extremists. And this by the way is not entirely new. I remember all the way back to the Clinton years with New Gingrish that there was a lot of crazies in the Republican party. Then we had the Tea party, Sarah Palin etc. Long before social media, extremism was breathing on the American political right.
You say we cannot censor them because that makes them mad. If we applied that logic to the 1930s then we could not have critcized the German Nazis because it would have made them more mad and felt more "persecuted."
What do I see as the solution then? I honestly would like to see MORE censoring not less. This problem exists in the first place because extremist ideas, lies and manipulations have been allowed to flourish almost unhindered. A large portion of the population have been straight out politically radicalized by media such as FOX, Breitbart etc.
The other part of this equation is to reform school to tackle conspiracy theories. Students must learn to identify conspiracies. Also inequality must be reduced as I think that is a key driver behind all the anger. People are not happy with their economic situation and they are looking for somebody to blame. Places like FOX and conservative talk radio are feeding these people the simple messages they want to hear, instead of encouraging more nuanced thinking.
