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Oppose the Earn IT Act

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Re: Oppose the Earn IT Act

#271

Post by thelittleone »

apeace wrote: post #208

If you want to convince your friends they should support encryption, here's how I like to get past the "nothing to hide" argument. Imagine we're sitting at a bar, chatting. None of us have anything to hide. Then the government passes a law that all conversations must be streamed on Youtube Live, so an agent comes in, sets up a camera at our table, and starts streaming. We still don't "have anything to hide". We're ju…

Another argument is that a conversation we are having today (nothing to hide and between friends) may be used against us in the future. It could also be used against your children.

Re: Oppose the Earn IT Act

#273

Post by [deleted] »

pphysch wrote: post #113
snarf21 wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fear-mongering is strong. Look at all the freedoms we lost after 9/11. Pedophiles and terrorists and porn are always the scapegoats. It is also a very electable sound bite. Everyone is against the "bad people". Re-election at any cost is the goal. We have government of the people and by the people but we stopped being for the people long long ago.

Don't forget the communists, the OG once-and-future scapegoats.

[deleted]

Re: Oppose the Earn IT Act

#274

Post by eindiran »

jedberg wrote: post #130
choppaface wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Send her an e-mail in 2 minutes telling her to stop supporting EARN-IT https://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/e-mail-me

Been there, done that. Her office sends back a letter that boils down to, "We know better than you, please be quiet".

I can confirm this, having been a recipient of such a letter from her office a few times.

Re: Oppose the Earn IT Act

#275

Post by mindslight »

newacct583 wrote: post #256
qppo wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

CA has a blanket primary, which means that all candidates from all parties take part in the primary and then the top 2 compete in the general election, regardless of party affiliation. Feinstein wiped the floor with everyone in the primary in 2018. She took 44% of the vote, and the next leading candidate (Kevin de Leon) took 12%. When they ran against each other, de Leon lost by a fairly large margin but turnout kind…

Getting to the point you were responding to: in fact Feinstein won on the back of a bunch of "republican" votes, cast strategically in a "blue" state where a traditional candidate wasn't likely to win. Which is to say: nonpartisan voting did exactly what it was advertised to do and resulted in the election of a centrist candidate. Obviously there are other externalities to consider (Feinstein is very senior), etc...…

Calling a democrat that won't even pretend to support blue team freedoms the "worst democrat" makes a lot of sense.

What is called "centrist" is nowhere near the center, but is actually straight up authoritarianism. If you look at both the blue team's and red team's grassroots messages, individuals are not happy with how much control the government exerts over us. Each political team markets a half-libertarian message and lures individual voters in by focusing on those gripes. They then channel their supporters' energy into going after the "other team", and "compromise" by enacting the fully authoritarian policies their sponsors paid for.

Re: Oppose the Earn IT Act

#276

Post by IggleSniggle »

jcranmer wrote: post #237
lukifer wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that's probably the case. Nonetheless, I would claim "lesser evilism" would be greatly reduced due to RCV (and Approval) being better at capturing preferences: you get to vote for your favorite option, and against your least favorite option. I think there's a strong argument that RCV/Approval would shift the incentives and game-theoretic landscape away from polarization and turnout, and towards big-tent coali…

> I think there's a strong argument that RCV/Approval would shift the incentives and game-theoretic landscape away from polarization and turnout, and towards big-tent coalition building, to appeal to the greatest quantity of left, right, center, and independent. I think most people wildly overestimate the popular appeal for compromise. Only about 20% of the population would support an opposite-side moderate over a ne…

It's almost as if you didn't even imagine what a "no 'opposite side' per se" would even look like.

I think there's a LOT more room for nuance than "this" or "that" even among the ignorant and/or unengaged. Just look at sports-team divides in the US for evidence.

Re: Oppose the Earn IT Act

#277

Post by jason0597 »

kulahan wrote: post #270
apeace wrote: post #208

If you want to convince your friends they should support encryption, here's how I like to get past the "nothing to hide" argument. Imagine we're sitting at a bar, chatting. None of us have anything to hide. Then the government passes a law that all conversations must be streamed on Youtube Live, so an agent comes in, sets up a camera at our table, and starts streaming. We still don't "have anything to hide". We're ju…

The best argument I ever heard was: "Would you give up your right to free speech just because you have nothing important to say? No? Then why would you give up your right to privacy just because you have nothing to hide?"

If I'm not mistaken, it was Edward Snowden who said this.

Re: Oppose the Earn IT Act

#278

Post by zmmmmm »

kulahan wrote: post #270
apeace wrote: post #208

If you want to convince your friends they should support encryption, here's how I like to get past the "nothing to hide" argument. Imagine we're sitting at a bar, chatting. None of us have anything to hide. Then the government passes a law that all conversations must be streamed on Youtube Live, so an agent comes in, sets up a camera at our table, and starts streaming. We still don't "have anything to hide". We're ju…

The best argument I ever heard was: "Would you give up your right to free speech just because you have nothing important to say? No? Then why would you give up your right to privacy just because you have nothing to hide?"

I like that.

It raises the important point: of course you don't care about privacy now while you have nothing to hide. You should care about it because one day you might.

It might be a stalker, a corrupt government official or policeman, someone at work who is competitive with you, you might be a whistleblower or learn a family secret that would damage your reputation (lets say, your father is a pedophile) .... all these things happen to completely "regular" people who until that point had "nothing to hide" and they end up needing or wishing to hide them in at least some circumstances.

Re: Oppose the Earn IT Act

#279

Post by newacct583 »

mindslight wrote: post #275
newacct583 wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Getting to the point you were responding to: in fact Feinstein won on the back of a bunch of "republican" votes, cast strategically in a "blue" state where a traditional candidate wasn't likely to win. Which is to say: nonpartisan voting did exactly what it was advertised to do and resulted in the election of a centrist candidate. Obviously there are other externalities to consider (Feinstein is very senior), etc...…

Calling a democrat that won't even pretend to support blue team freedoms the "worst democrat" makes a lot of sense. What is called "centrist" is nowhere near the center, but is actually straight up authoritarianism . If you look at both the blue team's and red team's grassroots messages, individuals are not happy with how much control the government exerts over us. Each political team markets a half-libertarian messa…

I don't necessarily disagree with any of that. In general, a "centrist", in common usage, is a person who broadly supports existing social structures. So yes, they're going to support law enforcement over privacy, the media industry over public access concerns, etc... So to anyone who cares deeply about some issue of social change, a centrist is going to look "just as bad as" the "other side".

But calling them (sigh) "authoritarian" isn't helping your case when they come back at you to persecute a (sigh) "revolutionary" or "extremist". Work with people. Centrists aren't idiots. Their constituency is real, and has concerns too.

Re: Oppose the Earn IT Act

#280

Post by eindiran »

I am not sure if someone else already posted this in the comments here or not, but the EFF has a form letter available, as well as a way of finding your representatives/senators:

https://act.eff.org/action/stop-the-earn-it-bill-before-it-b...

Just enter an address in the box on the right and it will find your representatives/senators for you, select the right options for contacting them and then present you an editable form letter for sending to them.

Note that your senators and representatives may abuse your email address and phone number if you provide it: after having sent letters to Diane Feinstein and Kamala Harris' offices this way, I've received a lot more political spam calls and emails.

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