I don't know if this is a general failing of people's critical thinking abilities, a sloppiness in their reading, or something else, but I have noticed over the

I don't know if this is a general failing of people's critical thinking abilities, a sloppiness in their reading, or something else, but I have noticed over the past (feels like) few years a growing problem: A lot of folks conflate personal insults ("you, ggambetta, are clearly a dunderhead when it comes to reading comments") with general sentiments about a group or abstract population ("Hacker News posters tend to be overly sensitive to the point of being crybabies"). A great deal of the flavor and comedy in writing, especially pieces that are self-identified rants, are not from personal insults but instead from hyperbolic and sometime vitriolic statements about an abstract other.