It’s really sad how tribalist politics have pervasively overtaken rational discussions. I dream of discourse that doesn’t devolve into conversations about leftists, conservatives, and various interest groups.

What are you doing?

Working in an manufacturing/engineering consulting shop

I interpreted it as 'upspeak'

My how far we’ve come in such a short few years.

Eh, not sure what you mean, but yeah some DRM is obnoxious and almost spyware. Warden, World of Warcraft's DRM, is for example profiling your system hard.

Accusatory? Probably. I'll acknowledge that I'm making assumptions about GPs motivations based on the language he used. Obstinate however implies stubbornness in the face of reason, and there is absolutely none in the original comment to be stubborn in the face of. It simply states, with no evidence, that there is an "anti-free speech" crowd, and that it hates weirdness.

If there is a real campaign against weirdness on the internet, I'd genuinely like to know about it and where it's coming from.

The exact word you’re looking for is Rhotacism

What value is in a gender studies degree, and what path does that take careerwise?

That’s the point here though isn’t it? I don’t want the internet involved with turning the lights on when I have to get up at night.

I don't want the internet involved either, so we agree on that. Can we also agree that some people want internet enabled devices?

I’d imagine this line of thinking is what Apple hopes for, people burdened with the luxury of choice who just want someone to tell them what they want.