> rather than some broader social forces

I think GP pretty clearly states it's due to broader social forces:

> They’ve been trained, usually by a social media niche

I don't think that was a complicated point, but maybe you think you were asking something else, while trying to still blame whatever "social forces" TikTok has told you to blame.

Lol, I don’t use (have never used) TikTok; I generally think I have arrived at my current belief mostly through reading books.

I’m responding primarily to this sentiment:

> At some point we have to admit that people’s thoughts and actions are their own.

I generally find that placing blame on individuals for views that one believes are wrong is not constructive. Clearly there are reasons that they believe the things that they do, and this is especially true when you disagree not with an individual but with an entire group.

Of course anyone is free to get angry at anyone else for their individual beliefs, and I believe that individually people’s minds can be changed. But blaming individuals _who you have never met_ for behaviors that you are stereotyping from an entire group seems wholly unproductive. This is not going to change the group’s minds, and is only going to make you bitter.

When discussing group behavior, it only makes sense to discuss things that influence the whole group.