It's going to sound elitist but it's kinda obvious: the old internet was predominantly youngish STEM academics and tech professionals. I.e. smart people. It als

It's going to sound elitist but it's kinda obvious: the old internet was predominantly youngish STEM academics and tech professionals. I.e. smart people. It also created a lot of tribal alignment which meant that serious moral and ethical conflict was rare. That said, we also grew up, and now I'm sure a lot of those conversations would seem as inane as the average Discord shitpost. Which, tbh, is terrible... The anime superstimulus girls are grotesque in their exaggerated neoteny, the memes are artless cos the baseline is now what you can glue together on a phone, and the background murmur is gossip pulled in from social media, like a hen party on coke. I have managed to meet enough interesting people over the years that I can still sustain interest even at age 35, but it's tough. Most people my age are too busy tending their kids, which has permanently distracted them from hanging out, and has turned many into insufferably bland soccer moms. For the remaining participants it also takes some serious commitment to actually engage in good faith and not let calcified attitudes trump it, for the topics you wanna talk about at middle age. Cos it turns out there's a pretty big difference between saying you're tolerant and open minded among a group of samey youngsters who know jack, and actually being those two things. That said, at middle age you also just know better what you want. No amount of discussion will convince me sportsball is for me... Most movies are formulaic and predictable because that's what the masses respond to... Math and science is hard and it's taught entirely wrong but the people who can fix it have better things to do than be teachers... SQL is kinda shit and mainly serves as job security for the data priests and constabularies. (But hey, I'm @geodesic#8759 on discord, hmu if you're interesting)