Did Bert leave Earnie for bin Laden?

Traversing the internet often results in "collisions [which] continually remind us that community, in addition to being the result of something we do, is also something that happens to us. Finding ourselves in-community with various others, we eventually separate off into communities that coalesce around common identities and interests." People are naturally drawn to ideas that affirm beliefs they already have, and reject those that disprove beliefs they have judged as true. This cognitive dissonance causes people to radically respond to both ends of the spectrum--they join communities to further their cause while attacking the competition. 

James J. Brown brings up a controversy involving a picture that depicts Bert, from Sesame Street, in cahoots with Osama bin Laden. In this example the photo's creator, Dino Ignacio, created the image as a joke to substantiate his long running bit that Bert is evil. This story parallels Frankenstein, where the creator feels shame for creating a monster that wreaks havoc on society. After the image had become popular, and upon shutting down the Bert is Evil website, Ignacio expressed concern that his parodies had “gotten too close to reality,” and by this he meant that his website had been taken up by mainstream media. The transmission of this image was so pervasive that it was found on protest posters in Afghanistan. The message had clearly been misconstrued.

One perspective is that "[w]eb technologies welcome “transcultural confusion” and that such technologies also “[create] the conditions of intercultural exchange that render politically noxious any culture which cannot decode the messages of others.”" This statement is a rather harsh criticism of people in the Middle East using and reproducing an image without consideration of its effect. Images are especially riddled with context that does not translate, and even savvy cultures get it wrong.
Equally unfounded is "condemning all American popular culture and blaming it for Islamic fundamentalism." The criticism of Western Culture in the Middle East did not begin with our media, and it has only become a component of the conflict recently. These two views represent the intolerance that complicates the cultural conflict.

In the end of his article Brown's tone turns positive toward online resources which "offe[r] a space where communities can gather toward particular goals (this, most definitely, is happening), the Web offers a place where community happens to us even without any sort of intentional gesture of “let’s get together.”" He idealizes the product of a community unified by common beliefs.