The part about him ranting about parking tickets and his ex wife is brutal, especially when you dropped actual cash hoping for something real about online censorship. That kind of bait and switch stings more when it comes out of your own pocket instead of the school's budget. Honestly your group probably looks fine, anyone who was in that room knows the speaker was the problem, not you.

40 strangers apparently did [care]" is doing a lot of work here. The forum people who clicked on your thread were already the type to care about that topic, that's the whole reason they were there. Your 3 friends got asked out of the blue while probably doing dishes or half watching TV. That's not the same test at all. Ask those same friends about something they're actually into and see if you get "uh, depends." A crowd isn't smarter, it's just filtered for interest, so of course the answers look better.