There's a sort of "tragedy of the commons" that happens with Internet criticism, I think. Many people see a tweet that they find objectionable. Some of those send a reply or quote-tweet voicing criticism. Each of those replies publishes that original tweet to more and more people, some of whom will ALSO be compelled to put in their opinion.
The whole thing reaches an apparent fever pitch simply due to the volume of posts. The original poster is simply beset with negativity. The human mind is simply not psychologically capable of dealing with that kind of onslaught in a healthy way. Such a simple, innocuous phenomenon is at the root of it: I see something I disagree with and am compelled to respond. Nothing sinister is happening in the minds of those involved (at least for the vast majority).
But regardless of how odious the original tweet/post was, this is just not a productive way for us to conduct discourse. But how do you combat it? I don't have an answer.
The whole thing reaches an apparent fever pitch simply due to the volume of posts. The original poster is simply beset with negativity. The human mind is simply not psychologically capable of dealing with that kind of onslaught in a healthy way. Such a simple, innocuous phenomenon is at the root of it: I see something I disagree with and am compelled to respond. Nothing sinister is happening in the minds of those involved (at least for the vast majority).
But regardless of how odious the original tweet/post was, this is just not a productive way for us to conduct discourse. But how do you combat it? I don't have an answer.