Death Spiral of the Blogosphere
The internet is a stupid, stupid place. People talk about the democratic nature of the internet compared to "old media" outlets like the newspapers and book publishers, but they fail to mention that it's the bad kind of democracy. Not the enlightening mass Socratic dialogue of our idyllic daydreams, but the inane prattling of the mob. The internet embodies the democracy of the lowest common denominator. For instance, I posted that for the first time in my life I was ashamed of being an American and was greeted by the silence of a tomb. I opined about the etymology of the word "burrito" and people just couldn't wait to chime in. Don't get me wrong, I like talking about etymology more than anyone else I know and I'm a fan of almost any excuse to mention burritos. Still, I felt compelled to take a moment to reflect upon the fact that no matter how technologically sophisticated our devices become, we're still just drooling, hairless apes.

And yes, when They Might Be Giants divided the crowd into "Humans" and "Apes" for their musical ruminations on The Planet of the Apes, I was one of the Apes. "Apes! Apes! Apes! Apes! Apes! Apes! Apes! Apes!"