User blog comment:Morganaforever/Why all this hate?/@comment-5036924-20120107173018

Hm, yes, I have seen the kind of things you mean. It's interesting...

I disagree with comments that this type of abuse is ALWAYS reflective of widespread media-induced psychological damage among unfulfilled people, though there is an element of that. But sometimes people are just bored, unpleasant, immature... just making trouble and mouthing off for little to no reason, or perhaps for attention. It's so easy to say what you like online without anyone knowing who you are, so it's easy to say awful things with very few consequences.

On the other hand, sometimes people genuinely get so fired up about the show or get so into certain pairings that they say all these weird, furious, irrational things, and may even regret it later. Maybe things aren't happening the way they want on the show and they're venting frustration, albeit in a stupid and inappropriate way.

Angel and Katie do get the worst of it, and I think... well, it maybe shows something about general attitudes. Angel gets hate for not being typically "beautiful", while Katie probably gets some of it for being as beautiful as she is. And the boys don't really get anything of the sort (I could be wrong, though). Although to be honest, I feel like the show writes male characters better than female characters, and that may be part of it. I don't know, though, it's really just crude stupidity.