Once institutions like the media get on board what that claim and spread it further through the population, people begin to think that what really drew them to the shock-and-awe spectacles — their rejection of norms, their frank celebration of cruelty — was all about economics in the first place.
It's never about the thrill of cruelty, of targeting demeaned others. It's always about the price of eggs.
But, of course, it's not about that at all.