by James Santagata
It is very simple. It builds linearly. In the beginning you have a variety of people, but often the most vocal are never the best ,as the best are not attracted or vocal and/or the costs vs benefits are out of whack.
Over time, as objectives, reasoning, and so on mature and gel, it grows but initially it is somewhat blind rage and guerilla warfare, dank memes, short cogent logical posts, challenges, marches and some street fights.
This serves to shift overton window far to the right,even if it ends up to still be true left. And it shifts again and again.
The opponents have to go the opposite way, more left, which makes the gap more clear and triggers more to the left and more to the right.
As that happens intra-party conflicts happen but as they are settled, detractors are silenced, shamed or flushed.
As it grows, the numbers and quality improve (jumping ahead, the danger is and the fact is, once successful, the charismatic opportunists make a showing).
At some point, it hits an inflection point and shifts to be non-linear growth and nonlinear reach and impact.
First exponential 10^1, 10^2, 10^3 and then finally geometric, base and exponent both increase. 10^1, 20^2, 40^4, 80^16, etc.