Frank Furedi: Why Did The Protests Over George Floyd Turn Into Mass Hysteria?

Because a kind of politico-religious insanity was already rampant on the left. The Floyd video didn't create it--it was just the spark that happened to ignite it.

   They don't care much about facts. They've created a web of lies and delusions that constitute the world of their lived--or imagined--experience. They are driven by passion and groupthink to believe--in part because they want to believe--that whites and "whiteness" are evil. They're primed to slip into a rabid religious fervor that's both cathartic and a way of announcing to the world and their peers that they are virtuous. 

   They are very, very dangerous.