I think it also has a lot to do with the fact that we, as a society, have tried to eliminate any and all pain from our children’s lives by preventing or trying to ease the pain of failure. In school, teachers can’t fail a child. They can barely even correct the child for fear of lawsuits and charges of unfairness of some sort. These children have grown up believing that they can do no wrong and thus have gargantuan egos. And when those narcissistic egos meet the real world, behavior like this ensues. That’s part of it, anyway.
I agree with you and I think yours is the more important reason for the existence of Internet trolls - lack of discipline. I blame it on Dr. Benjamin Spock, who said that parents shouldn’t spank their children. The kids learn that actions don’t really have consequences, and because so much happens online these days, they don’t care that there’s an actual person behind every username they troll.
I spend a lot of time in the virtual world Second Life, and the chan types are part of the landscape there. Their “memes” are everywhere: longcats and mudkips and chocolate rain and goatse man. Generally in online games these folks are known as “griefers,” not as trolls. Their purpose in Second Life and other online games is not to play the game but to harass the other players so they can’t play the game. Here’s an article about Second Life griefers:
To oppose the virtual bullies, there are virtual Neighborhood Watch groups who volunteer to report them and get them banned. The practice is immensely satisfying, and such a service should be extended to the /b/tards to give them a taste of their own medicine. We could always “do it for the lulz.”