On Smarm
(warning, rather long essay, but well worth the time)
He makes far too many good points to summarize here. Having read some of Dave Eggers' books, I am forced to agree with Scocca that Mr. Eggers is full of shit, along with his fans. Eggers is like a postmodern attempted pseudo-Mark Twain, with the added bonus of not being at all funny. And how dare you criticize him!
All of this applies to Web 2.0, and especially to Wikipedia. What else can you call Wikipedia's culture other than a smarm factory? With all the phony focusing on "civility" and "blaming the messenger"? And how is that any different from Upworthy, or Buzzfeed, or Quora? Or the "phony-niceness feedback loops" that make up most of Facebook and Twitter?
Web 2.0 is entirely based upon a lie. And no one in the business wants to admit it, because it would cost them money. Wonderful magical money.
Smarm, on the other hand, is never a force for good. A civilization that speaks in smarm is a civilization that has lost its ability to talk about purposes at all. It is a civilization that says "Don't Be Evil," rather than making sure it does not do evil.