reading the 1987 issue of The Body Politic and there's a letter to the editor complaining that their article on the pope in their previous issue - wherein the pope declares that AIDS is the gay community's fault and that "no one should be surprised" when mob violence comes after them as a result - was being too harsh because "you're making it sound like the pope wants gays to die immediately"
which is all to say that the nature of comments has never changed, whether they're on the internet or on paper