From: pc+usenet@asdf.org   
      
   vintageapplemac@gmail.com (scole) writes:   
   > Something my History teacher said in class in the early 90s has  always   
   > stuck with me; "If you want to know what the *really* crazy people are   
   > thinking, buy your local newspaper and read the letters page...". That   
   > used to be the only outlet that loudmouthed arseholes had to sound off on   
   > their hobbyhorses, but involved some effort (writing on paper and posting   
   > a letter) so only the genuinely committed and/or unhinged arseholes would   
   > invest the energy, but when I got onto Usenet properly about 5 or 6 years   
   > later I thought to myself "Hmmm, looks like this is the new Local Paper   
   > Letters Page, then, but with a lower barrier of entry", and then thought   
   > the same about messageboards about 5 or 6 years after that, and then the   
   > same about Facebook about 5 or 6 years after that... And so on. It's all a   
   > dead loss, that's the conclusion I've come to. A race to the bottom that   
   > everybody's going to lose.   
      
   Welcome back to usenet, where a decent proportion of the really crazy   
   people have left for those other venues. (Far far far from all, though,   
   alas.)   
      
   Phil   
   --   
   We are no longer hunters and nomads. No longer awed and frightened, as we have   
   gained some understanding of the world in which we live. As such, we can cast   
   aside childish remnants from the dawn of our civilization.   
   -- NotSanguine on SoylentNews, after Eugen Weber in /The Western Tradition/   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)