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The Day We Do Nothing Of Consequence

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Re: The Day We Do Nothing Of Consequence

#51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Someone like Dianne Feinstein, California Senator, who has emerged as vocal defender of the spying programs? http://articles.latimes.com/2014/jan/18/nation/la-na-adv-fei... http://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contact

Perhaps someone a little more vulnerable in general might be a good idea. I think I remember reading somewhere that she basically has that seat for life.

Everyone in US congress has the seat for life. The reelection rate is never below 80% for congress and hardly ever below that for the senate.

Re: The Day We Do Nothing Of Consequence

#52
post #35

In the world of grand political change, three or four years is nothing. Don't give up hope yet. The Demand Progress folks are committed and have a good sense of what it takes to bring about political change in a democracy. Please support them. And believe it or not, legislators do watch those calls and emails––especially calls. All of them of them will tell you that the perception of a groundswell of support or oppos…

And by all means, back up those phone calls by voting.

That implies there's a non-trivial number of candidates who are legitimately against the NSA.

Re: The Day We Do Nothing Of Consequence

#53

In the world of grand political change, three or four years is nothing. Don't give up hope yet. The Demand Progress folks are committed and have a good sense of what it takes to bring about political change in a democracy. Please support them. And believe it or not, legislators do watch those calls and emails––especially calls. All of them of them will tell you that the perception of a groundswell of support or oppos…

This is very well said - this kind of change happens slowly, little by little, without a bang.

“Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.” (Ghandi)

Re: The Day We Do Nothing Of Consequence

#54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Someone like Dianne Feinstein, California Senator, who has emerged as vocal defender of the spying programs? http://articles.latimes.com/2014/jan/18/nation/la-na-adv-fei... http://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contact

Sure, why not? You could raise lots of CA tech money, I'm sure. One of the hallmarks of an effective issue advocacy group is that it cares more about performance on its issue than it does about party affiliation. So you might want to take on one Democrat and one Republican (preferably from different states, to head off criticism that your movement is geographically limited) to make the point. One note, though: there…

>You could raise lots of CA tech money, I'm sure.

To throw out Feinstein?

lol

Re: The Day We Do Nothing Of Consequence

#55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Someone like Dianne Feinstein, California Senator, who has emerged as vocal defender of the spying programs? http://articles.latimes.com/2014/jan/18/nation/la-na-adv-fei... http://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contact

Perhaps someone a little more vulnerable in general might be a good idea. I think I remember reading somewhere that she basically has that seat for life.

Indeed, unfortunately while I am quite disappointed in Sen. Feinstein, to lead a revolt against her would require finding someone from within SF progressive circles who is willing to vote similarly to her in so many other areas, and I can't imagine anyone with such juice - Barbara Boxer poses the same problem. Neither of them is likely to lose their seats anytime soon.

Fighting back isn't about getting what we want today, it's about being on a road for it. In your community, wherever you live, there are probably a handful of issues that overwhelmingly drive each election. This is true most places. It's important to make sure that Internet Freedom ranks alongisde things like Worker's rights, Women's rights, Immigration Reform, etc..

It's important that the next generation of politicians have no choice but to address this as part of their platform.

While I really like the fiery call to action another commenter made about "nailing their scalp to the wall" with anyone who supports this, it's very clearly a generational problem. I think a lot of damage could be done to unseat someone like Feinstein or Boxer who do good jobs of standing up for other issues and are simply ignorant on this one, and probably always will be. Hopefully they will staff up, listen to the EFF and ACLU, and I can tell you from having been involved in activism from the jail cell to the armchair that when you call your representative you are helping to DEMAND that they meet with the experts who are on our side. When we choose a day to call them, that means that everyone in congress will be talking about this issue today, whether they like it or not, even if every time their chief of staff speaks to them they mention, "and lots more people called about the internet."

This tells them that a bunch of people are upset, and even if they can't or won't each individually give us exactly what we want - votes for and against, depending on the situation, it registers that to preserve their career they need to engage this concern somehow.

Generationally, we will win this. We will undo whatever damage the current generation of power brokers do, but undoing fucked up legislation is REALLY FUCKING HARD, so if we can even round some of the corners for the discussion we'll be having in ten years, if we can even slow each lost battle by a year, by a term, by a decade, the tide will turn, some of today's ignorant voters and legislators will die, and we will inherit a world that has far more flaws than flawed internet regulations, like dying oceans.

Also I wouldn't be too hard on the OP, activism is hard, and it's fucking frustrating, and it sounds like he or she engages with a lot of activists and doesn't hear the greater conversation they're trying to influence, but hears the DEAFENING BLAH FUCKING BLAH which I totally sympathize with, but that DEAFENING BLAH FUCKING BLAH is a whimper to some people and sometimes we just need to mostly agree on a message and execute it and come back tomorrow to do it some more.

If the alternative is shutting up and watching the wrong shit happen and complaining next week that noone wants to help with my awesome activism plan, I'll be calling my representative today.

Re: The Day We Do Nothing Of Consequence

#56
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-...

Re: The Day We Do Nothing Of Consequence

#57
post #22

One prerequisite for change here is public support. Public support requires people to know and be reminded about the issue, and it requires people to know that other people care deeply about the issue and that it's okay for them to care about it too. So I don't buy the common complaint that raising awareness is valueless. It isn't something you'll be able to measure tomorrow morning but that does not actually imply i…

Awareness isn't valueless, look at what pink and a ribbon did for cancer. This is just another cynical internet blogger trying to make himself feel enlightened ;) nothing more.

What did it do for cancer? What does awareness actually bring in that situation?

Re: The Day We Do Nothing Of Consequence

#58
post #52
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And by all means, back up those phone calls by voting.

That implies there's a non-trivial number of candidates who are legitimately against the NSA.

That's fair, but it's perfectly alright to vote against the incumbent as a purely punitive, as opposed to corrective, measure.

Re: The Day We Do Nothing Of Consequence

#59
I've found that writing concise and effectively worded personal letters, in my own words, and faxing them to my representatives in Congress, does seem to have some effect.

I lay out my case, demonstrate that I am knowledgeable on the topic and obviously paying personal attention to it, and that I can think and reason rationally including when I vote.

That, they -- and/or their staff -- seem to notice.

Of course, now my Congressional representatives seem to be beginning to hide their fax numbers. So far, my Google-fu has remained sufficiently strong...

Re: The Day We Do Nothing Of Consequence

#60
The author has some good points. Ultimately, it is a kind of slacktivism. And a mass effort of one day won't fully counter the efforts of a few who are paid very well to advance the contrary agenda, the other 364 days of the year. And I speak as someone who was intimately involved in the anti-SOPA efforts.

But I disagree that it's completely futile. I often meet people who've never even heard of Snowden. So awareness raising can be important. Ultimately I think we're going to need new organizations and institutions, and new relationships with elected representatives. But until that day, it's worth doing what we can to delay the worst aspects of the surveillance state.

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