A little maybe, but not much.
I’ve seen people say they left reddit to join Lemmy because of the toxic users. To each their own, but I personally think Lemmings aren’t much better. Some people over here can’t understand that sensitive questions can be asked without bad intent. People are way too defensive about their opinions.
It is disappointing, but it’s the better option.
I didn’t say the internet wasn’t politicized. I said that having to “check the political climate” before making a post, i.e. self censoring, is new(ish). You gonna tell me that you never posted online that having lesbian parents is okay before it became accepted to do so? I’ll bet you did and I’ll bet you did it more than once.
This idea that posts running counter to the current cultural / political climate shouldn’t be made is pure horseshit. Usenet was stuffed to the gills with counter culture of all kinds, it was expected and accepted. Yes there were epic flame wars but that’s because people didn’t self censor an unpopular opinion because of the “current political climate”. I was there.
Online discourse is a pale shadow of what it once was and I put the blame squarely on the rise of this idea that people should self-censor in order to avoid giving offense. Fuck that and fuck people who believe that’s how it should be.
Edit: One Usenet if a user really REALLY couldn’t stomach what another user was spouting then they put 'em in the kill file. That’s what “plonk” meant.
You are just saying what I said, that OP should’ve expected a flame war based on what they said. I never said that they shouldn’t have made the post. It feels like you’re ignoring what happened over the last 40 years in order to keep looking at the halcyon days of the Internet with nostalgia goggles.