For many people communication in online forums is an ego sport. They are here to snipe and crush. If they can interpret your words in a way that makes you look foolish, then that is the interpretation that they will speak to. If they can find a literal inconsistency, then they will take the literal approach. If you speak in contradiction of the conventional view then they will stand atop castle conventionality and pour flaming oil on your head, laughing. If all else fails they will point out grammatic errors.
I see people reacting to this environment. They are hesitant to let their strange opinions dangle free. It definitely inhibits free communication.
I have faith that we will, as a society, pass through this fire and emerge educated. We will all learn to just say "fuck it" and let our special sauce flow.
One would hope we'll get over this, although it's been around as long as online communication has. USENet was the prototype for the modern Web, and it had all the problems we see today, at least in places. Trolls, harassment, the Two-Minutes Hate... they all spread around the world via NNTP.
RA Lafferty wrote a story about how communication between humans in fact involved telepathy. Speech was just an epiphenomenon. No one believed the researchers, and so they developed a device that would suppress telepathic communication between people, and the result was chaos because even though people were still speaking the words, no one was understanding what was said. It's a fun little piece, and I recommend it if you can find it. I remember sometime in the early '90's thinking, "That's whats' going on with newsgroups!"
People see the words and think they're communicating, but they aren't. If you've ever tried to reproduce an experiment based on a description in a scientific paper you'll realize how little information the words contain. Or learn how to do something from a manual. There was a George O Smith story about an ancient Martian device that was found with a manual the engineers were able to translate, but they found the manual contained just enough information to get them into trouble. Without the context of the engineering culture where the device was used it didn't contain nearly enough information. Smith was an electrical engineer, and knew what of he spoke.
These two factors: poverty of information and cultural context make communication hard, even face to face. It is likely we'll get better at it over time, and that will come mostly from appreciating each other's differences and not assuming ignorance and idiocy every time anyone disagrees with us (an attitude I struggle with still...)
I dunno about the specific story but after perusing Amazon I have concluded that something is seriously wrong with the publishing system. The prices on Lafferty's works are outrageous.
So here's the torrent. R. A. Lafferty - Science Fiction Novels and Stories (13 books)
Yes, it's not easy to track down his remarkable work. Centipede Press is reissuing all of his short stories, but only in $100 premium editions with a print run of 300 (!) copies. Of course, they sold out and the book is now only available from scalpers for > $300.
As someone who is older and with a lot more life experience I am often not aligned with HN 20-something culture. I have experienced the flaming oil on my head and other atrocities of mob rule here.
Unlike you, I am not sure this will ever change. To this day I can post comments yet cannot start threads due to a ban from probably three or four years ago that I am absolutely convinced had to do with moderator's political views being opposite mine. I imaging a petulant "I'll show him. Click" event.
Mobs win online because cowards are able to self-identify as part of the "culture" and participate in isolation. They easily derive enjoyment out of, to use your wonderfully descriptive image, standing atop the castle. In real life these people would sit there and hardly participate in face to face conversations.
Anonymity empowers a certain type. I have not seen this kind of thing happen in, for example, LinkedIn, and, within my limited experience, Facebook. I have given full day seminars to groups of hundreds of people at a time in many parts of the world, maybe even a couple of thousand in one occasion. People are polite in person. People are different in person. People spew out less hatred and nonsense in person because they are always afraid of the consequences and they have something to lose. Not here. Not online. And definitely not on HN.
For many people communication in online forums is an ego sport. They are here to snipe and crush. If they can interpret your words in a way that makes you look foolish, then that is the interpretation that they will speak to. If they can find a literal inconsistency, then they will take the literal approach. If you speak in contradiction of the conventional view then they will stand atop castle conventionality and pour flaming oil on your head, laughing. If all else fails they will point out grammatic errors.
I see people reacting to this environment. They are hesitant to let their strange opinions dangle free. It definitely inhibits free communication.
I have faith that we will, as a society, pass through this fire and emerge educated. We will all learn to just say "fuck it" and let our special sauce flow.