That's not quite it... this might be true of celebrities and politicians, who have to maintain their appeal to maintain their career. But many regular people say stuff that's against what's generally accepted -- they just say it in groups where THAT is what is generally accepted. It's all silos and echo chambers, so any view, no matter how crazy (flat earthers, the moon landing was staged, and ... I have no idea how they explain billionaires trying to colonize mars, but I'm sure they do), can find a group of people who agree with them. So, emboldened by the idea that they ARE speaking the majority opinion, they get more and more strident. Prior to social media, it didn't used to be this way. People with fringe opinions KNEW they had fringe opinions, and acted accordingly. But now, no one has any idea what the general opinion of anything is, because no one can even agree on what facts are. So how can you know if you're a fringe believer, or if the might of the entire country is behind your opinion? Sensible people err on the side of caution, when they don't know who they're talking to (including committing their words to the Internet) because they're afraid of the nonsensible people's reactions. But in private, or among people whose reactions are known... it's entirely different.