Besides the anonymity — or at least the sense of distance — on the internet that emboldens a sickeningly large number of people to be assholes, and the powerful current of fear in comments such as these, there’s a growing tendency in our culture toward stoking and cultivating fear in general that’s disturbing (and often cynical), and actively discourages empathy. To have empathy means to have the ability to imagine oneself in another’s situation, and many people don’t WANT to have that ability, because to have that ability would somehow make them vulnerable. If they could imagine it, it means that it could actually happen to them instead of only to other people who just weren’t strong enough, or virtuous enough, or lucky enough to avoid it themselves, and that is a frightening realization. So, instead, they lash out at those who suffer and tell themselves that the suffering of others (and their own harsh judgment of it) is deserved, and bask in the protective spell they have set around themselves. It’s magical thinking at its worst.