You can look this up on knowyourmeme and confirm it, and I’ve done an interview on the topic as well. Now I don’t know much about “improving public discourse” but I have a long string of related celebrity hoaxes and other such nonsense which often crosses over into a “War of the Worlds” effect in which it is taken quite seriously...I have had some people tell me that I’m doing what you’re calling “degrading the public discourse,” but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. It’s literature of a very particular kind, in fact. Are these stories misinterpreted willfully, just for the chance to send friends a shocking or humorous link? Sure. You can caption the bell curve and label the far ends with “this story is completely true” and the midwits with “I’m so mad you’re degrading public discourse.” But only the intelligent people are really finding it humorous. And I am sure that what has actually happened is that the American sense of humor has become horribly degraded, which I think is the truly morbid symptom more than anything else, as humor is a very critical component to discernment...But even more than those really truly sad examples, there’s a sadder humorlessness in America where people are apparently no longer surprised or amused by anything.
This seems like a good explanation of how you have degraded the public discourse.
This seems like a good explanation of how you have degraded the public discourse.