The world is a big place, so there are probably a few people out there who truly abhor all criticism that hurts people’s feelings regardless of who it’s directed at. But in my experience, the vast majority of the time, whether someone perceives a criticism as hurtful or out of bounds depends strongly on whether the perceiver likes, agrees with, or is affiliated with the target of the criticism. To take the atheism example, it seems to me there wasn’t an overall shift away from criticism of deeply-held beliefs in general, but rather a shift in the larger battle lines of the culture war.
There was a shift, but it’s defended and rationalised in the terms I presented. Regardless of how and why the shift happened, many people eventually do simply believe in the rationalization itself, even if it emerged (probably not intentionally, but via selection effects) to simply fit the new shape of the coalition that was pushing it.
The world is a big place, so there are probably a few people out there who truly abhor all criticism that hurts people’s feelings regardless of who it’s directed at. But in my experience, the vast majority of the time, whether someone perceives a criticism as hurtful or out of bounds depends strongly on whether the perceiver likes, agrees with, or is affiliated with the target of the criticism. To take the atheism example, it seems to me there wasn’t an overall shift away from criticism of deeply-held beliefs in general, but rather a shift in the larger battle lines of the culture war.
On unintentional machiavellianism, see here.
There was a shift, but it’s defended and rationalised in the terms I presented. Regardless of how and why the shift happened, many people eventually do simply believe in the rationalization itself, even if it emerged (probably not intentionally, but via selection effects) to simply fit the new shape of the coalition that was pushing it.