>WTF is going on?? Why does the left seem so utterly dangerous and foreign?
Because over the many years of control and brainwashing they became so utter convinced that they hold the moral high ground by mass-media, peer pressure, and social conformity, they feel they are justified in turning to violence and extremism. They've been brainwashed into believing that 'words have already been tried' via the artificially constructed 'progressive' political landscape they grew up in and since they believe they are both morally right and out of options (because words have already been tried in their mind) they've switched into time-for-violence mode.
You can see it in the propaganda and messaging they use when talking about the current culture wars. They see themselves as valiant freedom fighters, pushing back against an evil oppressive empire that they believe threatens to undo everything they've been taught is good and just. That's part of why they rely on pop-culture symbolism, like thinking of themselves as Harry Potter and his rag-tag band of heroes fighting against an utterly evil menace. It's why in the recent Star Wars movies the villains are portrayed as a mono-ethnic authoritarian evil Nazi-like entity, a brush they paint POTUS and his supporters with as well, and the rebel 'good guys' are the multi-cultural Burger King Kids Club in space they've been led to believe is the 'right' side of history. It allows them to project themselves onto these images and emboldens and encourages them to behave in increasingly extreme measures. One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter after all.
tl;dr
They've been brainwashed. They haven't actually thought any of their positions through independently to determine if they're good, correct, or moral. Instead they've been culturally gaslit into believing the 'right' and 'wrong' positions have already been clearly determined and established for them, and they just need to do what they're told follows the paradigm of the 'good-guys.'