The Bipolar Net

Tom Matrullo, (mentioned by allied,) points out divergent characteristics of self publishing formats on the web.
The Tagging format of flickr allows a person the opportunity "see a place through the eyes of a native, or a tourist, and feel a kinship with that person." One can review the photos from someone's vacation or browse all the tags from a particular location and see several peoples views. Matrullo enjoys the generosity of the 'photo sharing medium,' and he shares his enjoyment by generously hyperlinking the words of his essay to photos on flickr, giving the reader a glimpse of the kinship and community which he find there. By contrast he sites an anti-Islam blog from Norway. Of course he Also provides links through several of what he calls "satanic blogmills," as bloggers read and pass the "Muslim Rape Epidemic" story. His mention even attracts it's own trolls who decry the "Demonic Alliance of Islam and the Left."
Well good. I assume that while they are busy typing their rants, they are not lynching Muslims. besides the object of Hate blogging and comment trolling is to bait and engage "liberals."
There is a real difference in the way that people use the media. One type is fueled by interest and curiosity and the other by indignation and stale adrenalin (and poor typography.)
The questions left in my mind are about Memes and the ways that ideas mimic viruses. When I was young I was taught that exposure to other ideas was a cure for the ignorance which has held back civilization in so many centuries. Now I wonder if ideas can have a corrupting influence. After all some viruses have no cure, although we try, could it be that some destructive ideas are ineradicable? If we teach the child tolerance will she be more likely to get in the car with the crazed pedophile?