Early 2010s observers saw online crowds as channeling destructive energy toward good

Evidence

Online activism in the early 2010s may have felt like a Wild West, but it appeared to net out as a positive force. Backed by the power of crowds, the internet’s invisible hand could seemingly channel even the most destructive energies toward meaningful collective action. — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 272

Categorization

• XREF: This is the techno-optimist consensus Marx will later show collapsed; part of the pre-monoculture trust in distributed online action.