'escalator.$\text{'}$ What does that mean?"

Daniel drew a diagram of the conflict on a piece of paper and said, $"$It looks to me like the first event in the conflict was the dispute over the housing complex. There are a number of things the happened in that event, but people's attitudes seemed to get more extreme after your posting, so we can say it escalated the conflict."

Carl said, $"$So you're saying it's my fault?"

Daniel replied calmly, "Not that it's your fault, just that an event happened and the result was increased tension in the situation."

Daniel presented his analysis in diagram form to show the parties that consequences became causes of the next stage of the conflict, creating $q,$

more causes

a conflict spiral

more consequences

context