Once upon a time there was something about empowerment, and some people actually cared.
It's still about empowerment, the way I see it. This is still the place where you can (it's "can", not "must") engage in combative debate, challenge the views of others and have your views challenged. This is still the place where you can learn how to. It's still about free speech, still about your right to not be censored by some narrow-minded mod.
But with all that said, yeah, maybe we should all shape up and start living the ideals again. There's no way to force something like that so I2 is and remains what its members make it to be.