Yeah. I originally wrote this post with a rather darker and more cynical tone, but decided that I should at least *try* to focus on the upsides. I'm sure you're right re: vocal minority, but given the way that people are apparently designed to have negative comments stick in our mind more than positive ones, that doesn't really make things much better.

Also, as Brian points out, there are hundreds of millions of people on the Internet, so even a "vocal minority" still potentially represents a goodly chunk of the populace perfectly willing to promote and continue such behavior.