Here goes: I would've thought MN to be a "place" for find support, advice & comfort, mixed in with lashings of humour & empathy. Yeah, right!
Instead, MN reminds me of the playground of my childhood. There are the bullies with their sarcasm, rough'n'tough attitude & attention-grabbing techniques. Then you've got the cool group, with their little insider jokes, snide comments about other posters along with the ultimate put-down; ignoring anyone who's considered truly beyond the pale. These cool people have their groupies, who need to connect with them by agreeing & validating just about everything the cool ones pronounce, even if it makes absolutely no sense because it's coded. Then you've got the kind-hearted, maternal types who are easily ed but mean well and of course the ernest eco mummies who really do worry about cloth nappies vs disposible or that not bfing is a fate worse than death. Finally, bring out the weirdos, the pathetically needful, the clueless and the hopeless. There are of course other categories and sub-categories but I'd be here all night trying to categorise and analyse them all.
But yes the general atmosphere on MN is far from being one of welcoming concern or of tolerance and acceptance. MN is not a comfortable place to be, although it is often more entertaining & side-splittingly funny than anything you could hope to see on TV. I'm not complaining at all - if you can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen, right? - but when you're feeling down, as we all do, the wrong post from the wrong person can totally decimate you emotionally.
YABU - MNers, like precocious children in the playground, can be very cruel and very callous. YANBU - in a perfect world, a horrid mum wouldn't exist.