I think this is more of an internet problem than a fundamentalism problem. More precisely, the ability to write pithy, anonymous comments on the internet turns young, bitter, or other folks who just want to vent into raging fundamentalists. You can find these rude, dismissive comments not just about religion or atheism, but about everything under the sun on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, and yes, here on Medium. You can be watching a video on birds, music, or how to unclog a sink, and find a hostile comment on it that sparks a heated exchange. The online content that’s commented on is almost irrelevant since the medium here is the message (as McLuhan said).

What’s largely responsible for the aggressive tone of some comments is how the internet’s design meshes poorly with our mammalian brains. If we’ve had a bad day, why not fire off an abusive comment on some internet platform? Where’s the apparent harm? It’s all just a digital stream that floats away. There are no real people involved, right? The communication is so indirect, an endless stream of words made of ones and zeroes, with the speakers’ face absent. If the comments were less anonymous, and if the exchanges were face-to-face (like in a video call), there would be much less trolling, rudeness, and hostility online.