Penn and Teller's "Bullshit", Season 2, Episode 1: PETA

They kick the crap out of the organization in this episode. One of the guests makes the interesting point that an entire generation of kids in America grew up in the 80's and 90's without having to face a serious threat - such as a world war, a violent government, a destroyed economy, or a national epidemic. I suspect that because of this, two things happened:

1. They became fixated on "lesser" causes like the liberation of animals, the "barbarity" of abortions, and arguing that the First Amendment "stifles" their religion.
2. In the pursuit these "lesser" causes, they unwittingly used tactics that encouraged the incidence of, and even imitated truly serious threats.

Such as, in the case of PETA, firebombing research labs, and in the case of anti-abortionists, bombing clinics and murdering doctors.

In the "post 9/11 world", as the guest speaker put it, you just don't do stuff like that, right?