In Defense of Mediocrity

Despite the fact that I post my work on the ACE dental forum, I am not one of the 'darlings' of the forum because I expect that we are all striving for excellence when that is, in reality, not true.
I was sent the work of another dentist from a lab by mistake. I photographed the work and posted it on the ACE forum as an example of less than ideal dentistry that would most likely fail in the very near future.
Many of the dentists on the forum supported the shoddy dentistry which most certainly surprised me. Why would other dentists come to the defense of a colleague that produces mediocre dentistry? In fact, one of my colleagues sent me a private email in which he said:

"Yeah, it feels real good to be able to dump on another colleague and make yourself feel oh so superior."

Can it really be true that folks are rising up in defense of mediocrity rather than strongly suggesting that the dentist learn the fundamentals of dentistry?

I just can't believe it. Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln must be rolling over in their graves.