My opinion on the root cause is the opposite. We have developed a cult of what we call "personal responsibility", where many people find it acceptable to push someone toward death as long as you only do it using words, "for the lols", etc. Because it's their responsibility to, as insane as it sounds, simply not be affected! We've adopted a "I'm not touching you!" attitude toward adult interaction and morality. We have a real, growing cultural sickness rooted in emotional retardation and hatred. And to be clear, this hatred is a dangerous combination of petty and murderous, meaning: It's petty enough to be based on trivial things like "Are you affected at all by being provoked/bullied? Do you not fit our definition of 'normal' in any way?"; and yet despite that, it's serious enough to be murderous in its intent. Death, harm, or breakdown is the happiest result for these people.

We have a comment in this very HN thread that says, with no editorializing, that what KiwiFarms does is just "gossip".