Interesting, I have actually come to similar, but even broader, conclusion and that was not a comfortable realization. I come from Russia so I used to be a demo

Interesting, I have actually come to similar, but even broader, conclusion and that was not a comfortable realization. I come from Russia so I used to be a democracy absolutist, but based on the recent social-media-influenced grassroots (and astroturf) movements, I've realized that the American democracy and many others only worked so well because they had so many de-facto small, arbitrary/authoritarian filters. Speech is one of them - if you were fringe 30 years ago your message and movement would simply never get thru the editors / party machines / etc.; but I think it applies broader in a sense that people were far more insulated from actual decision making. I now view a workable democracy as something that should be more like a technocracy with good feedback mechanisms, and not like something that should actually give "people" "power". Exhibit A: people on Facebook.