I think it is caused by two major changes: 1) Everything has been commercialized. Even in the tech world most posts aren't to inform, illuminate, or even just

I think it is caused by two major changes: 1) Everything has been commercialized. Even in the tech world most posts aren't to inform, illuminate, or even just show off something cool. A huge number of tech blog posts are really just ads to build a company or personal brand. 2) Propaganda Propaganda infects pretty much every semi-political discussion on the web and it has lead to most sites having a single accepted viewpoint on major discussion points and serious hostility towards the out-group. The water has been muddied so much that the average person cannot dig down and find the truth. I've personally had to take a holistic counter-examples based approach.