I thought this was a pretty thought-provoking read, even if I don’t agree with every point. It really is pretty sad to think how far the situation has diverged from our idealistic imaginings in the nineties and oughts.

Does our fatigue with unfiltered opinion reflect a larger philosophical change, though? Are we disenchanted with the idea of equality itself? Our expectations of people, people generally, have been so disappointed. People just turned out to be so much dumber than we had hoped. Dumber, angrier, more irrational, impulsive. People are just scary. What does this say for our enshrinement of democracy?

Perhaps media managers have decided not that they hate people, or even people with opinions, or even people with stupid opinions, but that the expressing of an opinion must require a minimum symbolic effort, it must require entering a system of conventions. At least in spaces that they are paying for. Outside these, people may create any number of their own spaces with different conventions. Is this drawing of new boundaries an abandonment of democratic principles? I think not: We restrict voting in elections in a number of ways (age, citizenship) and yet our elections are still deemed democratic. A refusal to provide a space in which blind rage is fomented is not the abandonment of democracy, but the protection of it.

Russell Smith: Say bye to the online comment section as you know it