Musical and media figures say the darnedest things, especially when it comes to politics. Do their words of wisdom inspire you to vote, or should they just go back to dying their hair? You decide.

With the near-universal access nature of the internet, we have the purest form of democracy: anyone with a computer and phone line or a public library card can voice their opinion on everything from the minutiae of daily life to cosmic macro-existence. There’s no need to elect ivory tower intellectuals or talking heads with gilded mouths to do the actual task of filtering the wheat from the chaff for us. The gate is wide open and the requirements are few and easily met. In sum, you can be dumb as heated brick and amoral as Machiavelli and still share your opinion on the same level with “reliable authority.” It’s a laissez-faire marketplace of ideas, but caveat emptor …it’s up to you as a reader the “buy” someone’s opinion based on what you determine as its objective value.

Do any Youtuber’s have any objective value? Sure, I’m sure there’s something in there, but it’s getting quickly buried by, say, softball questions being asked in a recent Democratic Presidential candidate debate. I would not fault anyone for regarding someone as a stupid gimmick who records themselves as a snowman asking questions on climate change, or singing about how much taxes they pay. I try not to employ a “consider the source” criteria, but it’s hard when these questions asked of potential leaders are coming from a site where a video of good half dozen or so young men are dry-humping household furniture to a hip-hop soundtrack is popular (there’s no way I’m hyperlinking that …you know how to search).

Lastly, we must ask ourselves if the election will be decided by the impact of amateur music video celebrities (AKA: not able to make it as real celebrities) adding to the steaming pile. Will a pair of tonedeaf 13-year olds armed with global warming memes influence those who can actually vote? Does someone’s crush on Obama or Hillary matter more than their voting record or where they get their campaign finances? Will the airheaded Romney Girls’ rebuttal cancel out the biased journalism that constantly dog him about his Mormonism and ignore Harry Reid’s?

These rhetorical questions shouldn’t keep you up at night, but I think they will matter in 2008. This is the first presidential election where the Youtube generation’s influence is a measurable factor. How much of a measure lies in how much of the voting public will let something that’s mostly visual and mostly contentless dent their decision-making. Does it really matter?

Let’s allow the skateboarding dog to decide.

3 Responses to “Vote Or Dye? The Youtube Phenomenon”

1. On 08/11/07 9:42 AM, Jay DiNitto said:

   

   Yeah, there’s been some incidents of Youtube censoring anti-jihadist videos, even though they can allow/block whatever they want on their own site. Sucks that they do that, but at least you know where they stand.

2. On 08/11/07 5:54 PM, sleepy said:

   

   you forgot that Zonday dude with the chocolate rain…

3. On 08/11/07 8:43 PM, Colin impersonating Dave From Karsia said:

   

   DEMOCRATZ CAN EET AIDZ. WUT A BUNCH OF PUSSIEZZ

Leave a comment