The fact that Precious is currently topping the Village Voice reader poll as the worst film of 2009 is clearly a major cultural bellwether with a thundering total of…6 votes. And yet hundreds have voted for the Best Picture winner so far (i.e., The Hurt Locker) and 69 have voted for Mo’Nique as Best Supporting Actress. This tells us that (a) most people feel it’s impolite to think or talk “negatively” so they refrain from doing so, and (b) once a presumed winner has been planted in people’s minds, they tend to sheep-vote their agreement.
