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>A stalking ground for the sanctimoniously self-righteous who love to second-guess, to leap to conclusions and be offended – worse, to be offended on behalf of
by Clubber 9y ago
>A stalking ground for the sanctimoniously self-righteous who love to second-guess, to leap to conclusions and be offended – worse, to be offended on behalf of others they do not even know.
That's been the majority of comments / forums since at least 2001. It also sounds a whole lot like the modern "tabloid" news.
- cgag 9y agoI don't know where you hang out but it seems like a recently development to me. It sounds like you either hung out in a very different corner of the internet than I did or haven't seen the worst of Twitter.
- irrational 9y agoI've been on the Internet since the late 1980s (and the WWW since the mid 1990s). It started _long_ before 2001.
- AndrewUnmuted 9y agoOnline discourse has certainly declined in recent years. But you're right, people seeking conflict online is nothing new. What I believe HAS changed in more recent years, however, is the heavy subject matter being invoked today by these trolls. Flame wars over PC hardware and Linux distros on message boards is nothing new, but the very aggressive accusations of racism, bigotry, marginalizing, and sexism that get lobbed at people on social media is a new form of online viciousness.
- Freak_NL 9y agoIts effect on the off-line world is that much greater as well.
- stingraycharles 9y agoI think the best documented case for the internet is probably the Eternal September. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September