I've been discussing this privately with a poster

I've been discussing this privately with a poster here, but as per this person's thoughts that perhaps the internet makes some people go crazy and turn into trolls --

I think that the people who now troll around the internet are not created by the opportunity -- but instead are the same mentally individuals who in the past would have kept themselves busy writing crank letters to newspapers (or, horribly, like that awful guy in North Carolina who wrote hate letters to interracial couples, to people themselves).

Chat rooms and comment sections on articles just give these pathetic losers a chance to try to make themselves feel important by posting nasty garbage in a public forum. But I think they would have found some other outlet -- letters, meetings in lunatic fringe groups with other people who shared the same delusions, etc. Now, they have a chance to try to feel important by getting people to respond to their nonsense -- and they can do it from the comfort of their mommy's basement or their tiny apartment.

This is why the popular term "don't feed the trolls" has become so widespread. Trolls are so weak that they need to have other people pay attention to them to validate their existence, so they keep posting even though they know that everyone who frequents the chat room KNOWS that they are trolling. They desperately want to turn people's attention to themselves. Ignoring them is the best way to frustrate them.

I wish I could say that I feel sorry for them, but I don't. What I wish for them is that they would come to some minimal level of self-awareness so that they seek treatment for their problems.