Ship-Nakorablik and grimaces of Internet democracy

Rendering of the largest icebreaker of the Royal Navy of Great Britain, known in the Internet as Ship-Nakorablik

The famous British democracy has experienced many difficult moments in its history: the collapse of the British Empire, the struggle for the independence of Ireland and Scotland. But she had never before encountered such a problem as Ship-Nakorablik.

This research ship worth $ 300 million will be the largest icebreaker of the Royal Navy of Great Britain. He drew general attention to himself this week, when the authorities officially refused to recognize the results of an internet vote on choosing a name for the ship. As a result of the vote, more than 124,000 citizens said that the icebreaker should be called Boaty McBoatface (which can be translated as "Ship-Nakorablik"). This option received three times more votes than the closest competitor.

Citizens expressed their opinions clearly and overwhelmingly. Moreover, with such a variant of the name of the ship will agree to any five year old kid.
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Nevertheless, the Minister of Science of Great Britain remained unhappy: “The new royal scientific ship will explore the icy waters on the planet to study the problems that affect the lives of hundreds of millions of people, including global warming, melting of polar ice and rising sea levels said the minister, addressing his message to all who voted for the cartoon version of the name. “That's why we want to choose a name that will last longer than the life of news on social networks, and reflect the serious essence of the science that we do.”

One commentator pointedly remarked that it was strange to hear such high-sounding speeches from officials who in the past gave ships the name " Buttercup " and " May Bug ". But in something the minister can be understood. Internet voting has clearly turned into a farce, people reacted to it irresponsibly.

Formally, the government had the right to ignore the results of the vote, it warned in advance that Internet vooloev is a recommendation.

"At the same time, the position of the government is like a cruel bait with deception," writes The Atlantic . “Here is the case when the elites eagerly seek the opinion of ordinary people, but then turn away in horror when they learn the truth.”

What should the elite do this time? Take the idiotic choice of the electorate? Or do not care about the principles of democracy and choose a normal name for the ship? For example, the newspaper The Times believes that the principles of democracy can not be abandoned. The Guardian journalists have the same opinion: the authorities proudly gave every citizen the right to speak, put people's opinion as the highest value - and now they are going to give a damn about this opinion right before the eyes of the people. “Soon, people will realize that resistance is useless, and the power of the state is absolute,” warns The Guardian .

“Our leaders, of course, love democracy — as long as people's choice is not different from what they expect,” wrote journalist Ross Clark on his blog back in March, when the results of the vote became obvious.

Voting for the name of a scientific ship is not the first example when wide uneducated masses of the population make a non-optimal choice in a nationwide vote. There are a lot of such examples, for example, in politics, where completely inadequate populists like Zhirinovsky or Donald Trump get votes. In this case, people vote out of them for about the same reasons as the Ship-Nakorablik was chosen.

Such a result is an extra trump card for elitist supporters who deny equal right to vote to citizens. Like, more educated citizens should get a voice with more weight than not educated. Or those who pay more taxes should have a greater influence on choice than parasites. There is even a proposal to issue a bottle of vodka in an election to everyone who wants to not take part in the election — thus, the most irresponsible part of the population is automatically excluded from the vote.

But so far all these proposals remain at the level of speculation. In democratic countries, the rule “one person - one vote” still applies. This is something that the online troll communities like 4chan and Reddit are using with pleasure, which have already thwarted many votes. Here are some examples .

In 2011, 24-year-old Roland Byuns won a vote in the Next model competition.



In 2012, a vote was taken on the venue for the Taylor Swift charity concert. After the news was posted on 4chan and Reddit, the Boston school for mentally retarded and hearing impaired children won the poll.



The producers of Mountain Dew asked to choose a name for a new carbonated drink, but soon they had to close the vote: the most popular options at that time were “Hitler did everything right” and “Fountain Granny”.



In 1998, Hank the Angry Drunken Dwarf overtook Leonardo DiCaprio in a vote of People magazine for the most beautiful man in the world . And this is the year of the Titanic.



In 2009, co-founder of Valve, Gabe Newell, nearly won a model contest by Victoria's Secret, which produces erotic underwear. He finished second .