some time in the, what? 1970s 1980s? Didn't last so long, a self-correcting societal aberration.
Turned out that screaming one's grudges and resentments into the faces of others not only was not healthily cathartic but actually increased the anger. And of course believing that one was supposed to be entitled to do this lead to a lot of fully predictable, albeit unfortunate, sequelae.
Unfortunately, anonymity keeps this era's Internet acting out from being so self correcting.
That's such an important point that democracy is participatory. It requires both government and the involvement of responsible citizenry to keep it on track. And moaning and complaining are no more responsible or helpful to democracy than it is to those fighting on the front lines of disasters for us all.
Edit history
= new reply since forum marked as read