[stevenj]

I may get downvoted for saying this but, anecdotally, people today seem way more sensitive and emotional about other people's viewpoints and actions, especially when they disagree with them.

Growing up, it was much easier to have conversations of differing opinions because people not only listened more, but they also listened better. (Perhaps that's in part due to the unique sense of curiosity that kids have.)

Today, it commonly feels like conversations involve hearing aids that have been turned off completely.

Einstein is quoted as half-jokingly saying that the greatest force in the universe is compound interest.

I think it's emotions.

[whamlastxmas]

I think there's a feedback effect. As more people are vocal and unapologetic, other people view this as acceptable and maybe even desirable behavior. Social media has made being outraged very easy and low effort.

[QAPereo]

People who had no voice have it now; people were angry and offended before, but lacked the freedom to tell you.

[Buldak]

I agree. That is not to say that everyone getting upset nowadays is necessarily in the right. But I think what many people remember as calmer, more reasonable discussions of yesteryear are largely a reflection of greater hegemony.

[QAPereo]

More voices also means more noise, but I think this is a transitional period, and the noise will find its level again. The value of giving people a franchise based on what they have to say has to start somehwere, and it’s an admittedly rough start. I feel like too often the value of the underlying process is ignored in favor of obsessive complaining sbout reasonable and expected cultural growing pains.

[wildmusings]

Ah yes, the growing pains of ruining people's lives for having the wrong opinions. Just reasonable growing pains!

[dang]

Would you please do a better job of following the site guidelines? They include "Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize." They also include "Snark is deprecated".

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

[Mithaldu]

I wish you guys would straight-up forbid sarcasm. It would improve discourse a lot.

[wildmusings]

What is a more generous interpretation of what he said? I didn’t misinterpret it, I used a rhetorical device to unwind his obfuscation of exactly what he was defending. If you only follow a dry analytic tone, then you deny yourself an essential tool for disarming sophistic contortions that defend things that are clearly indefensible when plainly stated.

[QAPereo]

Did you honestly expect that just because the stakes are people’s lives, that somehow the result wouldn’t be ugly? Welcome to Earth, or rather, to the rest of Earth which has never been so monumentally sheltered. To speak by way of analogy, it’s not unlike the harm done in the tech world, to people, to economies, to the environment, in the name of progress and “growing pains” of new tech.

[wildmusings]

When you're defending malicious attacks on people's characters, for the crime of having the wrong thoughtful opinion, on the basis that "life is rough", you've hit rock bottom.

That's not even a defense of the behavior, just an acknowledgement that people do bad things. You could say the same thing about any bad behavior, up to and including mass murder. Welcome to Earth, where people do such things!