Edit: Apparently it is possible to create a blank comment. Here is some content for it:

Weekly instance defederation talk loaded with emotional/psychological manipulation, moral grandstanding, and why not, some bullying.

This is why I log into this instance's account less and less. Every time I come here, there is someone trying to get another instance defederated; usually because they saw a few posts they didn't like from a single community on that instance. Rather than banning that community, they think the whole instance should be defederated.

Also, I think you hit it right on the nose with the bits about McCarthism and the Paradox of Tolerance. It seems the internet has forgot the danger of the Red Scares, and makes me wonder if the left-wing version will be named and taught in classrooms in the future.

Though it would definitely be easy for reddit or alphabet soup agencies to use these kinds of tactics to destabilize competition or hard to control entities, I don't think it is necessary at all. It seems to just be human nature to suppress and dehumanize those we disagree with. It is an easy way to justify what people want to do anyways.