5 ms·

People are trying to get the law changed in the USA. It needs a show of support to help get this done. It's much harder work than writing snarky one liners on

by illumen 13y ago

People are trying to get the law changed in the USA. It needs a show of support to help get this done. It's much harder work than writing snarky one liners on some internet forum for nerds whilst you sip your expensive coffee. This is the day to ask them to stop spying, and to ask our leaders to make them stop spying.

tunap 13y ago
I mean no snark here, just clarifying my interpretation of the OP's point: The only vote any of the mass majority has is where we spend our dollars & labors. These kinds of movements make everyone involved feel good and I do not deny this campaign is for a cause the participants feel is just...I agree in principal. However, joining another mineable database feels like doing the same thing that we are talking about curtailing, with the added potential of making participants part of a larger target if anyone threatened decides to go on the offensive. Legislators only listen to the hoi polloi when reading scripts in front of cameras or they are drumming up votes for the next election. Even more pertinent, the corporate environment that exists in the Western world has morphed to influence our every waking moment and would never allow an organized collective get too big or gain too much traction before well-publicized character attacks and disinformation fill the airwaves(or the startup is 'incorporated'). The status quo owns the media(even Reddit), the 'tubez(backbone) & most western governments(lobbying is corruption, whatever the laws have been tailored to say), thus they have the loudest message and currently control all infrastructure in this global society(think 'good ol boy' network rather than conspiracy theory). The antagonists and would-be 'movements' of late are diminishing from the public consciousness faster than other entities can make noticeable ripples: Wikileaks, Occupy Wall Street, Manning, Snowden... This is how group dynamics has worked since the dawn of tribalism. Adding sentience to the equation has potential to improve the human race above limbic compulsions but so far has only worked to increase the polarization to meet the desires of the controlling interests(most powerful? influential? smartest?). I am sentient and have principals I believe in. These principals require me to make sacrifices sometimes, and that includes how I earn & spend my monies. I walked off a job in October that would have multiplied my income by a factor of 10, problem is they asked me to endanger myself, compromise my principals and break some really well-founded national safety codes, never mind the organizations' 'professed' safety policies. Instead, I'm living hand-to-mouth in a shack making a small fraction of my potential earnings and reading/commenting on HN. C'est la vie, I have made my choices and still sleep really well at night. Of the few dollars I make, I spend them just as judiciously as I earn them. There are unavoidable expenses in a modern society; housing, utilities, food. Other spending may seem crucial, but ultimately distill down to wants or conveniences and I've minimizing or eschewed those, too; ISP, TV signal, formal education. Then, of course, there's the disposable income and all that encompasses. How I earn & spend my money(times a factor of a few billion others), this is what drives the world economy and this is what I determined I can influence to create or realize meaningful change within 'my circle of influence'[1]. I must change myself first in order to change the world. I encourage anyone who reads this to contemplate doing the same. It's the only way to scale up a paradigm change, IMO. PS: I also exercise my own tools that sometimes sacrifice useability in order to maintain my privacy and spread disinformation to those who believe they value my privacy more than I do; NoScript/AdBlock/Blender/UserAgent Switcher/HTTPS Everywhere/bleachbit/firewall monitoring/On+Offline switch/disposable accounts/disposable emails/old & tired maemo phone, etc... Even after two decades I still smile when a clerk says "Thank you for shopping with us today, Mr. Revell"[2]. [1]https://www.stephencovey.com/7habits/7habits-habit1.php https://www.stephencovey.com/7habits/7habits-habit1.php [2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_O%27Clock_High https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_O%27Clock_High

by illumen 13y ago

tunap 13y ago

I mean no snark here, just clarifying my interpretation of the OP's point: The only vote any of the mass majority has is where we spend our dollars & labors. These kinds of movements make everyone involved feel good and I do not deny this campaign is for a cause the participants feel is just...I agree in principal. However, joining another mineable database feels like doing the same thing that we are talking about curtailing, with the added potential of making participants part of a larger target if anyone threatened decides to go on the offensive. Legislators only listen to the hoi polloi when reading scripts in front of cameras or they are drumming up votes for the next election. Even more pertinent, the corporate environment that exists in the Western world has morphed to influence our every waking moment and would never allow an organized collective get too big or gain too much traction before well-publicized character attacks and disinformation fill the airwaves(or the startup is 'incorporated'). The status quo owns the media(even Reddit), the 'tubez(backbone) & most western governments(lobbying is corruption, whatever the laws have been tailored to say), thus they have the loudest message and currently control all infrastructure in this global society(think 'good ol boy' network rather than conspiracy theory). The antagonists and would-be 'movements' of late are diminishing from the public consciousness faster than other entities can make noticeable ripples: Wikileaks, Occupy Wall Street, Manning, Snowden... This is how group dynamics has worked since the dawn of tribalism. Adding sentience to the equation has potential to improve the human race above limbic compulsions but so far has only worked to increase the polarization to meet the desires of the controlling interests(most powerful? influential? smartest?). I am sentient and have principals I believe in. These principals require me to make sacrifices sometimes, and that includes how I earn & spend my monies. I walked off a job in October that would have multiplied my income by a factor of 10, problem is they asked me to endanger myself, compromise my principals and break some really well-founded national safety codes, never mind the organizations' 'professed' safety policies. Instead, I'm living hand-to-mouth in a shack making a small fraction of my potential earnings and reading/commenting on HN. C'est la vie, I have made my choices and still sleep really well at night. Of the few dollars I make, I spend them just as judiciously as I earn them. There are unavoidable expenses in a modern society; housing, utilities, food. Other spending may seem crucial, but ultimately distill down to wants or conveniences and I've minimizing or eschewed those, too; ISP, TV signal, formal education. Then, of course, there's the disposable income and all that encompasses. How I earn & spend my money(times a factor of a few billion others), this is what drives the world economy and this is what I determined I can influence to create or realize meaningful change within 'my circle of influence'[1]. I must change myself first in order to change the world. I encourage anyone who reads this to contemplate doing the same. It's the only way to scale up a paradigm change, IMO. PS: I also exercise my own tools that sometimes sacrifice useability in order to maintain my privacy and spread disinformation to those who believe they value my privacy more than I do; NoScript/AdBlock/Blender/UserAgent Switcher/HTTPS Everywhere/bleachbit/firewall monitoring/On+Offline switch/disposable accounts/disposable emails/old & tired maemo phone, etc... Even after two decades I still smile when a clerk says "Thank you for shopping with us today, Mr. Revell"[2]. [1]https://www.stephencovey.com/7habits/7habits-habit1.php https://www.stephencovey.com/7habits/7habits-habit1.php [2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_O%27Clock_High https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_O%27Clock_High