Democracy usually fails

Pure democracy, anyway.  Our Founding Fathers knew it; that’s why they created a Republic for us.  Little did they know we’d only take two centuries to fuck that up.

Anyway.  After reading comments on an article regarding the dustup between CBS/Paramount and the fans who are producing the “Axanar” spin-off Star Trek movie, I really do wonder if the Internet has done us any favors.  What would have been, pre-1994, a simple article in something like Variety (it used to be printed exclusively on newsprint, for those not old enough to remember) that might have been discussed a few days later on a Usenet newsgroup that practically nobody actually read, has in 2016 become an instant forum in which readers may projectile-vomit their undistilled raw thoughts about the article anonymously and without regard for what anyone else thinks.*  (Indeed, such microcephalic idiots generally operate without filters between ears, brain, and mouth even in real life conversations and other interactions.  Sometimes even those of us who do normally operate with those filters engaged nevertheless find ourselves issuing that kind of internet comment, too.  So sadly, it’s not just those with tiny brains** who succumb, suggesting that the problem is really the siren call of the medium beckoning one to yield to that blinking cursor, not simply the individual’s solipsistic need to assert that the universe does, in fact, revolve around himself and that his opinion actually has any worth to anyone but himself.***)

The thing I don’t understand is why it’s anyone’s business except that of the parties involved.  Why did this article need instant comments at all?  It’s a simple report of news.  You want to respond to it, write an email to the editor like we used to do back in the day (although generally we typed or hand-wrote it on paper, stuck it in an envelope with a stamp (remember those?) and threw it in the mailbox to be delivered sometime in the next couple of days).  If the editors liked it, they might even print it in the next issue, and might even respond to you, thanking you for your well- or not so well-reasoned arguments, and in the latter case, gently explaining why you were a fucking idiot who needed to be spoon-fed the Truth as handed down by your Betters.

Oh, and — if you wanted to be taken seriously, you wrote politely.  Even if you were pissed off.  Such was the Republic of News; it was serious, it was considered, it was grave, and it was polite, even when it excoriated local or national politicians for real or imagined sins.  And it had its gatekeepers.  If they didn’t like your tone, your letter went into the round file with that of other barbarians and kooks.

Today we have the great Democracy of the Unwashed who simply react reflexively rather than respond thoughtfully.  And that’s why the comments section of that article about Axanar — and the comments section of so many other articles — is something you read only if you have no care for your sanity.

____________

* And often, without regard for correct grammar or orthography, either.

** Or small phalluses, but that’s really kind of beyond the pale, even for me.

*** Women also have this problem, but I’ll be damned if I’ll yield to political correctness and fuck up the flow of this post.