Where did we go so wrong?

[Bum Driller]

One aspect of this, IMHO, is that we experience all of this from within it, as it is happening in our everyday lives. Now, if you would look at this from a bit farther, you might recognize that in essence what is happening currently is just another cultural transformation taking place, and that in itself is just natural to us humans. Only difference, like many others have already pointed out, is that nowadays thanks to internet we're constantly aware of the things happening, and it to some degree hastens things up, compared to earlier cultural transformations which were constrained in pace due to the slow speed of communication.

 

[Captain Oblivious]

That's a question that would take a book worth of text to explain.

I personally believe it spans decades, but why we've accelerated so quickly in the past 10(ish) years is that we've given anyone a platform to speak their mind. That's not a bad thing mind you, but when you give someone a soap box they think their shit is actually worth listening to the minute someone listens out of curiosity.

For example, the transgender community. Nothing wrong with being mentally ill, you can't help that. But when you have idiots telling you that your mental illness is normal, and people believe you, that's when problems arise. (This extends to virtually anything from SJW to BLM.)

I had to ditch Facebook in around 2008. I just couldn't stand the inane updates people would post. "Selfie with me and my toast!". Like bitch, you're not that important that I want to see that. But thanks to places like Facebook with "likes", and Tumblr with "followers", you start to believe you're special.

I'd also like to add that victimhood mentality is also a root cause of the issues we face today which is exuberated thanks to social media.

I'm only tackling one very small issue of a greater problem, but it's one that annoys me the most.

 

[Syaoran Li]

Part of it is that this culture of outrage was always there to some extent, it's just the internet made it more available and visible, and amplified it greatly.

However, with the demise of the Religious Right and the rise of the PC Left, the harbingers of outrage and moral authoritarianism has simply shifted from conservative Christians in the 80's and 90's to leftist SJW's in the 2010's.

The internet has only exacerbated this by giving every idiot with an online connection an audience to air their stupidity.

It's strange to realize that the Internet was simultaneously both the greatest and worst thing to happen to human culture in its entire history.