Group dynamics are a fascinating thing. And while I don't have any formal training in that area I have had a fair amount of leading groups and working with them, as well as a bizarre fascination with observing the manner in which humans interact with each other. In that time I have noticed many phenomena, one of which has been more on my mind as of late.
Interesting things happen to people when they get together. No matter the group they are in, once they begin to congregate the beginnings of the ugly mob mentality take root.
It happens in real life, it happens on the net. Those who are like-minded in some manner will find each other, or find their commonalities, and begin to gang up. Political discussions are a prime example, but this is evident elsewhere. A member of the group gets a bee in their bonnet and suddenly the cajoling, back-slapping, and encouraging gains momentum. The enemy of one becomes the enemy of all. The cause of one becomes the cause of all.
This can be beneficial, as the collective efforts of the group can often accomplish much good. But as with all things in life, it is a two edged sword. In an effort to support the members of our mob we can often forget our own identity to a degree. We adopt the ideas of the others and begin to assimilate them into our own. And with this can come a negativity for that which we have no cause to hate.
Then it gets ugly. Suddenly we see groups attacking others they deem to be weaker than themselves. Often members of the group are carried along, somewhat unwillingly, but without the strength to separate them from the mob. The fever heightens, emotion runs high, the members of the mob feed off that emotional rush and rational thought becomes the slave to gut reaction, subsumed by the roiling tide of "Way to go!", and "You tell him/her!"
In the wake of this tide are the ruins of what may have once been flourishing relationships, now broken and bent under the force of the mob. But if we fail to see past the haze of smoke rising from the torches, we may never see the damage we leave behind on our "righteous" quest to "kill the beast".