There are hordes of people who will say outrageous things because they think they are anonymous.
It's one of the many ways that the Internet has amplified character issues that already existed in society.
It's one of the many ways that the Internet has amplified character issues that already existed in society.
UK TV station Channel 4 had an interesting documentary where they paired up people with facial disfigurement and people who really wanted cosmetic surgery. The comments that people with facial disfigurement had to endure in everyday life really were awful. (And there's plenty of research showing "ugly" people do less well than "pretty" people in things like job interviews and pay rises etc.)
--- (Unfortunately, most of the programmes had confrontational pairs who had little interest in understanding the other person.) The most interesting was a man who had extensive burn scars on his face, paired up with a woman who had large breasts. He went in saying that she should not have surgery at all. After a while he could see just how horrible people were to her just because of her large breasts. That's S01E01.
(http://www.channel4.com/programmes/beauty-the-beast-ugly-fac...)
(http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/organgrinder/2010/aug/26/bea...)
When you compare that to real violence, this is culturally very advanced.
There is the downside that some take stuff often very personal, they have to learn that these things are more about these people themselves than about the target.
I wonder if that's verifiable. Some very senseless acts of aggression have occurred among the spectators at sporting events.