My hope is that this pattern of response will become so predictable and unpleasant that people will tire of it and grope their way forward towards some new sense of gentility. I see small signs of it now, in modern humor that is more absurd than sarcastic. Gentle humor that feels like relief after years of nihilism. The conversations I have with young people strike me as sweet and sincere compared to the ones I was having five years ago. I think people are tired.

The law of entropy applies to human relations, but we are capable of more, and at the end of the day, it feels better to be nice.