Sadly I see many intellectuals, including the founders of the internet, still pleading for net neutrality. Even sadder are those who still hope these will somehow tip the scales to persuade any member of the FTC to switch their vote and keep the internet neutral.
This fight is no longer about morality, intellect, or what is best for America. Those type of arguments now fall on deaf ears. This is only about power, of being able to accomplish something when no one can stop you, and us, not recognizing that in time, has destroyed the future of the internet…
Our only hope now. We need 5 million in the streets of DC tomorrow… I’m talking to you now. Don’t work. Call in sick. Drive to DC and meet on the mall looking for crowds of others there like you, who feel compelled to do something, anything requiring action, to prevent the loss of net neutrality. Bring a sign.
1 million is not enough. Nor is 2, 3, or 4…It will take 5 million to scare them so much they keep it as is: the absolute drying up and shutting down of regular DC’s activity driving home the point, that net neutrality needs to be protected.
If you scoffed at those figures, you unfortunately are a big part of the problem. And we have a gigantic problem with personal responsibility.
You can no longer argue with these who will strip away net neutrality. For one, they don’t have to listen to you; they have the votes already. Nothing will change… Nothing, really, unless you can scare everyone involved into keeping it.
5 million people is very scary, especially if they are after you and you have only a handful of people protecting you. America unfortunately is so bogged down that each of us rolls over and lets these atrocities happen. Argentina wouldn’t… They’d be in the streets, same with Brazil, any South American, African, or Southwest Asian nation. But Americans, yawn, just roll over.
We didn’t always roll over. We once fought the strongest nation in the world for our Independence, and it was not a foregone conclusion that we’d win. But we did and are here now, about to hand over democracy’s lifeline, (how we get information) to our future enemy.
“Here” we say on Thursday, “control everything we see and think….” Different viewpoints that don’t “hail” the current commander in chief…. “Ahem, well,they never existed….”
This is nothing new for a dictatorship third-world nation. Their citizens know this scenario well. Which may be why perhaps they immediately take to the streets at any possibility occurs where there may be an opportunity to further their freedom’s gain.
Letting someone else protest for you, as we do here in America, is bogus. If you’ve ever been to DC you’ve seen there are thousands of protests of handfuls of people all the time… Most of us ignore them. They’re pathetic. Certainly anyone with power ignores them, and only those seeking more power and in need of supporters to swell their ranks, do occasionally make a cursory visit.
Power. When one side uses power against you, the only weapon you have is to power back. War is the last resort but far to often it has graced the annuals of mankind’s history. But when an army or a raiding party is on your doorstep, moral and intellectual arguments will not make them see your way. They want what you have and the only way they can get it, is to take it over your dead body….
And it is very effective. After you are dead, you really don’t want your things anymore.
We don’t have to kill and maim. But we do have to show up in very large numbers… Everyone, on the mall in DC. Wed. Around 2:00 pm….
No speakers. No organization. Nothing… Just people mad as hell who want to do something, anything to keep America democratized and our internet neutral.
If we can’t muster 5 million out the 325 million of us, then obviously, we really don’t care about net neutrality or America that much… and they are certainly right to take it away from us.
We could do this very easily. Bezo’s, Google, could simply banner: be on the mall at 2 on Wednesday to save net neutrality. That is how easy it is… So easy, if…. individual courage was not in such short supply.
Anyways, hope to see you there, (even if it is only one person.) <3