When you ask Web sophisticates why people are so vicious on the Internet, you get a set of stock responses. The very question is naive. What do you expect? The world is full of angry people who don't have a life. The Web offers a perfect outlet where they can be anonymous, important, and powerful, and attack others without fear of retribution. The Web has given them a voice when before they had none. These are people who find meaning in their lives by connecting with similar people on the net, who seek a sense of purpose and fulfillment online that they can't achieve in the real world. Finally, the nature of the Internet, we are told, is also to blame -- it's a place where the human id runs amok, it's a playground for disturbed people, it's an echo chamber for the uninformed. We are advised that Internet nastiness is white noise, best ignored. It has little effect in the real world. While many these explanations are undoubtedly true, none go deep enough. None explain why the Web is a place where some human beings devote enormous effort to attacking strangers who have done nothing to them personally.