John Gabriel's Greater Internet Dickwad Theory, by Penny Arcade

I wasn’t following it at the time so this may not be news to anyone, but apparently the Obama administration’s Citizen’s Briefing Book – a collection of policy ideas submitted electronically by American citizens in the lead-up to the Inauguration – showed some interesting results. 44,000 proposals were floated by members of the public, and these garnered 1.4 million votes.

In the middle of two wars and an economic meltdown, the highest-ranking idea was to legalize marijuana, an idea nearly twice as popular as repealing the Bush tax cuts on the wealthy. Legalizing online poker topped the technology ideas, twice as popular as nationwide wi-fi. Revoking the Church of Scientology’s tax-exempt status garnered three times more votes than raising funding for childhood cancer.

(My emphasis.)

Much as I like the democratic potential of electronic voting, I am worried about possible abuses of the system, although it does seem to be going well in the European countries and American states it’s been implemented in. I’m sure none of the usual safeguards were in place in the Citizen’s Brief, however.

There are certain themes netizens will usually return to. One of these is the legalisation of marijuana. Another is an antagonism of Scientology

… the Internet’s openness allows well-organized groups to simulate support,to “capture and impersonate the public voice,” as [James Fishkin, a Stanford political scientist] wrote in an e-mail exchange.

As we’ve seen time and time again, John Gabriel’s Internet Dickwad Theory will almost always apply (the image above is a T-shirt version of this strip).

Anand Giridharadas ‘“Athens” on the Net‘, New York Times (12/9/09)