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It's a good question. As tech folks, we're first in line to see this wonderful dream we have crumble, both from government and private actions. (I'm looking at

It's a good question. As tech folks, we're first in line to see this wonderful dream we have crumble, both from government and private actions. (I'm looking at you, Facebook) In my opinion the only hope we have is to eliminate anything looking like a Democratic or Republican talking point from our language. We live in an age of people forming up into these two groups and yelling at the other one. If we play that game, then it's much more profitable for the politicians to keep the debate alive than settle it. Our model should be the temprance movement which ended up outlawing alcohol in the early 1900s. They didn't care which political party you were in, as long as you voted the same way on a very simple proposition: should alcohol be banned or not. (Making it simple prevented politicians from playing weasel-word games) They were effective. Politicians feared them. I don't see this happening with tech issues, sadly. Instead, I see the big tech players setting up lobbying firms and the troops all rallying around one party or the other. That's a strategy for a long, losing battle, not a winning one.

pjc50 9y ago
I don't think it can be simplified enough for that approach to work. There's also limited room for single issue votes - you can't be a single issue voter on multiple issues! And a big part of American politics is people being single issue voters on guns or abortion regardless of how corrupt the candidate is otherwise (see Alabama). Maciej ("idlewords" on HN) has started https://techsolidarity.org/ https://techsolidarity.org/ as one possible solution.
- DanielBMarkham 9y ago
  I'm not a single-issue guy myself, but the question was something along the lines of "How can we make this happen?" and the answer is "focus". Otherwise you're just going to be another special interest group in a vast sea of special interest groups. The American political system has an entire machine dedicated to folks like that. I don't see that as being worthwhile. But admittedly, I'm just random-internet-dude. If somebody can start something I think has a chance, I'm happy to help out in any way I can. It's an important (critical) issue.
spaced-out 9y ago
>In my opinion the only hope we have is to eliminate anything looking like a Democratic or Republican talking point from our language. We live in an age of people forming up into these two groups and yelling at the other one. If we play that game, then it's much more profitable for the politicians to keep the debate alive than settle it. I disagree fundamentally with this. Political parties are trying to win elections, and they decide what they're going to fight for based on what gets them votes. If supporting NN doesn't get Democrats votes, they're not going to fight for it as hard, or maybe just drop the issue. Likewise, if Republicans can keep calling NN "Obamacare for the internet" and winning, then they'll see no reason to stop.

pjc50 9y ago

I don't think it can be simplified enough for that approach to work. There's also limited room for single issue votes - you can't be a single issue voter on multiple issues! And a big part of American politics is people being single issue voters on guns or abortion regardless of how corrupt the candidate is otherwise (see Alabama). Maciej ("idlewords" on HN) has started https://techsolidarity.org/ https://techsolidarity.org/ as one possible solution.

DanielBMarkham 9y ago
I'm not a single-issue guy myself, but the question was something along the lines of "How can we make this happen?" and the answer is "focus". Otherwise you're just going to be another special interest group in a vast sea of special interest groups. The American political system has an entire machine dedicated to folks like that. I don't see that as being worthwhile. But admittedly, I'm just random-internet-dude. If somebody can start something I think has a chance, I'm happy to help out in any way I can. It's an important (critical) issue.

spaced-out 9y ago

>In my opinion the only hope we have is to eliminate anything looking like a Democratic or Republican talking point from our language. We live in an age of people forming up into these two groups and yelling at the other one. If we play that game, then it's much more profitable for the politicians to keep the debate alive than settle it. I disagree fundamentally with this. Political parties are trying to win elections, and they decide what they're going to fight for based on what gets them votes. If supporting NN doesn't get Democrats votes, they're not going to fight for it as hard, or maybe just drop the issue. Likewise, if Republicans can keep calling NN "Obamacare for the internet" and winning, then they'll see no reason to stop.