I quit Reddit a long time ago but yes, especially during an election year, the internet just cyclically becomes nearly non-functional for about 6 months before the metrics dip and temporarily self-correct.

I remember even during 2008 when bots weren’t nearly as bad and the internet was more than just 6 megasites, there was a pattern of infighting and political discourse that would always just run right up to the edge of destroying communities and then back off a little.

I figure there’s some very human nature element to it and it’s pretty depressing but I always manage to find new hobbies and people during these tumes because everyone if getting sick of their comfort zones being raided and trying to find where the sane people are. Just hang in there, until there’s some sort of regulation or the technocracy that runs the internet is somehow broken you just have to tread water and keep true to your own sense of ‘normal’.

Or go camping. Camping is good.

https://youtu.be/9Q9WGTCFwzY

The vid was posted 10 years ago but it’s much older than that. I remember watching it on Google videos right around Burning Crusade coming out.

Anyway, gl next time you’re in Goldshire.