I gotta agree I don't think attitudes have changed, there are just more soapboxes.

I started in the hobby seriously in my early teens, in the 1980s, and there were "selfish and proud" railfans then as well. I recall guys who thought they stank not because they know so and so at this or that railfan publications. I knew guys who had collections of paper or model railroads that were well known and if you weren't "on the list" for access, you were dirt.

I say guys who would slap each other on the back about what great shots they had taken and those photos were barely in focus.

I just kept looking until I found folks to fan with who treated me like a decent human being and those became my peer group in the hobby.