I was recently catching up on a whole bunch of episodes of the Colbert Report the other day not knowing — to my great surprise — that he recently interviewed social media troll Andrew Keen. For those who are not social media nerds (such as myself), Andrew “Blogging Is Destroying Life As We Know It, And if I Have To Tell You You’re Clearly Too Stupid To Realize It” Keen recently published a book called “Cult of the Amateur”, where he asserts the social media — such as blogs — are destroying Culture.
Cleverer minds than mine have deconstructed this towering ode to idiocy, but suffice it to say one of the central arguments is that professional “gatekeepers” of educated opinion, whether they be professional critics or journalists, is being eroded by the “democratizing” effects of the Internet.
I suppose that if it was merely his *opinion*, that would be one thing; to come off as a complete and royal Douchebag is quite another. I invite you to have a look — and laugh — at his interview with Stephen Colbert on the Colbert Report, where his attempt at deadpanning his right to be elitest are neither clever nor witty, and his attempts at deflecting his own observations taken to an absurd extreme (something to be expected on the Colbert Report) appear, for a lack of a better word, *lame*, although he’s trying to appear patronizing.
Andrew Keen is a magnificent troll, but on live TV anyway, he’s an even better douchebag.
August 29th, 2007 at 11:41 pm | Permalink
Have you seen this new plugin?
http://www.younggogetter.com/2007/08/28/douche-bag-our-first-official-wordpress-plugin/
August 30th, 2007 at 12:28 am | Permalink
Very difficult to argue with the assessment, Tony! I was able to ask Keen a question thanks via Mathew Ingram’s interview of a month or two back, and my takeaway is that Keen full well *knows* he’s being a douchebag and is nonetheless content to revel in the very rampant douchebaggery.
Maybe Keen is the Ann Coulter of the blogosphere? Or is that opening up a can of an entirely different sort?
August 30th, 2007 at 12:45 am | Permalink
Webomatica — In fact, I have. ;)
August 30th, 2007 at 12:47 am | Permalink
Eric — I like that word “douchebaggery” … I think I’ll be using that more often. As for the “Ann Coulter of the blogosphere”? Yeah, I’ll buy that as well, and bring the can opener if you want. ;)
August 30th, 2007 at 11:02 am | Permalink
I saw this clip recently too and, in response to your post title, I’d like to say: yes. Yes he is.
Man, Ann Coulter for the blogosphere is right. I’ve yet to read the book, but something tells me I’d get too annoyed to finish it.
The weird thing is, I actually think democracy and elitism go hand-in-hand. But Keen is so unnecessarily antagonistic and pompous that it makes it impossible to even listen to what he’s saying.
August 30th, 2007 at 12:20 pm | Permalink
When it comes to Andrew Keen, one thing’s for sure: he’s found his niche as an online naysayer, and he’s going to ride it hard and fast so he can sell more books.
It’s just a marketing/positioning game so he can differentiate himself. The fact his thesis is inane and full of holes is besides the point.
It was good to see Colbert effectively “interview” him!
August 30th, 2007 at 1:00 pm | Permalink
Mark,
Oh — I *know* this dog and pony show is nothing more than marketing maneuvering to sell his books and build the ‘contrarian’ brand of Andrew Keen.
That doesn’t mean he’s not a Royal Douchebag though. :)
August 30th, 2007 at 1:03 pm | Permalink
Nav,
No question that his tone and patronizing arrogance get in the way of his message. Hence, I think *royal* douchebag is a more appropros appelation, don’t you think? :)
August 30th, 2007 at 2:51 pm | Permalink
kudos on the douchebag moniker….go ahead and utilize the phrase more often; you’ll find its quite liberating.
Don’t over abuse it though…make sure to substitute asshat and in rare cases…when you have to, and its some one of the fairer gender; c*nt.
September 3rd, 2007 at 4:05 am | Permalink
Tony
Keen does suck — no other way to put it.
I saw him in a debate with Robert Scoble and Craig Newmark one time — it was hilarious.
Also — you might want to check this site out. It was created by an alumni from the Assignment Zero project I finished not too long ago. The site “Cult of Rebuttal” is dedicated to finding faults in Keen’s book via amateurs on the internet.
Best
March 2nd, 2008 at 12:25 pm | Permalink
[…] an aside, for the love of Pete, can someone make sure that Andrew Keen never hears of JuicyCampus?) //OBSTART:do_NOT_remove_this_comment var […]