Nonsense is socially OK, but not stupidity.
– Mason Cooley
I’m sure we are all very familiar with the infamous phenomenon of the “Internet argument.” There is nothing more simultaneously hilarious and frustrating than watching two people get so worked up they begin threatening one another via a completely faceless, text-based medium. Perhaps some of us have participated in such “spirited” discussions.
Politics is a subject almost guaranteed to be a source of never-ending firestorm. Something so many people are so passionate about is destined to bring controversy and debate, and these debates have made their way onto countless Internet forums. And it’s not just political sites – many entertainment sites such as online sketch comedy or webcomics have seen spill-over in their forums when someone casually mentions that he or she thinks abortion is OK or that Rush Limbaugh has some good ideas.
Part of our new president’s plan to better involve our country in the planning and administration of our national policy was to host his own Youtube channel. On it, he would bring back FDR’s famous “Fireside Chats” and directly address the nation via viral video, and in a rather, er, daring move, leave the comments section open.
The hope was this would encourage people to offer up suggestions and constructive criticism on the subjects of each address, and in turn would keep people better informed, as they would have a good reason to tune each week.
Well, people certainly put in their two cents. Sort of. Let’s have a look at some of the enlightened commentary Change.gov has seen, shall we?
fattymcfatcakepie: obama in high def is sexy
animatedamish: yeaaaaaaaaaaah obama!
rath00: Barack Obama FTW!
sulthernao: Post this comment.
Inspiring.
Despite its good intentions, it is clear that, to no one’s great surprise, Change.gov was destined to become just like every other Internet discussion site: a sea of blithering nonsense and misspelled sound bite comments. But, if you cut your way through the dumb, you occasionally find precious nuggets of people who actually ask some questions.
Unfortunately, these people can be just as bad. Often, more detailed responses are disguises, and the comment often ends with either an advertisement for the poster’s Web page, or just become an “I told you so” as evidenced by the weirdly large Ron Paul cadre.
Ever since Change.gov’s closing and Obama’s move to Whitehouse.gov, the Fireside Chats have been slow to return. If/when they do, may I suggest a few alterations?
First, set up some rules. Because you don’t want to just turn away the peanut gallery, maybe set up two forums: one for comments, rants and the like, and another for more educated conversation. People can complain about or champion freedom of speech all they want, but nothing so quashes intelligent debate quite like flooding a message board with ads for porn and statements such as “no ur dumb.”
Second, hire some moderators. I know this is Internet 101, and Obama’s White House has been quite tech-savvy, but allowing Change.gov to sink as far as it did seems like a wasted opportunity. It is clear that Obama’s net folk need to do a little more research before just setting up a forum and allowing people to “go wild,” because they will.
The fact of the matter is, our political process benefits most when people actually talk about the issues and forgo idiotic comments that don’t contribute anything to the discussion. Imagine if you were trying to have a genuine conversation with someone about, say, the stimulus package, and someone else in the room kept chiming in with “I like cheese!” or “Obama’s the next Hitler!” None of that brings anything useful to the table and only serves to annoy those who actually want to talk about the issues. Change.gov is a classic example of how encouraging conversation does not guarantee it will be good conversation. That is the responsibility of those involved.
Please, by all means, get involved in the discussion. Listen to the announcements, watch the news, be informed and talk about it. But when you talk about it, actually talk. Say something when you have something meaningful to say. Something as important as our political system deserves better than speech of which middle schoolers would be ashamed.
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