"They do not want to torture, imprison or kill those who oppose them".

Give it time. I think the new atheists may very well be just a secular expression of religion.

I think they are well-intentioned, but no fanaticism is harmless.

It is a good point. In order to hammer home our arguments and vent our emotions we commonly select the most extreme examples to lambast. For example, a relative handful of extreme right wing preachers come to represent “evangelicalism”. Furthermore, the views of the handful are distorted and exaggerated in order to make them appear to be more of a threat than they really are. It’s the same with these New Atheists. If they are a dire threat it is only because anyone believes they are a threat. We have the option of ignoring them if we wish.

It’s a way of saying, “These others are evil, idiotic, ignorant, and a danger to life on earth. I’ll be your leader. Join with me in a seething cauldron of perpetual anger and fear”!

Something I have noticed with criticism, and especially with critical books is that whatever they are blaming the other person or party of is something they secretly want themselves.

For example, one of the most prevalent arguments from climate change deniers is that the people pushing climate change are generating an artificial crisis to gain power, despite the fact that much of this disinformation is being pushed by people who manufactured a crisis to get into power, and are now spreading disinformation to maintain the status quo.