Yeah, I'm sure that kind of "polite instigation" has been used for as long as civilization has existed. It's damn effective.

Sad part is, I imagine there are some people who genuinely aren't meaning to be hateful, but get caught in the trap and inadvertently spread those same talking points. And like you mentioned elsewhere in the comments, when you rely solely on top-down bans to remove the potential dickheads, it does start to seem pretty authoritative. It's a tough problem.

But like you said, hopefully the ability for horizontal movement among other instances will allow for more "peer moderation." I like how someone else in this thread put it: "it's not alt accounts, you just walked into the wrong bar to start picking this fight."