If Mother Theresa wrote a blog from heaven, some people would still find snarky things to write in the comments.

"That nun! Who she think she is?"

And worse.

Such is the state of the world today, where every online story invites invective, and bloggers run the risk of being pilloried on topics they haven't even addressed. So many discussions devolve into name calling, racism and fringe political rants.

Hawai'i resident and eBay billionaire Pierre Omidyar gives millions of dollars to Hawai'i charities and somebody finds something nasty to say about it online, basically calling him a miser because he has so much more in his bank account.

Hawai'i's beloved Father Damien becomes a saint and online comments decay into screaming condemnation of gay marriage. How did that happen? Same way any of it happens.

The comment sections are like bathroom walls and some people just can't walk into a stall without being overcome by the urge to put something filthy on the walls.

Who needs to comment on Saint Damien anyway? Nobody alive knew him back in the day. Nobody has funny anecdotes from when he was in high school. He probably won't read the "shout outs."

But that's the current fashion. We're told constantly that we should have a say, on anything, on everything, regardless of whether we're a stakeholder or in any way informed on the matter.

We're encouraged to vote in online polls about news events and issues whether they affect us or not. What do you think of furlough Fridays? We want to hear, regardless of whether or not you're a teacher or have a child in public school.

Have your say, and if you say it all in caps, with sweeping insults, a bad attitude and lots of exclamation points for emphasis, more people will read it.

If the authors of these inflammatory screeds were getting some kind of catharsis by writing this garbage, that would be one thing. At least there would be some positive outcome of all the online screaming. Like if they let off some of their anger on a discussion board and in that way didn't go home and kick the dog and yell at the family, well, at least it served a purpose.

But I don't believe that is the case.

The anonymous yelling just leads to more yelling; the hatred spreads like a disease. There doesn't seem to be a higher purpose. It's all pretty reprehensible, though quite fashionable. It's probably too much to hope that awful fashion will be abandoned like last season's bubble skirt.