[davidm]

I guess I"m not really persuaded that media don't make people snap. Media make people do all sorts of things. If media didn't make people do things, the advertising industry would not exist. If media did not make people do things, gobsmacking amounts of money would not be spent on political campaigns to convince people that the other candidate is an un-American Muslim terrorist who was really born in Kenya and has a forged birth certificate. Given that the Supremes have given carte blanche to unlimited spending in political campaigns by shadowy sources, it is quite conceivable that Romney with the help of his plutocrats will buy the election because the media does influence behavior, tremendously so.

I agree that people snap because they are crazy, but it seems plausible that crazy people are even more susceptible to media suggestion than non-crazy people, and it should be clear by now that non-crazy people are tremendously influenced by the media. I don't see how a person being "shitty" makes him snap, though.