On the realities of discourse as opposed to pipe dreams about emergent democracy

The meme about the emergence of a global consciousness through the medium of the internet is rising into the general awareness. I don’t think the people who make these pronouncements spend much time actually communicating on the web or other locii of public discourse. The ignorant, brainwashed, and willfully malignant are, if anything, more pronounced online, perhaps because they normally hide behind social niceties in “real” life. And in fact, many who claim to be open-minded are actually trapped in a narrow world as well. There might be collaboration for common goals, but most people would rather infinitely debate than concede or compromise.