@realcaseyrollins Neckbeard died so sorry if that account ghost posts later lol
i'd probably say a bit of both, i dont think the concept of a karen is new, however i think that a bunch of factors have made more of them, more noticeable, louder and more extreme.
As much as certain parts of the web rag on them and they are generally disliked in actual reality, the sort of entitlement that karens have is encouraged in media and by the people around them
big corona made a lot more of the general public online and since 'karens' are loud by nature, more of them made themselves seen, and more people could see them
theres probably also something about a general generational shift into self entitlement, laziness and a lack of empathy and patience, since 'karens' are usually 30-50ish we'll see whether or not that is true in the next 10 years as the next major set of people age into similar situations, or if they dont
it'll be a similar kind of interesting to see how the 'soyboy' changes, whether they become more prevalent and how they change too