"[...] although people disapprove of #flaming, and research demonstrates how resorting to nastiness and incivility weakens third-party assessments of persuasive signals [...], people appear to still believe in its effectiveness. Consistent with the #thirdpersoneffect [...], people appear to assume that other people are persuaded by flaming, just not themselves. This contributes to our understanding of why [...] people still commonly engage in such behaviors."

https://academic.oup.com/jcmc/article/29/2/zmae001/7618999#442678482

Yeesh. Having run out of technology to hold moral panics about, The Atlantic now reverts to just plain puritanism, sounding very much like Dwight Macdonald condemning "masscult" and entertainment. I watched Megan Garber on Morning Joe touting this specimen of #MoralPanic, #ThirdPersonEffect, and snobbery.
I address this in my upcoming book (snippet from The Gutenberg Parenthesis below....)

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/03/tv-politics-entertainment-metaverse/672773/