Were did all the hate come from?

I have noticed more than ever in this past week that the internet is full of hate. I don't mean racism, sexism and the usual old school hate, I mean pure hatred for complete strangers that people chance upon while online. My first example of this is playing Call of Duty. I am not a huge gamer but I do love the Call of Duty series, in particular Modern Warfare 2. The game itself is OK but it is the online play where the game really comes alive. I can sit in my living room, cup of tea in hand ( or on the desk) and play with other players all over the world. A huge online gaming community. Except it is not. Communities rarely subject one another to the floods of abuse that I suffer while playing the game. As I said before I am not a devoted gamer but I do not too badly playing this game and while I am very rarely top scorer, I am also very rarely bottom. I think my problem is the choice of gun I have, it must be, because regardless of which gun I choose I get called "fag" for using it. My view is if I can shoot someone and kill them with it and not miss it must be a pretty good gun. Apparently not so. There are guns in the game which are easier to use but using one will get me called a no0b, and have people screaming at me to "get some skill". on the flip side of this there are guns which are not so easy to use and scoring a kill with one of these gets me branded a "cheating hacker fag". I can't win. I even tried to inject a bit of niceness into a game I played last night, someone shot me from the other side of the map, aiming at a tiny bit of my head that stuck out above a wall. "Good shot!", was my comment, only to be met with a return of abuse from the person I praised that maybe if I "didn't spend so much time sucking my mothers d**k", I would be able to be as good as him. Second thing that got me today was on G+, I hope I don't step on anyones toes here but in a generally jovial post about a members eldest child professing a love of a certain TV show, someone took offense at one of the comments and made a few VERY nasty remarks then tried to derail the entire thread to suit their own agenda. It left me wondering if this person would do that if we were having the conversation face to face instead of online. I wonder if anyone would be so hate filled and ready to shout down anyone who said or did something they didn't like if they weren't online. I count myself very lucky to have a group of online friends like the ones I do. I know that I can be myself with all of them and that they are exactly the way they are whether it is online or face to face. Rant over, keep watching for some recipes after these short messages.