Yeah, I wholeheartedly agree with the idea that people are being divided into groupthink camps. I would argue that it's part of the divide and conquer strategy that proves time and time again to be an effective way to control large portions of the population.
For example, how colonialists in Africa would pit one tribe against another, or scapegoat one tribe, in order to place blame for their state of affairs while the colonial power maintains business as usual extracting wealth/resources out of said nation. In this scenario both tribes lose and the root of their misery, the colonizers, escape the wrath of the real frustration and anger the people are experiencing. The colonizers could care less about either tribe as long as they remain distracted and divided and unable to raise up and remove their true oppressors.
So, if puppet masters truly exist they probably do not fall into Tribe A or Tribe B. They may have a real preference for Tribe A but they are not really concerned with the plight of either Tribe as they can manipulate the situation to their benefit whatever happens. In the end they are the invisible hand dividing populations and pushing people into conflict with one another in order to maintain control and achieve their own particular goals.
It's a crude oversimplification of colonization (lol, colonizers are not totally invisible withering in the subtropical heat in their ridiculously sweat soaked imperial uniforms) but hopefully you understand the point I'm trying to make.
How interesting it is to be an outside observer, no doubt.
What's interesting these days, because of social media, all it really takes is one story, an angle; the people pick it up, convert it into several positions based around the same idea. If there's damage, the people do it to themselves. Far more intense than snowballing. The pieces breaking off are also snowballing. Before you know it, and of course months and even years later, the people affected are glued, saying the same things nonstop. A form of mind control/thought control. No time to think about anything else. Gotta win that conversation...
Even looking around this comment section, and not to insult anyone of course, but all this has been said, in some way, shape, or form.
And I understand what you're saying. I boiled it down to a simple equation, somewhat lightheartedly, recently. X ÷ Y = Z
The X's can see the Y's and the Y's can see the X's. They have the same walls in common but use them as an excuse to be different or better, or worse. The walls an illusion. Completely oblivious to Z.
Studying this whole thing, I've discovered it's difficult to enter the arena and offer this perspective. The X's think you're a Y and the Y's think you're an X; and they both have sharp spears.
And of course I didn't do any of this so, totally not a Z. Lightheartedly I just describe it as, N or G. And that's where things get really confusing... LOL!