WyoWoman, you said a mouthfull about the attention we pay to bullies. If memory serves me properly, Gibbon said the following in his book, Decline and fall of the Roman Empire:

So long as mankind shall continue to bestow more liberal applause upon their destroyers than upon their benefactors, the thirst for military glory shall forever be the vice of most exalted men.

Gibbon was referring to Roman emperors, but the main point is that the quickest way to "influence" people is by bullying them. It's usually the people who are the most frightened who do the most frightening of others. And even more so on the internet, where a weak little man can feel "strong" by hurting others behind his cloak of anonymity and an invented personna.