edit: tried to make this a self-post on my iphone using the reddit app before i knew r/technology doesn’t allow self-posts, so instead i created this blog and posted it to r/technology. sorry! i hate having to do this as much as you guys probably hate blog self-posts.

i hope the medium doesn’t change your opinion of what i have to say too much.

Guys,

It’s obvious that none of us asked for CISPA and it was brought to

fruition by big business, and not by us, the people. I think though that

we’ve missed a few things here though, with our sudden realization of just

how close this abomination really is to being passed. Namely (and I’m

going to be honest, so be prepared): Why are we making such a bad case

for our cause right now? I mean, what exactly does the bill *do*? How

are normal people that don’t understand the real implications of CISPA

making it easier for your government to spy on you or track you or

whatever, supposed to understand what it could potentially do? What is

it exactly in this bill that we can say makes that possibility easier? I’m

not even sure I know, and I’ve been solely browsing r/technology (which I

rarely do) for the past week, just to figure it out. Why aren’t we talking

about *that?*

Don’t get me wrong, I’m just as upset as everyone but

other than calling, writing and making our voices heard to our

representatives (which I’m sure all of you have done, right?), what

are we doing that makes it easier for information on CISPA’s disgusting

parentage to spread? I hope we haven’t all forgot it’s a hell of a lot

easier to get behind something when we know exactly what the details

that support a given claim are, and that getting behind something,

includes having a detailed understanding of what’s going on, and how

that can affect the “normal guy”.

I’ve seen of course, the posts detailing Facebook’s backhanded

money-driven involvement, Mike Rodgers’ (the bill’s main proponents)

wife’s chance to benefit with large of money from corporations with

the bill’s passing, as well as the news of IBM’s involvement, and

that’s a great start, but again, it’s up to us to get to work on

figuring out exactly how we can get the reality of our cause to

spread, or before we know it, we’re not going to have very much say in

how this otherwise defenseless ship called the internet sails.

And guys, I also totally get that we did this only a year ago and it’s

hard to get motivated again about what seems like the exact same

battle. Of course it’s going to be easy for the reps and corporations

like Google, (but Google is our friend! Yay fiber!) that are supposed

to be there for their people not just for money, pass this sort of shit

legislation through. We had what felt like an ally last time, and now

we need to come to accept that this time around we’ve lost them.

They’re corporations. They’re doing what they always do. Fine. But

freedom itself is a battle, and it’s one that needs to be fought by the

people themselves to be retained for it’s own sake, not just when the

corporations are the allies in the battle. However, freedom, to be

defended, has to be fought for, and we HAVE to make sure we’re ready

to fight that fight whenever needed, until it’s made that this wonderful

creation we’ve called the Internet is OURS, the people, not theirs, the

corporations with the money to introduce unwanted policies. I don’t

know how long that will take, and I don’t think in the end it really

matters.

Freedom, if we’ve forgotten, is an intrinsic human value, and you can

see that fact exposing itself in every part of the globe today. If you think

about it, we actually have more allies with us now than ever. This issue

really is one that has the potential to cross political divides, shame everyone

who might try to oppose the true people’s will, and put a sour taste in

every American, and citizen of the world’s mouth that hear the call to

legislate something that to be quite honest, should be a given right.

But we need to learn how to tap into that value now, because we really

don’t need a history lesson to know that it’s not just the US that

will be limiting it’s people’s freedoms through legislation like this.

Expect bills like this everywhere unless we put our food down now without

hesitation or fear of being forced into action.

This is domino we do NOT want to let fall, guys.

Oh, and I wouldn’t count on one man’s word to decide the entirety our

Internet freedoms either. That’s a very bad reason to do nothing.