A defense of anonymous comments

Personally, anonymous internet comment boards on major websites make me weep for humanity, but Matt Zoller Seitz from Salon says they serve a purpose: to display the breadth (and depths) of our culture and show those of us who like to think we're high-minded what we're up against:

It's impossible for anyone who reads unmoderated comments threads on large websites to argue that racism, sexism or anti-Semitism are no longer problems in America, or that the educational system is not as bad as people say or that deep down most people are good at heart. Unmoderated comments threads are X-rays of the reptilian brain -- indicators of the dark stuff that rattles around in the id and that would get blurted out in the home or workplace routinely if the superego didn't intervene. Mel Gibson's rants are no more ugly than sentiments that get expressed thousands of times a day all over the Internet.