12 ms·

> Anyone who thinks that these bodies ever change their mind due to the public comment periods is gullible. It happened less than 2 years ago, on the topic of

by mcherm 9y ago

> Anyone who thinks that these bodies ever change their mind due to the public comment periods is gullible. It happened less than 2 years ago, on the topic of Net Neutrality. Remember? Tom Wheeler who was a known opponent of Net Neutrality? And the amazing flood of comments CHANGED HIS MIND? Quit spouting off about how it's hopeless to change anything, and instead GO START REACHING OUT TO YOUR GOVERNMENT. (Your suggestion of calling congresspeople is a good one.)

TheAdamAndChe 9y ago
And yet here we are facing the same problem again, merely two years later. During that two year timespan, they tried and tried to get legislation through that would kill net neutrality. They just kept pushing until our political will broke down. It should be fairly obvious that democracy has failed. The government does not represent the people, it represents the corporations and lobbyists.
- deadbunny 9y ago
  Isn't this the exact reason Americans give for having their right to bear arms? Why is there not an armed revolution against the clearly corrupt government?
  - unityByFreedom 9y ago
    Because that's ridiculous and exactly what foreign adversaries would love to see as a result of the currently tense political environment. Plus, violent protesters almost never come out looking good. Any violence coming from the left would just entrench the powers of the right. There are a few exceptions, like the revolutionary war. But, that's a time when American people were separated by great distance from its governing body. Revolution doesn't work when you're connected by land. Some foreign power would just take advantage of our weakness, and all Americans would lose. We need to find a way to work together.
  - cookiecaper 9y ago
    People usually need to anticipate a lot of hardship/uncertainty before they're willing to get into a war. De-prioritizing Netflix traffic doesn't really fit the bill. These issues are much more sophisticated than many people appreciate. Democrat and Republican, all FCC commissioners have a telecom industry background, which causes everyone to posit that they have a bias toward their former employers. But how can you be expected to regulate the telecom industry if you have no idea how it works? How do you establish that someone knows what they're doing if they don't have an industry background? There are a lot of complexities here. That's why our system of checks and balances is so important; it puts clear constraints on the powers of each segment, making it so no segment can get too much control. FCC is an executive-branch enforcement body; it can only do what Congress allows it to do. Congress is at the heart of the governmental ineffectualness in the US. Fixing Congress would take care of most of our other problems.
dragonwriter 9y ago
> Tom Wheeler who was a known opponent of Net Neutrality? Tom Wheeler was a supporter of net neutrality from his first day on the commission. The FCC majority he led didn't initially see common carrier classification as the best route to enforce neutrality after the 2010 Open Internet Order was struck down, and proposed a revised Order which sought to do that without reclassification, and on that point the comments changed his mind. But that's different than being opponent to neutrality regulations like Pai has been (and Pai was on the committee, and opposed to both the non-reclassifying and reclassifying version of the Open Internet Order, at the time of the last go around; if comments were going to change his mind, they already would have.)
- unityByFreedom 9y ago
  Ehh, he supported internet fast lanes. Not so different in my opinion. Anyway the GP's point is that comments changed his mind, not that Wheeler and Pai thought exactly alike.
  - dragonwriter 9y ago
    > Ehh, he supported internet fast lanes. No, he didn't.
    - unityByFreedom 9y ago
      Yes, he did > "F.C.C., in a Shift, Backs Fast Lanes for Web Traffic " ... The proposed rules, drafted by Mr. Wheeler and his staff ... [1] [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/24/technology/fcc-new-net-neutrality-rules.html https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/24/technology/fcc-new-net-ne...
      - vorotato 9y ago
        Yeah the support for gutting net neutrality has been bipartisan by politicians, and the opposition has been bipartisan by the people. Anyone who supports gutting net neutrality is either a sucker or bought.

by mcherm 9y ago

TheAdamAndChe 9y ago

And yet here we are facing the same problem again, merely two years later. During that two year timespan, they tried and tried to get legislation through that would kill net neutrality. They just kept pushing until our political will broke down. It should be fairly obvious that democracy has failed. The government does not represent the people, it represents the corporations and lobbyists.

deadbunny 9y ago
Isn't this the exact reason Americans give for having their right to bear arms? Why is there not an armed revolution against the clearly corrupt government?
- unityByFreedom 9y ago
  Because that's ridiculous and exactly what foreign adversaries would love to see as a result of the currently tense political environment. Plus, violent protesters almost never come out looking good. Any violence coming from the left would just entrench the powers of the right. There are a few exceptions, like the revolutionary war. But, that's a time when American people were separated by great distance from its governing body. Revolution doesn't work when you're connected by land. Some foreign power would just take advantage of our weakness, and all Americans would lose. We need to find a way to work together.
- cookiecaper 9y ago
  People usually need to anticipate a lot of hardship/uncertainty before they're willing to get into a war. De-prioritizing Netflix traffic doesn't really fit the bill. These issues are much more sophisticated than many people appreciate. Democrat and Republican, all FCC commissioners have a telecom industry background, which causes everyone to posit that they have a bias toward their former employers. But how can you be expected to regulate the telecom industry if you have no idea how it works? How do you establish that someone knows what they're doing if they don't have an industry background? There are a lot of complexities here. That's why our system of checks and balances is so important; it puts clear constraints on the powers of each segment, making it so no segment can get too much control. FCC is an executive-branch enforcement body; it can only do what Congress allows it to do. Congress is at the heart of the governmental ineffectualness in the US. Fixing Congress would take care of most of our other problems.

dragonwriter 9y ago

> Tom Wheeler who was a known opponent of Net Neutrality? Tom Wheeler was a supporter of net neutrality from his first day on the commission. The FCC majority he led didn't initially see common carrier classification as the best route to enforce neutrality after the 2010 Open Internet Order was struck down, and proposed a revised Order which sought to do that without reclassification, and on that point the comments changed his mind. But that's different than being opponent to neutrality regulations like Pai has been (and Pai was on the committee, and opposed to both the non-reclassifying and reclassifying version of the Open Internet Order, at the time of the last go around; if comments were going to change his mind, they already would have.)

unityByFreedom 9y ago
Ehh, he supported internet fast lanes. Not so different in my opinion. Anyway the GP's point is that comments changed his mind, not that Wheeler and Pai thought exactly alike.
- dragonwriter 9y ago
  > Ehh, he supported internet fast lanes. No, he didn't.
  - unityByFreedom 9y ago
    Yes, he did > "F.C.C., in a Shift, Backs Fast Lanes for Web Traffic " ... The proposed rules, drafted by Mr. Wheeler and his staff ... [1] [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/24/technology/fcc-new-net-neutrality-rules.html https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/24/technology/fcc-new-net-ne...
    - vorotato 9y ago
      Yeah the support for gutting net neutrality has been bipartisan by politicians, and the opposition has been bipartisan by the people. Anyone who supports gutting net neutrality is either a sucker or bought.