When I was growing up, the MSM—effectively, the owners and operators of a handful of newspapers, TV networks, periodicals, and movie studios—decided what was and wasn’t worthy of public discussion, and what was and wasn’t respectable opinion. It was censorship of a sort, but it gave everyone a reasonable degree of choice, and it wasn’t enforced by the government. It kept a diverse nation from flying apart, but it wasn’t oppressive. In short, it worked.
Today’s landscape is very different. The MSM have given way to the lawless internet. Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t want the job, partly because it costs him money, and partly because he doubts his legitimacy as an unelected national censor. Lots of other people doubt it, too.
This situation is unsustainable. It will not last. The government is going to step in sooner or later; in fact, it is already happening in red states with ambitious governors. Unfortunately, that means the stakes in elections are going to get even higher, and the culture war is going to get even more vicious.