In a vacuum

"Are we getting a new, somewhat bleaker vision of human nature as we're freed from the bounds of real-time, face-to-face contact? Is the viciousness of the discourse what human nature would look like in a vacuum? Things certainly seem rancorous, not to mention regressive and infantile, in the gang wars of the right and left lobes of the political blogosphere, which (especially if you read the "comments") often seem more about humiliating and degrading those who take an opposing position than about persuading anyone of the rationality of one's arguments."

Ron Rosenbaum, How to trick an online scammer into carving a computer out of wood, The Atlantic, June 2007