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The article is mostly about the backlash, which is not pretty either. Historically, internet users were young, educated, and urban (or old, and working in a research lab, tech company, or university) - probably mostly Democrats in the US. Over the last few years (as you now need the internet to do banking and pretty much anything else) it's now roughly equalised. It wasn't that long ago that people were shocked that "Mom" was on Facebook. In 2010-2013, the conservative networks (news sites, social network cliques, forums, etc.) really started to form. As an example, Twitchy (a fairly popular conservative "news" site made up of embedded tweets and commentary) was founded in 2012. There's always been Libertarian and right-wing internet users, but now it's reached the same fever pitch as the left-wing outrage machine. It's no longer just Libertarians talking about how the government is the source of all evil, or an alt-right conspiracy theorist, it's that Jane Sixpack can now access the internet just as easily as a college kid. I suspect the bulk of people on the internet used to think the outrage machine was a bunch of well-meaning idiots. But when it's the extreme Republicans (who were previously a tiny minority on the internet) pulling the same shit, it starts to be obvious why this is a problem. |