You see it more because it's on the internet. In real life people keep a lot of thoughts to themselves.
For some reason people act like they score points from being snappy to people online. That's the biggest difference I think.
People want to feel superior to other people.
Easiest way to do that is to dunk on someone else, especially if you can ID them as part of an 'inferior' group.
Also, as a superior person, you don't have to acknowledge the legitimacy of the humanity of inferior people, you can ignore them and deny them any emotional weight or sympathy. You only put your energy towards your equals and betters.
Hate is getting more and more acceptable.
This is a very intentional goal, and conservatives have been pushing for it basically since Reagan. For a while, saying that you where a white supremacist was generally not acceptable socially, being too racist was considered bad.
Now, conservatives are proudly bigoted, and that gives cover to everyone else. Every time somebody makes a racist/sexist/homophobic/transphobic "joke" and gets no pushback, it makes it a little more acceptable to keep making those jokes.
Every time a conservative pundit or influencer goes on a racsist tirade, or homophobic one etc, it tells the people watching that its ok for them to be super bigoted.
And so they are.
Endgame capitalism is squeezing harder since the 2008 crash and then Covid. They predicted polarising of politics and ideologies. We're seeing tribalism as a reaction to fewer resources and harsher conditions, all of which are down to greed and oligarchy. They've succeeded in getting us to fight amongst ourselves instead of them.
We’re seeing tribalism
Not exactly "tribalism," but "individualism," at least in the States.
Classic tribalism has many fine features, and is in fact how we got here as a species, across millions of years. FUN FACT: did you know that the human species ("Homo" and relatives) goes back about 2.4million years, and through ~99.9% of that time, we successfully existed in a tribal / clan state?
IMO individualism also had great features, but when you mix in the concept of money...... oh dear.
The only reason the human race survived is empathy. Not clans and tribes killing other clans and tribes.
It's the second half of your question. People have always been jerks online, but the older we get the more we seem to notice it.
When I was a kid and connecting to people online was slowly becoming more and more common i thought everyone was nice. Then i found out what "chatrooms" were and realized that's a whole different crowd of people... Then i found out about forums and how certain ones had very nice and helpful people, and some had very know-it-all-call-you-stupid kind of people.
Now as an adult i see assholes everywhere online but have learned that if someone says something that doesn't settle right with me it's probably bait, and not going to get better if i engage 🤷♂️
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