Just Proving My Point
I really can't let this go. I know this Andrew Keen asshole is the supreme archetype of the troll, however, he is so good at it that it is virtually impossible to ignore his pompous blather. Please view the link above to see what I am talking about.
Yesterday I started with the basics; you know, that we have the right to free speech in our country. In fact we now have the technical capability so that almost every person in the country can, if they choose, self-publish. I get it, he considers this a 'bad thing', but since this concept is embedded within our constitution and was practiced by our most Founding of Founding Father, Right Worshipful Brother Benjamin Franklin, I don't think his argument is going to gain much traction on this side of the pond.
I feel compelled to follow up to yesterday's post after listening to his obnoxious rhetoric yet once again. As he closes his interview with Stephen Colbert he is ranting on the concept that only 'professional' objective journalists can provide us with rational, balanced, and accurate news coverage.
Since Stephen Colbert was wrapping it up he didn't have time to respond.
What absolute and total idiocy!!!
Today we find that the professional journalists spend more time reporting about Lindsay Lohan and Brittany Spears than the do about the reality of our modern world.
Just a couple of months ago dozens of people were killed at Virginia Tech sending shock waves of grief and disbelief throughout our nation. Meanwhile, three times that many people die a day in Iraq; a country we are supposed to be stabilizing. That many American soldiers die every few days to a week.
There is no balance and no sense of perspective from the 'professional' media. Just this past weekend some miners were trapped, and most likely dead, in a mine collapse. Indeed a terrible and sad tragedy. However, in terms of balance, it makes no sense to concentrate every camera and ever minute of every day on this one story while much more horrific tragedies are occurring around the world; often times in places we are either directly engaged in our, ought to be.
We can fill a 24 hours news station for a week with Paris Hilton, Brittany Spears, Lindsay Lohan, all the while that hundreds of thousands are being slaughtered in Africa. By this measure it appears that it takes the death of 10,000 Africans, butchered man, woman and child with machete knives, before it equals just one occurrence of Brittany Spears showing her snatch as she exits a vehicle at a night club.
What is the Andrew Keen f*ckhead thinking!??? Web 2.0, bloggers, etc. have risen to *save the culture* in the face of the mindless pablum that is being pushed by the so-called 'professional' journalist sources!!
This man is elitist, anti-free-speech, and just plain arrogant. The simple fact of the matter is the tripe he has been selling as 'art' or 'journalism' can be matched by the average person who has an advanced education.
Does he suggest we revoke free speech rights in the nation? He is like an old man complaining about how factories took his job away. Yeah, it's kind of sad but, frankly, there is nothing you can do about it. If you live in a capitalistic nation you just have to deal with it. As old business (and media) dies you must have faith that new ones will fill the gap.
If Andrew Keen were a little younger he would be complaining about these damned motor cars putting his horse farm out of business.
Deal with it Keen. The Internet is here, and it is here to stay. It is built upon the same principles which are embedded within our constitution and espoused by the greatest of our Founding Fathers, amateur self-educated and self-published author 'Benjamin Franklin.'
Somehow I can almost hear it now; I can almost imagine Andrew Keen railing against the horrific prose and amateur culture trashing being performed by the likes of Mark Twain.
The fact that both Mark Twain and Benjamin Franklin were not only great champions of free speech, and the power of the individual to change the world, but also Freemasons does not escape me for a moment.
I'm looking forward to Andrew Keen's diatribe 'Word Processors; how spell-checking is destroying our culture."
Here is link to an excellent blog commentary about Andrew Keen
Comments
You're right -- mass media let us down a long time ago. Web 2.0 has enabled amateur hacks (like you and me) to crack through the vapid, corporate, politically correct B.S.
That a lot of the new 2.0 journalism is also B.S. is immaterial; right or wrong, well-thought out or just stupid, citizen-journalist-bloggers and self-publishers have reclaimed the right of free speech.
Widow's Son
BurningTaper.com
...If you'd really like to give Keen a piece of your mind, his own blog can be found here.
Yep, he has a blog. Funny, huh?
Well, of course he does. He's a professional.
Go post on his blog John and PWN that nOOb!
First problem is this: artists will always sell their art to those who are willing to buy it. If your art sucks...it doesn't matter that it's on the internet...nobody is going to buy it anyway.
Second, the internet actually has helped many smaller size artists to the demise of the larger corporate interests (insert your favorite independent band or movie-maker example here).
Last, the guy is simply hawking his book by becoming a caricature of himself. Like so many Limbaughs and Frankens, their personality and unique message is akin to a carnival freak-show...and YOU have to pay to watch (or in this case, read) their freakishness.
My solution...ignore him and never mention him again. It's exactly what he wants.