I guess the difference is the good outweighs the bad. I don’t think the internet is doing anything significant to promote h*te.
Without global communication, most people’s *only* source of knowledge was from likeminded local people. Now any information you want is only a choice away, and even the most passionate racist is going to read an unbias web source at some point, even if its in the vein of “know thy enemy”.

And that anonymity is a useful tool as well, allowing even the most reclusive individual to learn social grace. I shall horribly misquote Simon now in saying that “There is nothing that builds a well rounded individual more than moderating a forum”.

Strangely, Tony, your naivete still surprises me.

The internet _is_ just a tool. Guns are just tools. Neither could induce hatred or death without being used by people. The real question is whether the availability of the tool makes the unwanted effect more likely to happen. Are you more likely to kill if you have a gun? Are you more likely to hate if you have the internet?

I think that it doesn’t matter whether the good outweighs the bad. The internet allows the distribution of kiddie porn and the grooming of minors for sexual abuse. Does this make the internet bad? No, it just makes bad people more effective at carrying out their desires, or making money.

We can only start to look at the real problems when we stop blaming the tools and start looking at the underlying causes.

Chances aren’t actually all that good. They may well start to read and unbiased web source but if they’re really that “passionate” in their hatred they’re quite likely to go “this is bullsh*t” and go and read something more in line with their own views.

As for “guns don’t kill people, people kill people”.. much as I hate to admit, it it is true – there was mass genocide way before the invention of guns and they are by no means the only way to kill someone. As numerous people have pointed out, the gun helps.. but it is by no means the root cause – just as the internet is not the root cause of child abuse, or abduction, or terrorism or any of the other things it is blamed of on a frequent basis.

As Meri says “The internet allows the “mob-component” aspect of people to run free” – and mobs are rarely capable of rational thought. To quote Terry Pratchett “The IQ of a mob is the IQ of its most stupid member devided by the number of mobsters.” When your talking of thousands of potential mobsters that can take the IQ down very quickly…