The answer is fear. The internet used to be full of fun, and whimsey, and people doing strange things, and being accepted for it. This applies to web sites, s

The answer is fear. The internet used to be full of fun, and whimsey, and people doing strange things, and being accepted for it. This applies to web sites, social media, and even discussion forms like HN. If you try to express humor on 90% of the internet today, you are attacked by anonymous mobs of people who get dopamine hits from being offended for other people who they have not met, and may not even exist. Case in point: In another thread, someone accidentally or through auto-correct used the word "silicone" instead of "silicon." A helpful HNer replied: You mean silicon. Silicone means something else. In the early days of the internet, someone could then have replied "What a boob!" and a certain percentage of the viewers would have gotten a slight giggle from it and moved on with their lives. Those who didn't find it humorous would also have moved on with their lives. But today, the self-righteous internet mobs would attack the person who wrote the boob comment, so people self-censor. Almost any time someone introduces any humor into HN, for example, someone points to imaginary "rules" and gets upset that if something isn't humorous to 100% of every single person on the planet, it shouldn't be uttered in public. Well, guess what — you're never going to get 100% of the people on the planet to agree about anything, so get over it.