Ripping Delay: 75 minutes and 111 responses

Tom Delay has a blog. For 75 minutes that blog was open to public comments. 111 people used that window to vent their anger, calling him everything from a "disgrace" to an "assclown" to many much dirtier things and even wondering "When you're locked up, will you smuggle blog posts out in your visitors' rectums?" The open comments were shut down and removed, but this site preserved them as "A tribute to the 75-minute period where Tom Delay actually received feedback from America."

A few of the comments are thought-out and address specific questions, but most are just ugly name-calling. This semester we've seen comment sections used as a valuable space for dialogue between reader and author to occur. This type of dialogue seems especially suited for the political arena. Constituents could have a direct, instant, easy-to-use and respond-to, forum for conversation with their elected representatives. Yet the Delay debacle shows that this space is constantly in danger of being hopelessly corrupted by thoughtless vitriol. Granted Delay is a particularly hated and hateable politician, but I believe the same kind of comments would appear on say Hilary Clinton's blog if she were to allow open commenting.

It's an interesting conflict: our instincts tell us that totally open democratic dilaogue is a good thing, but reality often steps in to show us just how nasty people can be when given that freedom. Open forums and the freedom of information are closely tied to the idealism of the internet as a great connector forming a web between millions of people all across the world. The question is: will that web bring people together in conversation or drive them apart as name-calling and hate-filled rhetoric replaces dialogue. A few weeks ago I blogged about Iranian President Ahmadinejad's letter to the American people. Fox News gave Americans the chance to answer. A few of the responses are thoughtful, most respond with threats, such as our ability to "vaporize your entire nation."

This problem is not relegated to Americans. It supercedes national boundaries and makes me wonder if we, as people, are ready for truly open unmoderated discussion.