Why does BEM often use two underscores instead of one for modifiers?

Question

In BEM, I understand that with modifiers, two dashes makes sense so that you can distinguish the modifier in my-block-my-modifier with my-block--my-modifier

Answer 1

It's also worth mentioning that the BEM syntax is not forced upon us and if you find another syntax that you find more readable then by all means go with that. The important thing is consistency, ensuring other developers work to the same syntax.

An example of an alternative syntax used is in SUIT CSS by Nicolas Gallagher. Which uses the following syntax.

ComponentName
ComponentName--modifierName
ComponentName-elementName
ComponentName.is-stateOfComponent

You can read more here SUIT CSS naming conventions