4 ms·

I sympathize with the sentiment, but I think that saying "what's even more important is that you start paying attention and demand better from your government"

I sympathize with the sentiment, but I think that saying "what's even more important is that you start paying attention and demand better from your government" is a little antagonistic and will raise conspiracy nut bells. Despite it being absolutely true. And even if they do pay attention most people are defeatist on politics changing. I am no patio11, but they should be stressing SOPA/PIPA as an anti-jobs bills that will destroy Silicon Valley and won't even protect Hollywood jobs. Perhaps employ the fear of China or terrorism to make it seem important too. And most of all, Silicon Valley should be sending highly paid lobbyists too to make laws in their interests. Maybe I'm overly cynical, but relying on public engagement in the long-term is folly.

rhino42 15y ago
But a intermediate stance, such as "you should use more than just mass media to learn your issues: consider these five websites" could be an effective message (if people actually browsed those websites / got informed)
- toyg 15y ago
  I think that's already happened, actually. Mainstream news channel didn't cover SOPA/PIPA until very late; the press didn't know what they were about, and when they did they just kept mum out of self-interest. Nevertheless, a very large mass of people noticed, enough to make extremely powerful congressmen like Smith sweat cold -- that's a very significant number of people who clearly rely on "alternative" online sources for their news and entertainment right now. Are they majority? The next few months (and votes) will tell us. 15 years ago, the DMCA passed with no real opposition. Now, this bill could actually be defeated. The shift might have already happened, and if not, it's really, really close. One day we'll look back trying to find a turning point (the rise of Google? Wikipedia? Facebook?), but I bet historians will set it before 2012.

rhino42 15y ago

But a intermediate stance, such as "you should use more than just mass media to learn your issues: consider these five websites" could be an effective message (if people actually browsed those websites / got informed)

toyg 15y ago
I think that's already happened, actually. Mainstream news channel didn't cover SOPA/PIPA until very late; the press didn't know what they were about, and when they did they just kept mum out of self-interest. Nevertheless, a very large mass of people noticed, enough to make extremely powerful congressmen like Smith sweat cold -- that's a very significant number of people who clearly rely on "alternative" online sources for their news and entertainment right now. Are they majority? The next few months (and votes) will tell us. 15 years ago, the DMCA passed with no real opposition. Now, this bill could actually be defeated. The shift might have already happened, and if not, it's really, really close. One day we'll look back trying to find a turning point (the rise of Google? Wikipedia? Facebook?), but I bet historians will set it before 2012.