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I'll all for punishing politicians that do stupid things. I believe the best punishment is booting them out during their primaries, but let's not split hairs.

I'll all for punishing politicians that do stupid things. I believe the best punishment is booting them out during their primaries, but let's not split hairs. And I'm hell on wheels about personal freedoms and liberty. We live in a terrible security state. We need to stand up and take action. But at times I start feeling like I'm having my chain yanked -- that in my obedience to and love of freedom, other people use my passion as a way to manipulate me. BoingBoing is stepping over the line between simply trying to inform me and actively trying to manipulate me. Perhaps they're doing that for good reasons instead of ratings. I don't mean to smear them in any way. I just think you can tell me Congressman X is working on Bill Y without making it sound like Nazis building death camps in downtown Washington, DC. Sounds like a modern witch hunt. Jiminy Cricket, folks, politicians come up with ideas for bills all of the time. It's a healthy thing to have a Congress with all kinds of diverse personalities and opinions proposing all kinds of things. We don't need to start chasing them down the street with torches and pitchforks. If he starts getting co-signers? If the bill looks likely to move out of committee? Much different story. It's starting to feel more like "Lamar Smith is the devil! Let's all attack!" and less like "A bill was introduced that could dramatically change internet freedoms...." I don't like that. People do things I disagree with all of the time. That does not make them my enemy. We are not all 15-year-olds and having to determine which person is part of the cool group or not. We do not have to make people into our enemies who just have a different opinion than we do, even if that opinion is heinous. Not only is most of this material lifted, it doesn't cross my personal threshold as being important. Certainly not as important as the cell phone carriers saying they're getting over a million requests from law enforcement for tracking/surveillance data (A follow-up on that story would have been great). There's a great deal of hand-waving and vitriol here and very little reporting or providing unique value. Simply, it's lazy and manipulative. This is the second time this week a BoingBoing story has hit the front of HN and it's been, well, sub-optimal. Here's hoping their luck changes. ADD: And, if other commenters here are to believed, the freaking story isn't even accurate. Geesh.

tthomas48 14y ago
Lamar Smith is pretty horrible on all fronts (and my new congressman thanks to some gerrymandering that looks like it was done on a Spirograph). But SOPA is probably not one of his greatest sins.
crisnoble 14y ago
I guess you started feeling manipulated with this line: >Lamar Smith, the powerful committee chairman and corporatist archvillain who tried to ram through SOPA last year is now bent on reviving his slain monster and unleash it upon the earth. Keep in mind that Cory is a novelist after all.
- AceJohnny2 14y ago
  I've been reading BoingBoing for years, and i really appreciate the battles Cory Doctorow fights... but I'm not fond of his hyperbolic reporting style, which diminishes his credibility. I suppose he considers to be preaching to the choir and is trying to whip us up into action.
tibbon 14y ago
My question is why is he working on a bill like this, instead of more productive/good things.
- kaonashi 14y ago
  Because he's not going to get re-elected doing those things. Or put another way, politicians who would do more productive things are at such a disadvantage they don't get elected.
bicknergseng 14y ago
Agreed, but how do we slow the march of this kind of sensationalism and manipulation? Even in highly educated communities such as HN we're still suckers for pitchforks, even though we should know better. It's such an eye for an eye landscape...
- wtvanhest 14y ago
  As embarrassing as it is to state, I was glancing around my apartment for my pitchfork prior to heading to the comments. As I was clicking through I was thinking... Who is this Lamar character, and how can we stop him??? === I don't think there is a way to stop this type of manipulation. It is everywhere now and unless someone figures out a new formula, it is pointless. Trying to read comments other places than HN is a joke, filled with bipartisan opinions stated as facts. It really is tough to read anything now.
  - bicknergseng 14y ago
    Well the real kicker is that this Lamar character is actually an idiot and really does need to be stopped... but its so disappointing that hyperbole has become the only way to get anything done. Makes me feel like I'm in a 3rd grade class president election, with promises of free soda and nap time.
thebigshane 14y ago
But... this is the standard method of squashing bills. This is politics and the only way to get things done is to have the money or mindless drones parroting your soundbites. Lamar Smith has the money and tech journalists have mindless followers. They have to rally the troops with sensational oversimplifications ("Lamar Smith is the devil! Let's all attack", "SOPA will kill facebook and youtube", "SOPA will kill the internet", "SOPA will save/create US jobs"). This is absolutely how SOPA was defeated last time and seems a decent strategy moving forward. It may not (just) be sensationalism for ratings/ad-clicks sake. It may be the necessary battle-cry at the start of a potentially nasty battle. I don't want to defend Lamar Smith or BoingBoing. I hate SOPA, sensationalism and politics. But I also get tired of people constantly surprised how ugly and dirty politics is. Some young folks don't know yet but that doesn't make this very noteworthy.
ramblerman 14y ago
Your points are valid, but imo Lamar Smith really does represent the worst of our electorate (To Me). Lamar Smith is the same guy who killed the "Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2011", Proposed by Barney Frank and Ron Paul. It would have pushed legislation from the federal to the state level. He is a staunch anti abortion activist, and has signed multiple bills to make abortion as difficult as possible, if not impossible. Even signing a bill to prevent a mother from taking her unborn over state lines to perform an abortion. He has been the main driver behind SOPA from the start. If you ever want to know my political opinion on something, just check Lamar Smiths' position and I'll be on the other end of it ;)

tthomas48 14y ago

Lamar Smith is pretty horrible on all fronts (and my new congressman thanks to some gerrymandering that looks like it was done on a Spirograph). But SOPA is probably not one of his greatest sins.

crisnoble 14y ago

I guess you started feeling manipulated with this line: >Lamar Smith, the powerful committee chairman and corporatist archvillain who tried to ram through SOPA last year is now bent on reviving his slain monster and unleash it upon the earth. Keep in mind that Cory is a novelist after all.

AceJohnny2 14y ago
I've been reading BoingBoing for years, and i really appreciate the battles Cory Doctorow fights... but I'm not fond of his hyperbolic reporting style, which diminishes his credibility. I suppose he considers to be preaching to the choir and is trying to whip us up into action.

tibbon 14y ago

My question is why is he working on a bill like this, instead of more productive/good things.

kaonashi 14y ago
Because he's not going to get re-elected doing those things. Or put another way, politicians who would do more productive things are at such a disadvantage they don't get elected.

bicknergseng 14y ago

Agreed, but how do we slow the march of this kind of sensationalism and manipulation? Even in highly educated communities such as HN we're still suckers for pitchforks, even though we should know better. It's such an eye for an eye landscape...

wtvanhest 14y ago
As embarrassing as it is to state, I was glancing around my apartment for my pitchfork prior to heading to the comments. As I was clicking through I was thinking... Who is this Lamar character, and how can we stop him??? === I don't think there is a way to stop this type of manipulation. It is everywhere now and unless someone figures out a new formula, it is pointless. Trying to read comments other places than HN is a joke, filled with bipartisan opinions stated as facts. It really is tough to read anything now.
- bicknergseng 14y ago
  Well the real kicker is that this Lamar character is actually an idiot and really does need to be stopped... but its so disappointing that hyperbole has become the only way to get anything done. Makes me feel like I'm in a 3rd grade class president election, with promises of free soda and nap time.

thebigshane 14y ago

But... this is the standard method of squashing bills. This is politics and the only way to get things done is to have the money or mindless drones parroting your soundbites. Lamar Smith has the money and tech journalists have mindless followers. They have to rally the troops with sensational oversimplifications ("Lamar Smith is the devil! Let's all attack", "SOPA will kill facebook and youtube", "SOPA will kill the internet", "SOPA will save/create US jobs"). This is absolutely how SOPA was defeated last time and seems a decent strategy moving forward. It may not (just) be sensationalism for ratings/ad-clicks sake. It may be the necessary battle-cry at the start of a potentially nasty battle. I don't want to defend Lamar Smith or BoingBoing. I hate SOPA, sensationalism and politics. But I also get tired of people constantly surprised how ugly and dirty politics is. Some young folks don't know yet but that doesn't make this very noteworthy.

ramblerman 14y ago

Your points are valid, but imo Lamar Smith really does represent the worst of our electorate (To Me). Lamar Smith is the same guy who killed the "Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2011", Proposed by Barney Frank and Ron Paul. It would have pushed legislation from the federal to the state level. He is a staunch anti abortion activist, and has signed multiple bills to make abortion as difficult as possible, if not impossible. Even signing a bill to prevent a mother from taking her unborn over state lines to perform an abortion. He has been the main driver behind SOPA from the start. If you ever want to know my political opinion on something, just check Lamar Smiths' position and I'll be on the other end of it ;)