I still keep up with the NYT a bit. I agree that there's way too much uber-partisanship blocking what's left of good writing and reporting.

Over the last couple of years, I've often find that the commenters push back on the stupidest, craziest, most bitterly partisan shit in the comments section, but I've noticed that this has changed quite a bit in the last few months, and especially most recently.

The open message board and comment board section of the internet seemed to die with the election of Trump. Any YouTube video, or news piece, and music or movie review had a comment section was lousy with edgy, annoying teenagers eager to gleefully offend in the most profane ways, and we all just ignored it, and we were happier as a society then. Now, a midwit-engineered Substack hit piece can be published in the Atlantic based on a couple of accounts with maybe a dozen followers, and the media convinces themselves there's some sort of dangerous extremist sleeper cell in America — a near-majority of Americans even.

The New York Times seems to think that allowing their subscribers to share their honest thoughts and opinions is dangerous — in the opinion section of a storied newspaper, where opinions are becoming the bulk of their content, no less. Likewise, the "radical center"/scared insider branch of our political landscape seems to think that the only way to "save democracy" is to suppress the will, thoughts, speech — and preferred candidates — of the voters.