Human beings are addicted to it. And, unfortunately, it sells. It sells not just in politics, where in my country there is a surge of blaming the "other" (Russian disinfo ops, immigrants) for the slow decay of our lifestyles, it also sells in tech to otherwise smart people.
We'd all benefit from a little less fear, which shuts off our ability to reason. I'd so value more rational discourse that doesn't immediately veer into this extreme or that extreme. How can it be that we across the globe are so polarized, so incapable of having reasonable discourse that doesn't immediately result in wild-eyed proclamations of the total extinction of the human race or turning the "other side" into slavering devils who may as well be non-humans?