I honestly feel the culture has gotten far better. Five years ago, the culture in software was unbelievably shrill, immature, politically naive, self centered.

It was like being immersed in a dunk tank of elementary school children but most of them had college degrees yet no common sense or world wisdom.

If you organized an event which was “insufficiently diverse” they would gang up on you on twitter and lynch you publicly.

I truly feel the shrillness has eased off. I think as people got older, and the political landscape changed I see a lot less of it.

I feel a lot more comfortable having based opinions publicly, the army of children seem to be much quieter now.

Before - the fear was palpable. I didn’t feel comfortable following conservatives because morons on twitter would literally comb through your likes and follows and “out you” for not being liberal.

It was so unbelievably childish and pervasive that you could literally feel it.

I think it’s nowhere near as bad as it used to be. I remember just how bad it was, especially in 2016. I think it became a parody of itself during the trump administration and my hope is a lot of people grew out of it.