There is an increasingly prevalent impulse to make the internet the same. This is a very subtle maneuver, and anyone who is guilty of it (including me) would undoubtedly deny it. But I propose one slice of the Gawker Voice (which is extended well beyond Gawker by now) is the primary mover of this trope: identify the fringes and then ridicule them from the center.

I’m as guilty as anyone. It’s part of living in this time.

Before you denounce this trope, try to scan the sites you normally peruse in a day. You’ll see this happening over and over and over. (“Look at this FREAK” could be a folder name for my bookmarks.) Keep the goggles on for a while, and you’ll start thinking the internet is annoyingly culturally conservative. It doesn’t feel good.