Such images exist largely on peer-to-peer networks and covert forums, making any blocking service unlikely to be much help in their eradication – and possibly an unwelcome rival for resources and political attention.
Their causes are many and tangled, including conflicts of interest, rival power structures and competition for resources.
We all have an idea of some of the causes of bias and bigotry: divisions between racial and ethnic groups, geographic segregation and economic marginalisation, competition for resources between rival groups.
They are rivals for shrinking resources, for marketing spend as well as editorial staffing and budgets.
Increased competition for resources forces fellow citizens to become competitors and rivals, and the differences between them are exaggerated.
Civilization can be played against other humans online, but its real strength is as a single-player game where you control a budding society in its race against rival states for resources, technology, land, gold and glory.
Fundamentally they are rivals, for space, for resources and for attention.
If neoliberalism makes everything a competition, it should be no surprise that white majorities have come to see newcomers as rivals for jobs and resources.
This has involved the internalisation of the logic of competition, so that universities, departments and individual academics are all pushed to treat each other as rivals in the struggle for resources.
"Most importantly, a great sense of mutual respect and support has developed between people working in different areas, so that we find people cooperating and supporting each other's initiatives, who in many university settings would be rivals in a battle for resources," Smolin explains.
The current period is "normal" in that rival powers are competing for resources and influence; tension and thus conflict is inevitable.
