[Negitivefrags]

The more I see this kind of thing the more I am starting to fear that this is an unintended consequence of the internet.

Similarly to being raised in a cult, the internet gives people the ability to spend most of their time in a community that reinforces their world view while forcing out any dissenting view points.

Subcultures on the internet tend to trend towards the more and more extreme as anybody expressing an opposing view can be quickly and easily downvoted / banned.

Is it any wonder that now all the young adults entering university raised in this manner now behave this way?

[gd1]

You can see it in action on Hacker News, or any sites with downvotes. Inevitably, the downvoting will destabilise any equilibrium - the views of even a slight majority will get reinforced in a positive feedback loop, and you end up with an echo chamber. There are several opinions that I know can't be voiced here.

[namlem]

HN is nothing compared to reddit when it comes to this phenomenon. I come here to get away from the crazy. And then I go back to reddit when I run out of content here.

[Thriptic]

> There are several opinions that I know can't be voiced here.

Well now I'm quite curious. Care to make a throwaway account and voice one?

[venomsnake]

I frequent HN, often write controversial opinions and the downvotes are rare, usually I have someone spend the time and write a reply. The way adults should deal with the stuff. But we techies love to argue for the sake of arguing, so we are good at looking at it as a game.

[PebblesHD]

On the topic of things unable to be said however, disagreeing with Stallman seems to result in immediate downvote shitstorming.

[jckt]

I think the Internet as it was originally designed would have had the opposite effect. I mostly browse the "old" Internet -- i.e. static pages and the like. And all I really see is a diversity of opinion. It's honestly difficult to find someone I completely agree on any given day.

But the rise in "recommendation engines" (Facebook, Tumblr, etc) and even "news aggregators" (yes, the irony) may indeed impart the provincial-ising effect you mentioned. As people are automatically fed information that they have been measured to prefer, they end up grossly overestimating how widely-held their views really are.

[morgante]

> Is it any wonder that now all the young adults entering university raised in this manner now behave this way?

I think you're painting too broad a brush. The problem isn't that the majority of college students think this way, it's that the majority don't care much either way and a vocal minority works hard to institute punishments for anyone who opposes them.

[fennecfoxen]

I'd go so far as to say that the problem isn't these students, it's the faculty/staff enabling them.

[EdwardDiego]

> Similarly to being raised in a cult, the internet gives people the ability to spend most of their time in a community that reinforces their world view while forcing out any dissenting view points.

This has always been my thinking around the more unusual subcultures closely tied to the Internet such as vores etc.

Prior to the net, if your fetish was being eaten by a dragon, chances are it was yours and yours alone within your accessible social circles. Espousing it openly would lead (rightly or wrongly, I make no judgement, each to his own) to social ridicule at best, ostracism at worst. But with the internet, you can now find like-minded groups who will tell you that your interest in being eaten by dragons is entirely normal. People who join those communities to disagree will usually be banned or removed somehow.

I've chosen an extreme example, but you'll find similar in other online subcultures - in my opinion, the smaller, the more likely the group-think.