It was always going to end this way. The truth about Kate Middleton’s absence is far less funny, whimsical, or salacious than the endless memes and conspiracy theories suggested. In a video recorded and broadcast by the BBC, the princess says she has cancer, and that she had retreated from the public eye to deal with her condition while attempting to shield her children from the spotlight. Instead, she had to contend with the internet giggling about whether she’d had a Brazilian butt lift. My colleague Helen Lewis summed it up succinctly this afternoon: “I Hope You All Feel Terrible Now.” What is there to learn from such a sad situation? The internet is made up of people, yet its architecture abstracts this basic truth. As I wrote a few weeks ago, at the center of this months-long story was essentially “a sea of people having fun online because it is unclear whether a famous person is well or not.” Underneath the memes was always something a little bit gross and indefensible. Read: Just asking …