Ugly though it is I’d argue it is just a reflection of where politics is these days. We are clearly living through the rise and power-grab of right-wing popularism both here and in America. There is little political discussion beyond tribalism, division and chanted slogans. Look at the state of the current Tory leadership election! The party owners actually had to cancel a debate as the candidates were getting so aggressive toward one another it was damaging the brand. Look at the state of our printed press; there is now little difference between the Telegraph and the Daily Express, the Mail and Sun are what they have always been, the FT is the only one left with any intellect, even the Guardian is hugely diminished. The BBC has been all but destroyed. QT is the Jeremy Kyle show for racist pensioners, Newsnight has lost all its teeth, and soon to be sold-off C4 is now platforming failed GB News presenters. The UK is a political dumpster fire on the edge of a huge explosion. America the same punctuated by an incel shooting up a school or a cop murdering a black guy every week.
In a political world populated with Trump, Marjorie Taylor Green, Ted Cruz, Boris Johnson, Nadine Dorries, Liz Truss, Richi Sunak and influencers like Bannon, Shapiro, Lebedev, Farage, Yaxley Lennon, Galloway etc does anyone really expect any intelligent discussion? If so, why? To my mind we do better than most places, though the influx of new ideologues with nothing to contribute on music or audio is shifting the dynamic to my mind, and not in a good way.
pfm is obviously a micro site using ancient internet technology compared to say Twitter where it is possible to heavily curate your own feed to your own mindset. Maybe that is impacting how people see things? It may seem more edgy as more counterpoint is on view without being quoted in the ‘did you see this?..’ way folk you follow cite stuff on Twitter.
Still better than the objectivist/subjectivist or cables thing in the audio room though. That really is so boring as there is never any new information, new framing of arguments etc. It is just recursive. You could code most cable threads in a few lines.