Comment by simpaticoder

Lovely article, and he hints at something that's been on my mind lately, about how the internet enables collisions between groups that cannot (and often should not) mix. For example, the quiet, thoughtful academic giving insightful analysis of Plato's Symposium getting shouted down and called rude names. Or a rowdy bunch of young gamer kids being scolded by a priggish group of college kids for being politically incorrect. The loss of friction, the loss of gate-keeping, sounds good but feels really bad. It's like how we value biodiversity and so lament and control "invasive species" to keep these unique and interesting pockets of the biosphere alive. As a society, we benefit from having quieter, softer, kinder places where sensitive, smart people can do intense work, and yet we are ALSO served by the louder, harder, harsher places where the fighters go. But if we allow these two spaces to mix, the former is quickly eradicated, the latter loses not just its purpose, but eventually the former can no longer offer better fighting tools to the latter. Perhaps this effect has a name, or has been talked about by a more articulate author?