This is not specific to Thompson, but I've noticed an accelerating Gladwellization process, with pundits like this being captured by their sources faster than ever. At this point, it's only a year or two between the first time I see their byline and the last time I click on it

I don't mind using commas for prosody, but in this case it seems a little forced either way. I'd probably just make it two sentences: "The effects on those who fought it and their loved ones at home were immeasurable." Then I'd delete that second sentence, which doesn't say much

Yeah it's all very blunt, smarter filtering seems like a pretty good AI use case

On letterboxd there's no mute function short of blocking, and I've had to block a few people to make the "popular reviews" useful

Yeah, this would help. For now I just mute them all forever; I feel like it's porous enough that if there's one I want to unmute, I will probably realize it