> If there was an actual spark, it was the 2016 election as this was the first time when all the disinformation, professional troll farms and Russian influence truly came into play on a world changing scale.

I'll never forget how insane HN went in 2016, felt like basically the whole English language internet went insane. And it's been a decade since then (wow).

2016 was an acceleration point into madness. We were going down hill anyway, and the hill suddenly steepened. Covid didn't help. Now we have half the world with AI psychosis. I can only hope things even out a bit in the next 10 years... but they won't.

Even back then it seemed like a tempest in a teapot situation on HN. People thought they were raw and edgy saying “fuck Trump” like it amounts to anything. I remember at least one, maybe two YC-backed companies dedicated to removing Trump. That’s right - a startup business plan that amounts to impeaching a president. Now there’s a billion+ dollar enterprise.

All this, and here we are in 2026. It just shows immaturity and naïveté.