Yes, provocation is a viable strategy for clicks and audience-building, but few people are attempting that, and among those who do it's not the only strategy.

Everywhere else -- in corporate America, on Facebook, at churches and family gatherings, even with many friends -- conformity is still the norm, and there are more landmine topics than ever.

Social cooling is real.

Yeah, it's been noticeable. Especially in the last year or so, everyone has gone quiet.

I don't think its "social cooling" as much as its a fracturing of social media into edgelords / influencers + their fanboys.

Everyone seems to have their own parasocial relationships with some podcast / youtuber / media personality. The fanboys want to conform to their tribe of fanboys and what the influencer wants. The influencer usually wants to sell something.

Agree the phenomenon you describe is pervasive, though I don't see it as mutually exclusive with social cooling.

I see them working together. If everyone is privately living in different fiefdoms of homogenous thought, you never know what crazy true believer you're going to run into. Every "normal" belief might be hated by someone, somewhere. The risk-averse strategy is to stop sharing everything but the anodyne.