The Internet has a viral, social aspect… It leads you to believe that you’re acting on behalf of the greater good, it gives you a sense of validation, without actually being a part of a real community. You have more people acting alone, but not with the same sense of isolation.
Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, discussing the role of the Internet in the lives of people who commit hate crimes (such as Scott Roeder, George Tiller’s killer, and James von Brunn, the Holocaust Museum shooter). Quoted in Kevin Eckstrom, “Anti-faith, anti-government violence a toxic mix,” Pew Forum Religion News (June 11, 2009). Carol Swann of Vanderbilt commented on the same topic, “If we focus on the groups, we are going to miss the larger picture that the danger is not from the groups like the KKK or Aryan Nations… but from individuals like von Brunn who act alone” (quoted in the same article). (via nbr)
