I wrote the following in response to a friend’s post in her (horror of horrors!) Livejournal blog. It’s about what’s wrong with online communities of freaks. Since I am running one of the few islands of sanity to be found in the swirling chaos of the Web, I figured I am well fit to pass judgement upon them. I also like reading my own words, over and over again, due to my God complex; so much so, that I am now inflicting them on you:

I don’t think the problem [with online "communities"] is so much about the concentration of dysfunction as it is the normalization of dysfunction, allied with the anonymity the ‘Net offers. While it’s fine to band together for support, I think many such groups carry it too far, in essence creating a happy little bubble where the dysfunction is accepted as normal. Well, sometimes one’s dysfunction isn’t normal, it’s just weird (auto-erotic asphyxiation), sick ("furries"), or stupid (Insane Clown Posse fans, Log Cabin Republicans). Sometimes there’s something to be said for the tyranny of the majority, the societal smack-down on the oddball.

The anonymity is a magnifying factor. Being free from personal repercussions or violence in a public venue is a good thing, particularly when bigoted individuals might threaten the personal safety of the otherwise harmlessly dysfunctional, but it also breeds the worst kind of trolls. A gander at some politically conservative blogs shows just how dangerous this kind of online mob hysteria, this "flash fascism" can be. There’s no debating any kind of finer points with such groups, as shrill dogma, without normal societal fetters, becomes the rule of the day within these narrowly-defined groups.