The bigger picture

What Strenheimer means when she says "popular culture is frequently used as a proxy for hostility, and so we condemn a group’s cultural preferences rather than openly express it towards the group” is that we mask the real problem with the negative things that group associates themselves with.  In today's society we don't feel empowered enough to go after the real problem.  Our society is kind of like a relationship, we just make a huge deal over the little things. We also tend to over think things like teenagers going through a rough patch in their lives.  For example when the shooters in the columbine massacre did their thing, the society blamed Marlin Manson and his music for their behavior instead of blaming their mental health or gun laws.  Today's society tends to over think things like teenagers going through a rough patch in their lives.    Another example of overthinking would be the 16 year old that went off to college in Michigan and disappeared.  Magically a detective came up with the idea that he was missing because of the popular game Dungeons and Dragons.  The only thing is the game was never really mentioned and they had no evidence that the game was the cause of the disappearance.