Author here. Had to register a new account, as I lost the password to my original account a while ago. Addressing a few of the points made in the comments here

Author here. Had to register a new account, as I lost the password to my original account a while ago. Addressing a few of the points made in the comments here... > You're hypocritical because you just wasted time writing that post This is false. That post took approximately 30-45 minutes to write, and this comment will take me some 15 minutes to write. That's an hour at most. I work on many things related to activism in various shapes (to the point where I barely have any real free time), and this is just a tiny drop in the bucket. Comparing that to the fact that the bulk of people participating in the "Day We Fight Back" stuff have that as their only contribution to 'activism', this is absolutely not a valid comparison. And no, I'm not trying to pat myself on the back here - I'm just trying to show how this post is a result of genuine frustration, and not some random hypocritical rant from somebody lacking self-reflection. > Representatives do listen to calls This is entirely besides the point, and a part of the post actually addresses this. It doesn't matter whether representatives are listening to you or not. Even if it might be a theoretical win, in practice you're not going to see any results from it. The system that these representatives operate in is inherently flawed in many ways, and for every "theoretical win", the situation gets worse in ten other ways. I tried to subtly hint at the framework itself needing change, but it doesn't seem like people picked this up. > Why are you criticizing when you don't even have a solution As said by one (!) commenter below, having a solution is not a prerequisite to criticism - no matter the topic. I understand that some people will want to bring this up as an argument, since it provides a way for them to wave away the bulk of criticism coming their way (after all, criticism usually lacks a solution), but it's absolutely vital that you recognize that criticism can and should stand on its own. Yes, I do have some things that I believe are the solution to many of the problems we currently face. No, I do not think they belong in this blog post. No, I definitely don't want people to blindly follow those solutions, without thinking through the issues themselves first. > It takes much longer than 4 years to change the world Yes, yes it does. The problem isn't that the problems haven't been solved yet, the problem is that we're still stuck at the exact same stage, with no sign of progress. It's like a toy robot whirring against the stairs - you could argue that eventually he'll arrive at the top, but in practice that's never going to happen, no matter how long you wait. Four years is more than enough to evaluate whether a strategy is going to have an effect, and it's the evaluation (and subsequent conclusion) that's lacking here. > An event like this also killed SOPA It didn't. All it did was cause an outrage, and push it ahead a bit. If anything, it gave rise to even worse proposals. I've also partly addressed that in another post: http://cryto.net/~joepie91/blog/2013/04/20/im-tired-of-this-protest-the-next-lettersoup-bill-shit/ http://cryto.net/~joepie91/blog/2013/04/20/im-tired-of-this-...