A lot of what is said here seems true. But I’ve read people saying the same thing for years now. And as a historian, I repeatedly find documents from many different periods of the past where people say the same thing. And so my only problem is with the premise — 2015 wasn’t the year we became terrible people. 2015 was the year we continued to be terrible people. It was also the year we continued to be excellent, concerned, and caring people. The examples of ways we became wonderful people in 2015 are numerous — many cities and states have expanded rights for undocumented workers, the right to marry was expanded, people worldwide stood up to defend refugees, many of them offering their homes.

What’s unique about 2015 isn’t that we have become terrible. It’s simply that the lines of our disputes with each other are shifting, as they do every year. Technology might amplify discord, but it also brings disparate people together. The internet can’t be reduced to a platform for partisanship. There are entire avenues of the internet dedicated to uniting people around the world who have similar hobbies, interests, and passions that don’t follow political lines. I think you’d find a subreddit dedicated to painting or Runescape or travel filled with people relating and connecting with one another who otherwise never would.

And so while I like much of what this article says, I think the premise is incorrect. World affairs are fragile. But they’ve always been fragile. People are awful to each other. But they’ve always been awful to each other. And inside the fragility and awfulness, there are also communities of stability, kindness, and compassion.