I wonder about that. People like to fight about things. Someone who is ranting on the net about -- say -- Rust is not doing things that actually hurt people very much. Might that be a great benefit?

I observed a couple of decades ago that the creation-evolution debate was a wonderful thing, since it kept a bunch of angry, annoying people (on both sides!) engaged in relatively harmless pursuits that the rest of use are free to ignore. Perhaps the same is true of other contentious issues.

Despite what the 24-hour news channels suggest, we live in the most peaceful, nonviolent era in all of human history. How much of that is due to the fact that people can blow of steam using communications media?

(That said, I do prefer discussions that avoid becoming flamefests. That part about "... that the rest of us are free to ignore" is an important consideration.)