Shift in how people perceive others

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My opinions with this are based on my half century of life and the changes I've witnessed in how people in general perceive others and how that's changed in the recent past.

Obviously people have disagreed with each other on many different topics probably since the beginning of humanity. Tempering such disagreements, the Christian tenet of "Love thy neighbor" transcended religion for generations to be a goal to strive for and a foundation of many cultures and of a healthy religious or secular society.

Society seems to be taking a sharp turn in how people perceive those around them. I believe it was more common in the past for people who disagreed with others, who didn't share their views on topics such as politics, religion, etc, to still believe that those around them were inherently good: ie the idea is "bad" but the person isn't or at the very least, the person was given the benefit of the doubt.

Today, the shift is in people believing the idea and the person are inseparable. The idea is "bad", ergo...the person is "bad". Apart from things like religious persecution and genocide, I don't think that kind of thinking has been prevalent in a healthy society at large until now. I think it's wrong.

^ I wonder how much of that has to do with education and the media.

While I think this is true for the US recently the millions killed in wars, genocide etc argue that seeing the other side as evil is common.

Let’s not forget the birth of the Internet. We had a shared culture before the Internet.

Most people watched three channels, went to the movies, spoke to each other in person or on the phone. Meals were fairly standard, and usually at home. More families were traditional and together. Values were clearly communicated on television. There were public service announcements, such as for self beat safety, fire safety, please don’t litter, etc. This politics and economics as entertainment business certainly was not happening. It wasn’t happening even a few years ago. There were not endless options for everything. I am not surprised younger people have trouble trusting.

I know a lot of autistic and even shy people are thankful for the socialization options they now get because of the Internet. This option probably would not have any equivalent for non verbal people. But for people who can even arguably pass, I seriously wonder if their social pressure would be this bad if it was still the late 80s or early 90s. The world has become more neurotypical. More meetings, more cliques, more social rules, which are harder to learn. And I think autistic people themselves are mirroring some of these neurotypical traits, which then puts pressure on other autistics who cannot blend in or catch on as well.

It’s kind of like if everyone can walk X fast, that is now the standard. So you are pushed to walk Y fast instead. Then if you achieve that, let’s try for Z. I feel like the standard is higher now than it used to be.

Yes, it's almost like a person's political views are his/her identity, or at least in my country. It's unfortunate how quick people are to judge.

What OP says seems to be true to me. I also think that humility and patience are in decline, but this is just a vague impression that I have, and I am only 34 years old. I also spent more time than most people do around grandparents as a child, and they were, due to age I think, more humble, patient, and slower to judge.

The majority of people throughout history have had no voice; many couldn't write and left no record of their thoughts, and I'm assuming you can fluently read very few languages anyhow. So unless you specify which society you are talking about and a rather narrow time period, I doubt you have anywhere near enough evidence to back up this supposed shift in human thought.