ACORN is like cockroaches. They’re firmly established and it will take some strong medicine to eradicate them.
I got out of the habit of being that crazy/paranoid .... until around the mid 90's as my political awareness approached acute.
Lately I've used the word 'emboldened' to describe the insane acts of social elements that were kept in check by American fabric (here at home), and those acts committed away from home that occur because we have been neutered in the eyes of the world.
Acorn? ... emboldened imbeds.