This seems quite silly. Adolescent nihilism and alienation, scatter-shot irrationality, and calculated transgressions for attention are ancient. As is cynical o

This seems quite silly. Adolescent nihilism and alienation, scatter-shot irrationality, and calculated transgressions for attention are ancient. As is cynical opportunism. They've been part of (mostly) youth movements for centuries. The only thing changed by the Internet is accessibility. Previously people tended to know each other personally. Now they can mix it up online. This makes their presence a little more obvious and a little harder to ignore. But there must be hundreds of these micro-scenes with their nano-gurus and micro-leaders, and most people will still never come across them. They only become dangerous when they grow - or are grown - to the point where the groups stop being small and insignificant, and where the messaging is carefully and deliberately tailored to trigger irrationality and self-harm in mass audiences. That's not a good thing. But it's no worse - and often less effective and less toxic - than some of the nonsense pumped out by supposedly respectable mainstream media.