Sena Bryer is right: the hatred that Smile gets is highly problematic

[Astrus]

2024 is literally insufferable. How is this even a discussion? [...]

I blame modern society progressively getting dumber. It started when discussions stopped being about an exchange of opinions, a discourse on a topic where different points were acknowledged or refuted and ideas evolved as the discussion progressed, and instead turned into a competition where somebody has to prove their preconceived opinion right and "win". Then personal attacks started becoming accepted "arguments" to win the fight and the overall tone of discussion became a lot rougher as a consequence. Politics bleeding into spaces they have no place in is just another symptom of that. Everything has to be about some flavor of politics or another. Any discussion that isn't colored by politics will be made so in short order because people can't not bring them into discussions, worse is when they only bring them into the discussion as ammunition or convenient shields and don't even care about the cause they pretend to represent.
Separating art from artist is a lost skill, someone is inevitably going to bring up the artist's circumstances and sometimes it's even the artist themselves who does it causing any discussion about a piece of art to turn into one about the artist.

When I form an opinion about a piece of art I typically don't care about the color of the artist's skin*, what's in their pants, what gender they identify as, what religion if any they believe in, if they eat all their vegetables or who their favorite sportsball team is, all I care about is the entirely subjective quality of the piece of art in question.
Apparently that line of thinking is so archaic that modern society can't wrap it's head around it and has to course-correct making the discussion about the artists and their circumstances.

*I'll admit the notable exception of miscasting an actor of one race to play a character of another when they're not very good at not being offensive about it and there's plenty of good or even just decent actors of the right race for the role that could have been cast instead.

Everything I learned about Sena Bryer I've learned involuntarily because I was trying to discuss the DT MSQ, Wuk Lamat or the music of DT and someone else just had to go and beat me over the head with the information, I don't even play with the English voiceover and yet I still can't get into a discussion of Wuk without having to discuss Sena and her antics; I don't know how good or bad a job she does of voicing the character and I frankly don't care.

[Boblawblah]

It started when discussions stopped being about an exchange of opinions, a discourse on a topic where different points were acknowledged or refuted and ideas evolved as the discussion progressed.

Could you tell me when this was the norm in the history of the planet?

[Astrus]

Could you tell me when this was the norm in the history of the planet?

I can't say if it was the norm worldwide back then as the world I was aware of used to be a lot smaller but as recently as the 90s it was the norm where I lived.
People used to discuss differing opinions about a topic with everyone obviously starting off in their own corner but over the course of the discussion opinions naturally changed until a consensus was reached or people just agreed to disagree. People sometimes came together for the express purpose of having a discussion about something just for the sake of discussion and not to prove anything, imagine that.
The screaming and shouting of what amounts to "NO U!" was typically reserved for arguments among kids, feuds between hardcore fans of opposing sports teams or people with very firm notions of what the "correct" way to believe is trying to spread their flavor of religion.

[Shibi]

Could you tell me when this was the norm in the history of the planet?

Pre-Xitter and pre-Grannybook was ok, IRC channels were bannable places, newsgroups were a bit iffy. So, Pre internet was even better. One would pen a letter to the editor. The editor would choose the best, alter some, publish them in the paper. People were more polite. Well at least in my country. I don't know about the situation in the USA in the 60s and 70s. But here, outside of anti-war protests, which were more march and appear on the Black and White news of that night on Tele.

But after social media arrived on the scene, a number of groups did find a new weapon to beat normal people over the head with. The tone of discussion clearly went down fast. Unfiltered speech at a global scale... is hard.

[LuciferMournstar]

*Snip*(

Really it started when the "Victim Card" mentality became an accepted automatic "I win any argument" button. Falling on "Protected class/race" to get a Privileged "moral high ground", to instantly negate and "cancel" any opposition.