[dang]

The capacity to not see something like that goes orders of magnitude further than you'd expect. That's one thing I've learned from moderating HN: nearly all abuse, including what you'd swear is outright trolling, is unconscious and unintentional. Any vague awareness that one is doing it is accompanied by the righteous feeling that the other person has done much worse; which is another variant of self-deception.

I'd even say that in their trivial way, these internet forum dynamics are connected to the causes of violence and war. If that's true, it has an interesting consequence: internet forums are an opportunity—trivial, yes, but therefore also safe—to work on the sources of violence and war in oneself.