Yeah, web comments are really fucking depressing. But so are calls into a lot political call-in shows. One show on C-Span whose name I forget, I watched it, thinking the audience must be a fairly liberal, bookish sort, like what I imagine an NPR or PBS audience to be -- everyone who called in was a flaming political idiot and the majority of their stuff was of a conspiracy-theory type nature. That was the dominant theme: Conspiracy theory: UN, Federal Reserve, secret elites plotting to make us into one-world government types of theories. Like the old militia movement and John Birch lines.
And did anyone see any of the comments on any of the Jena 6 protest photos, on sites that allowed comments? You would have folks angrily saying they aren't racist and don't appreciate always having to prove they're not -- and then insulting the people in the photos, usually in racial terms. Some of the comments on the photos were unbelievably racist. Also, I have developed a theory that if a website allows comments on a political story -- ANY political story, about the FDA, Iran, China, etc. -- 50% will be either racist, and the other 50% will be about welfare/socialism.
I guarantee it!
It's enough to generate creeping anti-democratic impulses in oneself, a la "Why are some people allowed to vote?" But you take a tip from the Catholics and repress such thoughts.
-B.
Doug Henwood wrote:
"No comments? Zounds! Are there any comments on the vast web that aren't stupid or witless or indulgent or trivial? Even Gawker, which auditions commenters and "executes" the duds, sports some pretty pathetic dialogue. The Nation's comments are deeply idiotic. The comments usually point up how much better professional writers are at writing than the peanut gallery. You know of exceptions?"