Occupy the Internet, please
God damnit, does it ever stop?
I honestly can't say that I'm too familiar with all the "Occupy ______ " movements going on around the world, but someone needs to start one for the Internet. If you read my last post you'd see about the SOPA bill, and I swear...
I'm a bit of a free-speech nutcase. For me, it's the greatest right a constituent of any country can have. Any infringement of that right, to me, repesents the first step toward things like Orwellian dictatorship. I'm not exaggerating -- that's how I feel about censorship, and I don't think that it's too much of a stretch.
I'm a writer, and a fandom-er, and both of those things are as important to me as anything. I hold words and creative expression so close to my heart that if you took them away from me, I would lose my mind.
That is what I feel SOPA will do. It will give the corporations like Walmart and Netflix the ability to censor me, just because they can. But I can't let that happen, because of the things I've said above. I won't let it happen -- I'm going to do everything in my power to stop it, because this is my free speech, my right to expression.
The Constitution of the United States of America has a little thing called the First Amendment. Maybe these lawmakers and corporate lawyers haven't heard of it, but it goes like this (emphasis mine):
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free excercise thereof; or abridging freedom of speech or of the press; or the right of the people peacably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."
SOPA does just that -- it abridges my freedom of speech. And for what? That companies so large as Netflix and Walmart can get yet more profits? Fuck that. When a CEO can own his private plane while the greeter on the ground or the customer service rep at the telephone is struggling to make ends meet, you don't need any more fucking profits. Try giving the people who work for their money a living wage instead of having your Christmas bonuses be in the hundreds of thousands.
I am putting no one in danger with my excercising my Constitutional right to free speech and to writing what I want, when I want. If you want to censor me because I write slashy porn of characters owned by someone else, well, fuck. you. I'm going to keep on writing. I hurt no one.
If you want to censor anyone's free speech, why don't you censor that of the sons of bitches that run hategroups and the like -- the people who actually psychologically torture others for fun? They're the ones using the Internet to threaten the safety of other -- they present a "clear and present danger" to the rest of society.
Not me.
Not my friendslist.
Not the vidders on YouTube.
Not the people on Tumblr.
We do what we do to express ourselves creatively, and we harm no one. You try and censor us...
I swear on my life, there will be Hell to pay.
Now, I'm off to go see if I can troll Netflix, Walmart and the other SOPA supporters. I believe in the Internet, just as she is, and I will fight for it in the meager way I can -- by excercising my right to free speech before they try and abridge it.
I honestly can't say that I'm too familiar with all the "Occupy ______ " movements going on around the world, but someone needs to start one for the Internet. If you read my last post you'd see about the SOPA bill, and I swear...
I'm a bit of a free-speech nutcase. For me, it's the greatest right a constituent of any country can have. Any infringement of that right, to me, repesents the first step toward things like Orwellian dictatorship. I'm not exaggerating -- that's how I feel about censorship, and I don't think that it's too much of a stretch.
I'm a writer, and a fandom-er, and both of those things are as important to me as anything. I hold words and creative expression so close to my heart that if you took them away from me, I would lose my mind.
That is what I feel SOPA will do. It will give the corporations like Walmart and Netflix the ability to censor me, just because they can. But I can't let that happen, because of the things I've said above. I won't let it happen -- I'm going to do everything in my power to stop it, because this is my free speech, my right to expression.
The Constitution of the United States of America has a little thing called the First Amendment. Maybe these lawmakers and corporate lawyers haven't heard of it, but it goes like this (emphasis mine):
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free excercise thereof; or abridging freedom of speech or of the press; or the right of the people peacably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."
SOPA does just that -- it abridges my freedom of speech. And for what? That companies so large as Netflix and Walmart can get yet more profits? Fuck that. When a CEO can own his private plane while the greeter on the ground or the customer service rep at the telephone is struggling to make ends meet, you don't need any more fucking profits. Try giving the people who work for their money a living wage instead of having your Christmas bonuses be in the hundreds of thousands.
I am putting no one in danger with my excercising my Constitutional right to free speech and to writing what I want, when I want. If you want to censor me because I write slashy porn of characters owned by someone else, well, fuck. you. I'm going to keep on writing. I hurt no one.
If you want to censor anyone's free speech, why don't you censor that of the sons of bitches that run hategroups and the like -- the people who actually psychologically torture others for fun? They're the ones using the Internet to threaten the safety of other -- they present a "clear and present danger" to the rest of society.
Not me.
Not my friendslist.
Not the vidders on YouTube.
Not the people on Tumblr.
We do what we do to express ourselves creatively, and we harm no one. You try and censor us...
I swear on my life, there will be Hell to pay.
Now, I'm off to go see if I can troll Netflix, Walmart and the other SOPA supporters. I believe in the Internet, just as she is, and I will fight for it in the meager way I can -- by excercising my right to free speech before they try and abridge it.