People around the world watched and cheered as the Chilean miners were freed, one by one, from their underground prison. I was surprised to find my friends, normally hard-hearted cynics, dabbing away tears as they watched this “miracle,” this “triumph of the human spirit.” No, let’s not get distracted by the fact that the miners had their pay docked for not working, because it’s possible that this emotional tide is the sign of a cultural sea change.

After all, as BitchBuzz’s own Rebecca Thompson reported, our favourite grumbling misanthrope pin-up, Charlie Brooker has given notice on his bitch-fest Screen Burn, the better to embrace marital bliss and pumping our babies in the suburbs (Sob! No!). And spanky gossipist extraordinaire, Perez Hilton has sworn to turn over a newer, kinder leaf as well, asking for absolution upon the altar of Ellen, the Archbishop of Nice. As I write this, Facebook and Twitter are a sea of purple in honor of GLAAD’s Spirit Day “to show support for the teens who took their lives because of anti-LGBT bullying.”

Are we getting nicer?