Editorial by Kevin Ryan
During World War II, Japanese leaders told residents of the island of Okinawa that American soldiers would eat them and their babies if America captured the island. As a result, thousands of Okinawans fought to the death or took their own life rather than face capture.
Of course the
claim was untrue, but such is the power of propaganda to manipulate the
masses into doing your bidding, whether it’s defending an island to the
death...
...or giving control of the internet to politicians and bureaucrats.
Watching people lose their minds on social media today after the FCC voted to repeal the so-called net neutrality regulations was a sad reminder that government propaganda remains the best way to control the populace. Like the bogus cannibal American soldiers, the net neutrality repeal is a fake boogeyman so wrapped up in hyperbole that its detractors honestly believe it will lead to the collapse of the internet if not society itself.
Yet one need only look back to 2014 to realize it’s a total falsehood. Before net neutrality took effect in 2015, the internet was in no way broken. It was a bastion of free information. ISPs weren’t engaging in the behavior that the new regulations were written to protect us from, prices were dropping, new applications and services were emerging daily.
And President Obama’s own FCC commisioners recommended against applying Title II regulation to ISPs, believing the regulations written in 1934 would be detrimental to the modern and rapidly evolving technology of the internet. But, in a saavy political move, the president publicly announced that he wanted the Title II regulations “in order to protect Americans from big internet bandwidth providers controlling internet content” via throttling or blocking. The notion that hated ISPs like Comcast might somehow censor or slow our internet experience so terrified many voters that they virtually begged the government to take over the internet.
And they are still so obsessed with that fear over a non-existent problem that the public has reacted to word of net neutrality’s repeal with truly unbelievable claims of the disasters it will cause.
Feminist Sandra Fluke: Killing Net Neutrality would kill access to abortion information... There is no reproductive freedom without Net Neutrality.
The New York Times: The Internet Is Dying. Repealing Net Neutrality Hastens That Death
Mike Caufield, director, Washington State University Vancouver: Killing net neutrality will throw us back to the Dark Ages
GLAAD: The repeal of Net Neutrality is an attack on the LGBTQ community
Wired: Expect Fewer Great Startups if the FCC Kills Net Neutrality
Rolling Stone: Repeal Could Kill the Careers of Indie Musicians
The Verge: Ending net neutrality would contribute to inequality of education and opportunity and could threaten the basic foundation of American democracy.
And that’s just the media and other organizations. Read through your Facebook news feed today if you want more insane hyperbole from friends and family. And coming next week: Many of the same people begging the government to regulate the internet will be pleading with the government not to let them keep more of their own pay check, and saying tax cuts will threaten the basic foundation of American democracy.
Sigh.
SOURCES: https://nypost.com/…/no-the-end-of-net-neutrality-isnt-cyb…/
http://reason.com/…/net-neutrality-supporters-should-actuall
http://reason.com/…/pro-net-neutrality-graphic-makes-argumen
https://twitchy.com/…/bless-her-heart-sjw-sandra-fluke-get…/
...or giving control of the internet to politicians and bureaucrats.
Watching people lose their minds on social media today after the FCC voted to repeal the so-called net neutrality regulations was a sad reminder that government propaganda remains the best way to control the populace. Like the bogus cannibal American soldiers, the net neutrality repeal is a fake boogeyman so wrapped up in hyperbole that its detractors honestly believe it will lead to the collapse of the internet if not society itself.
Yet one need only look back to 2014 to realize it’s a total falsehood. Before net neutrality took effect in 2015, the internet was in no way broken. It was a bastion of free information. ISPs weren’t engaging in the behavior that the new regulations were written to protect us from, prices were dropping, new applications and services were emerging daily.
And President Obama’s own FCC commisioners recommended against applying Title II regulation to ISPs, believing the regulations written in 1934 would be detrimental to the modern and rapidly evolving technology of the internet. But, in a saavy political move, the president publicly announced that he wanted the Title II regulations “in order to protect Americans from big internet bandwidth providers controlling internet content” via throttling or blocking. The notion that hated ISPs like Comcast might somehow censor or slow our internet experience so terrified many voters that they virtually begged the government to take over the internet.
And they are still so obsessed with that fear over a non-existent problem that the public has reacted to word of net neutrality’s repeal with truly unbelievable claims of the disasters it will cause.
Feminist Sandra Fluke: Killing Net Neutrality would kill access to abortion information... There is no reproductive freedom without Net Neutrality.
The New York Times: The Internet Is Dying. Repealing Net Neutrality Hastens That Death
Mike Caufield, director, Washington State University Vancouver: Killing net neutrality will throw us back to the Dark Ages
GLAAD: The repeal of Net Neutrality is an attack on the LGBTQ community
Wired: Expect Fewer Great Startups if the FCC Kills Net Neutrality
Rolling Stone: Repeal Could Kill the Careers of Indie Musicians
The Verge: Ending net neutrality would contribute to inequality of education and opportunity and could threaten the basic foundation of American democracy.
And that’s just the media and other organizations. Read through your Facebook news feed today if you want more insane hyperbole from friends and family. And coming next week: Many of the same people begging the government to regulate the internet will be pleading with the government not to let them keep more of their own pay check, and saying tax cuts will threaten the basic foundation of American democracy.
Sigh.
SOURCES: https://nypost.com/…/no-the-end-of-net-neutrality-isnt-cyb…/
http://reason.com/…/net-neutrality-supporters-should-actuall
http://reason.com/…/pro-net-neutrality-graphic-makes-argumen
https://twitchy.com/…/bless-her-heart-sjw-sandra-fluke-get…/
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