I will agree that perhaps it's more that it gives the malaise an identity, rather than creating it in of itself. But I have seen too many young, hopeful people look to these entertainment personalities for guidance only for that hope to be slowly worn away like rocks by so many waves, with nothing to show for it.

Hell, there is far more hope and energy in the non-profit field, even if they still have absolutely nothing to show for it, because they are least getting paid for their nonsense. In my witness, the path of, as you call it, 'faux-radicalization', is absolutely more of a net creator of unhappiness than any other path of radicalization. I don't like to refer to it as 'faux-radicalization' though, personally.

To me it's 'radicalization-as-entertainment', as opposed to 'radicalization-as-politics'. Both are radicalization, but the outcomes and affects are substantially different. And that doesn't mean that 'radicalization-as-politics' can't be exhausting and sad as well. It's just that usually there are better long term outcomes from the latter. With the latter, you generally still get to form a community, meet people, have kids, etc.

I agree with that. There are things I otherwise wouldn't have known that I could have been comfortably dumb about. But a lot of Marxism is comforting because now I at least have the words and mental framework to explain the things I was already feeling and experiencing. I know people who are like me, but didn't learn Marxism, so instead they just assume the world is and will always suck and that humanity is bad. I'd rather be a depressed nerd than a nihilist or misanthrope.