Science & Tech Quote by Bob Dole

A sentence like this lands with the thud of a doorstop, which is exactly why it’s so revealing. “The internet is a great way to get on the net” is tautology disguised as endorsement: the structure mimics a confident tech take while quietly admitting the speaker doesn’t have the vocabulary to say anything more precise. It’s a politician’s instinct for safe applause colliding with a subject that demands specifics. The result is unintentional comedy, but also an accidental snapshot of a cultural hinge moment.

In the mid-1990s, when public life was beginning to migrate online, “the internet” still felt like a novelty item you could praise in the abstract, like “innovation” or “the future.” Dole’s phrasing captures how mainstream leaders tried to signal modernity without risking mistakes on unfamiliar terrain. The subtext isn’t “I don’t understand this” so much as “I need you to believe I’m not afraid of it.” Repetition becomes a life raft: keep the nouns stable, avoid the details that might expose you.

Politically, it also reflects how tech was being sold to voters as access itself. Getting “on the net” is framed as the benefit, not what you do once you’re there. That’s a pre-social-media worldview, when connectivity was still the headline and the consequences weren’t yet. Today the line reads like a meme, but it’s also a reminder that public authority often speaks in slogans right up until a new technology forces fluency.