Fear got the best of you and in your panic, you turned to the now President in command Barack Obama. He promised you order. He promised you peace. And all he demanded in return was your silent, obedient consent.
Let me recap it really quickly for you: SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) is a bill that has been introduced to congress that would allow the United States government to block websites that contain pirated material (English websites only) without due process. So, basically, it wants to be China...and most of the Middle East...and South Africa. Restriction of information is immoral. Did you know that it wasn't until very recently that South African students new slavery ever even existed in the United States? The government restricted that subject in education, internet, and other information sources for many, many years so citizens wouldn't form contrary opinions about the legitimacy of apartheid.
I get the need for anti-piracy. I do. Our consumption of digital media from illegal sources has cost companies like major movie studios millions of dollars. That's not really right, is it? Does that stop me? No.
While I see the need to curtail online piracy I DO NOT see the need to block websites without due process (can we all say HELLO again to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012...you know, the one that detains terrorist suspects indefinitely without trial or proof). SOPA is yet another example of the "big brother" direction our government is moving in...and with increasing velocity.
My biggest problem, though, is that, to a degree, we have no one to blame but ourselves. America has become so compliant since 9/11. It's like we all felt so threatened that we turned in to submissive housewives, letting our US Government husband make decisions without us and too afraid that, if we spoke up, we'd get beaten. It's the same issue I have with our government inserting themselves into the parenting of children in this country...and we're letting them. We are just sitting back and letting the government do everything for us...and everyone seems to be too disenfranchised to pay attention or stand up and say no.
What I don't think a lot of people realize is how widespread SOPA will be. Obviously it will block websites like Demonoid, TV-Links, Scribd, etc. But what about Craigslist? P2P sales on Craigslist have drastically reduced the profit for a lot of major suppliers of goods and services. Under SOPA, this counts as piracy.What about Twitter, where hundreds of thousands of posts in the US link to where you can find TV shows and movies? Facebook for Pete's sake?!?! I see pirated uploading of videos and music all the time on Facebook. What about Wikipedia and Wikileaks? Certainly leaked information qualifies as "pirated." Did you know there's a provision in the bill that allows major corporations a say in what's blocked and what isn't? That sounds like back door deal lobbyist bullshit that's 10 times worse than it is now.
I don't know kids. Between this, NDAA2012, an economy that's slowly collapsing like a flan in cupboard, and an ever increasing national deficit (not to mention the backdoor trade deals going on between Russia and China and a new trade currency that's NOT the US dollar) I'm thinkin' it's getting close to "jump off the bandwagon" time.
Anyone wanna go in on being expats? A cute little villa in France would be pretty sweet.
We Are Anonymous
We Are Legion
We Do Not Forgive
We Do Not Forget
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