I agree with you assessment of the "runnaway train" but I think some of it is contrived. When you look at who is actually saying things and how much attention they are getting for it, you can see that either they are famous people or unknown people that the media has decided to give a lot of attention to. And it is an attempt at creating a new "normal".
Yes we all want to feel like we belong, but most of us don't feel that way because we see the contriving and controlling aspects, it chafes and we either retreat or we lash out. There is a lot of lashing out going on right now. And it is being misrepresented to the masses in a lot of ways.
The Dr. Suess thing might even be some kind of distraction as the 6 books that the publisher has decided to not print are the 6 least popular of his books. I had only heard of one of those books but never saw it and I suspect they haven't been published in a long time. So the story is being used to get everyone paying attention and emotional about that, a non-issue. The school isn't banning Dr. Suess, just trying to make the read a thon day not about Dr. Suess. Some of the things in the below article make sense, however, history needs to be considered, when these books were written, just like Tom Sawyer. And everyone should be reading any books they buy for their children before they buy them.
Dr. Seuss books: This Virginia school district says it isn't banning his books. On the annual Read Across America Day, it's just no longer emphasizing them - CNN