I suspect it’s a tendency for most groups to spin out. BoingBoing was not always like it is now. Now the comment section seems to be run by a set of people that seem to have little interest in the “happy mutant” roots of BoingBoing, but instead, reinforcing an extremely homogeneous and quite narrow view of politics and engaging in things like oppression olympics.

I honestly would not be that bothered by a set of moderators running a little fiefdom in a site that is clearly dying off, if it wasn’t for the fact that I’m not sure BB is an isolated case, and for the almost inevitable result, which is to probably crank out more Republicans, since anyone that is kind of low-info related to politics and runs into this kind of groupthink will think that all of the left or liberals are this ridiculous and intolerant, and it is anything but. Meanwhile, places with algorithms are shoveling awful Nazi-sympathetic content into the minds of people just trying to connect with remote family members and share pics of pets and grandchildren.