@bill_peloquin
Great question. Have thought a lot about this, and here are two of the reasons I’ve come up with:
1) Internet anonymity has diminished the obligation of common civility, which is traditionally reinforced by the social norms of our “community.” On another thread, I compared it to the tribalism of the children in “Lord of the Flies.” Same dynamic: there the boys on the island were marooned on an island away from civilization and adult supervision.
2) The members of this forum are overwhelmingly male. My wife is convinced that the Y chromosome is inherently unstable, lol! If we were all neighbors, there’d undoubtedly be frequent fights breaking out, with the occasional shooting on weekend nights.