montypla:
Just stop. Stop overreacting. To SOPA and PIPA. To ACTA. To Megaupload being taken down. To the NDAA. About wiretapping. About whatever the fuck else you’ve decided to freak out over this week.
You may think you’re helping. That you’re getting people worked up. Letting them know what’s going on.
But you’re not.
What you’re doing is just making things worse. When you go crazy over every little threat and immediately jump to the worst possible conclusion, all you’re doing is making yourself look like some insane extremist. And thus the rest of us look like that by association.
If you want to actually change things you need to stay calm. Approach and assess the problem rationally. Think about it for a while, so you can really figure everything out. Then tell everyone about it. Just as violence won’t make people listen to you, neither will flailing about yelling about the end times.
All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.
— Thomas Jefferson (via stevepethel)
First they came for the communists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn’t speak out because I was Protestant.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me.
— Martin Niemöller (via stevepethel)
spidermanspiderman:
So, uh, I’m pretty sure I’m preaching to the choir on this, but, SOPA and PIPA (and what they are now proposing that would be similar but called something like “Protect our Children from Online Porn” which would include things that are already in SOPA and PIPA, such bullshit) could be the greatest threats to the internet ever conjured up by corporate lobbyists and corrupt politicians to date.
But does anyone know what it really means to us, as every day, internet-loving people?
If anything like this is put into law, so many people could be forced to shut down their blogs or even be sued. If put into law, Marvel could very easily come after me for copyright infringement, even though so much of what I use is most likely under fair use (particularly because of the age). Other blogs like mine that are content-specific could also be under fire from other major corporations.
So, if you’re not already on-board with this protest, get there. Black out your blog to raise awareness. Tell your friends and family on facebook. Email or even call your representatives.
It doesn’t matter if you have 5 followers or 5,000. You can make a difference and help keep the internet open and free for all Americans.
