There is something that I have not seen in any SOPA argument, something that should stick out in this written work on Chinese censorship....our ability to vote. "don_chow" talks about how oppressive the Chinese government. The comments then go into how Congress is attempting to restrict the American people, when it is the opposite. We are restricting ourselves.
I cannot speak on a case by case, but it's hard to argue against the idea that most Americans do not vote. We turn on the TV to CNN, Fox, MSNBC, or whatever you chose. We hear people debate on an issue with the majority in the small debate arguing in your viewpoint. All people do after that is yell at the TV saying "YHA!" then go to bed. We do not take action.
We let the law makers do their job, but when they don't do something we agree with we talk about how bad they are. Then the next big story comes the following week and we are then talking about that. We don't take a stand and speak with what law makers truly care about, our vote.
Law makers create these laws to get lobbiest dollars so that they can run for reelection. However, they wouldn't do these kinds of things if they knew that they won't get that end result, the vote which in turn gives a reelection. If they knew that the electorate within their district or state would put in the effort to research representative/senators then Congress wouldn't try to pass something like this.
The unfortunate truth is that our representative/senators are right. They know that we take little to know action. SOPA is an extremely rare case where the American people actually get up and get involved in government. I agree that SOPA must be stopped, but I also believe that SOPA would not even be here if the American people did their job in the first place and got involved. We can send our men and women around the world to let other nations have the right to vote, yet we can't walk across the street to do it ourselves.
The ironic thing is, the majority of people who do agree with what I say will say "YHA!" and continue surfing the web. Sorry if my thoughts are unorganized, but I am extremely tired and have a headache. I know I am missing a lot of issues I want to hit, but I can get to them in another comment :)
Until we shift the cash balance away from deep corporate pockets, it is going to matter little how involved people get in politics. Unfortunately, I can't see the kind of reform that would take (and I've seen at least one good idea for it) happening. Those corporate dollars have to much to lose if they can't be spent owning the government.
All hail your new corporate overlords. Makes me want to make my company be successful just so I can have a say in my government. :(
I cannot speak on a case by case, but it's hard to argue against the idea that most Americans do not vote. We turn on the TV to CNN, Fox, MSNBC, or whatever you chose. We hear people debate on an issue with the majority in the small debate arguing in your viewpoint. All people do after that is yell at the TV saying "YHA!" then go to bed. We do not take action.
We let the law makers do their job, but when they don't do something we agree with we talk about how bad they are. Then the next big story comes the following week and we are then talking about that. We don't take a stand and speak with what law makers truly care about, our vote.
Law makers create these laws to get lobbiest dollars so that they can run for reelection. However, they wouldn't do these kinds of things if they knew that they won't get that end result, the vote which in turn gives a reelection. If they knew that the electorate within their district or state would put in the effort to research representative/senators then Congress wouldn't try to pass something like this.
The unfortunate truth is that our representative/senators are right. They know that we take little to know action. SOPA is an extremely rare case where the American people actually get up and get involved in government. I agree that SOPA must be stopped, but I also believe that SOPA would not even be here if the American people did their job in the first place and got involved. We can send our men and women around the world to let other nations have the right to vote, yet we can't walk across the street to do it ourselves.
The ironic thing is, the majority of people who do agree with what I say will say "YHA!" and continue surfing the web. Sorry if my thoughts are unorganized, but I am extremely tired and have a headache. I know I am missing a lot of issues I want to hit, but I can get to them in another comment :)