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On Dec. 14, the FCC voted to end net neutrality, which ensures internet service providers give consumers an equal access to all content. It supposedly ensures ISPs do not discriminate against certain sources or users. By ending net neutrality, the FCC is pimping an underground and spectrum stable of ISPs. As a groundswell of dissent makes its voice heard, be sure of two things: Retaliation and censorship will not be tolerated.

ISPs are virtual ladies of the night legitimized by the FCC. If you say these providers are charged with acting in the public interest when providing internet access, then we demand these companies rectify unreasonable and lousy customer service. Outrageously, ISPs have stolen identities and charged the victims for it, prevented cancellation of service, retaliated against consumers for complaining about poor service, labeled consumers with vulgar sentiments and charged user fees to lobby against net neutrality. One such ISP was rated the absolute worst customer service organization. Giving them carte blanche to impede the service traffic of providers like Netflix is like giving filet mignon to a bulldog at the end of a chain. They just want more and monopoly as their end game.

The outcry will be heard as ISPs continue to build their underground cable and fiber, not to mention cell towers of Babel. Just like God confused the tongues of the foolhardy, this measure intoxicates and confuses the conversation with falsehoods and contempt for pure, unadulterated communication on multiple levels.

Before net neutrality, my Netflix service encountered hiccups and restarts on a regular basis. No one wants to pay for a service that isn’t seamless from start to finish. Subjective control over content is censorship at its highest level. Holding Netflix hostage to slow access is a mafioso approach by the ISPs who line their own pockets because they are certainly not sharing their “good” fortune with the public.

Broadband spectrum is enormous and costly to harness, to be sure, but à la carte services are possible. You know this because of pay-per-view options. The ability to pick and choose is what the consumer has wanted from the get-go. Yet our government has been slow to open space for usage and has a stranglehold on what reasonable people cannot see with the naked eye. That is why AM and FM radio were the only over-the-air offerings for so long. The space has always been there, but FCC oversight is a bureaucratic nightmare that doesn’t make forward-thinking decisions based on demand. All of this circular disservice is enough to make one vomit. So when ISPs swallow up smaller providers, they become the only game in town. They are dictators over communication allowing for censorship. I ask the FCC to not be their pimp.

Access to media by the citizenry is essential for democracy. A day without internet access is like a day with a power outage. A week without internet commerce is like a rally cry. A month without internet commerce is like a financial crises this country cannot afford. Think, America! Think! The conversation has started.

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