Professor: Stack's letter a danger

AUSTIN (KXAN) - Ulterior Motives is the blog post where University of Texas psychology professor Dr. Art Markman explores how Joseph Stack's suicide can effect those in the aftermath.

"These kinds of situations naturally cause people to want to get an explanation for what happened,” Markman explained, “which is why immediately after the reports started circulating, you saw people going to news Web sites and blogs."

And almost immediately, people began visiting the suicide note Stack posted online, complaining about taxes and why he felt he had to crash his plane into the IRS building in Austin. The company behind the Website claimed 10 million hits within a few short hours before the FBI pulled it offline .

The company has since linked to a different site , where you can view the letter. Other sites have their own versions, some even posting ads because of the traffic.

Whether Stack considered the amount of attention he would get or not, Markman believes the letter was something he worked on for a long time.

"It creates a tremendous amount of anger,” said Markman. “It can sustain that anger, because you end up primarily talking with like-minded people, and so that anger can spiral upwards."

Markman said that anger can be infectious, too. While many of the comments people leave behind are supportive of the victims and their families, others support Stack's beliefs against the government and claim to understand his motives.

Entire Facebook pages have been dedicated, and his name has become a trending topic on Twitter. Markman worries that type of attention can inspire others to post their suicide letters as symbols of their beliefs, or worse, even carry out an act like Stack did.

"There is certainly a concern that if one person commits a more violent act in response to their anger that it provides a window of opportunity for other people," he said.

Markman added that there's a lesson to be learned from Stack's letter, as well. Talking about what's frustrating you with people who have differing opinions can help balance out your perspective - instead of fueling your anger.