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Real protest means going to your local government to fight the internet access monopolies and duopolies. It means voting with your wallet and not supporting the
by agf 9y ago
Real protest means going to your local government to fight the internet access monopolies and duopolies. It means voting with your wallet and not supporting the companies pushing for this. It means showing up to vote next time instead of staying home. It means educating your neighbors about what this will mean for all of us.
Don't pretend we've exhausted all alternatives to violence -- we haven't. We've barely done any of the things that have been successful in the past at causing change. Suggesting otherwise reduces our power, it doesn't enhance it.
Sometimes we lose ground before we make progress. But that doesn't mean we've been defeated.
- umanwizard 9y agoMost of those have nothing to do with what “protest” means. It doesn’t just generically mean “participate in democracy”.
- agf 9y agoThey're not all what people traditionally mean when they say protest, but the parent was talking about violence -- which I consider a separate category from protest. Definitionally, any act that registers disapproval or objection is protest -- so everything I listed is covered.
- vvanders 9y agoWhen I only have one option for Internet > 5mbps and my job depends on it how do I fight with my wallet? I would happily pay 3x for municipal fiber but it'll never happen. The monopoly of ISPs is what makes this whole free market argument completely unbalanced.
- isostatic 9y agoHalve you looked at gathering like minded people and starting a WISP? The problem with specialist isps is they tend to attract expert users, who are currently subsidised by the average Joe. If your ISP has a 1G port upstream for $3k a month, and 100 customers, you'd be paying $30 for 10mbit each, excluding the rest of the isp's costs, which we'll put at $30/month/customer. So they should charge $60pcm for 10mbit, but instead they sell 500 customers at $32/month, and offer up to 20mbit. This covers the upstream port, but one gives you 2mbit, but it sets the expectation that bandwidth is far cheaper than it really is. Start up a fair ISP and you'll have to win customers who see your option at $60/10mbit // $90/20mbit, or the competitor at $32/20mbit. You'll need to attract 100 customers to pay for your uplink for 3 times the price. You'll then realise those numbers don't really work for a small isp - with 100 customers at $60/month minus upstream you'll have $3k/month for running costs.
- coliveira 9y agoVoting with you wallet can only be done in a competitive market. That's why capitalists love to create oligopolies and monopolies.