The young (and the 'boomer') cannot comprehend what the wild west internet used to be, and how great it was.
I loved the Internet back in the day. There were no virtue signalers and it felt like censorship didn't exist. I met people off IRC and they were geeks like me.
Sure people were nasty to me. Just like now, I just rolled my eyes. Back then I could kick them from my server, though. It was wild when they heard my voice for the first time on the team speak server I ran for my friends. All kinds of name calling and whatnot. Whatever.
Even to this day my best friends are trolls. I hate that so many rules got put all over socializing on the Internet.
Pathetic weak minded morons started using the internet in-mass and decided that it needed to be a "safe space".
Fuck those people.
I ran servers, IRC's, mailing lists, etc.. I banned assholes that went too far over the line but only a temp ban with a note to why. I didn't remove content unless it was illegal. No, on the flip side. I also temp-banned people that called for censorship or bans.
Free speech, enforced with the power of the ban-hammer.
I blame Obamaphones for a huge part of it. Everyone, retarded or no ended up with a government paid smart phone. When everyone had access to the Internet it ruined it for the rest of us. Once anything becomes mainstream it's ruined by whiners.
I was an asshole long before I knew of the internet. The problem with the internet is 1) it was allowed to be accessed by the unwashed and 2) it has been weaponized and encouraging division among the population.
OP is very much correct. The internet should be like it was 25 years ago.