America and Free Speech

  The general theme around the internet today is SOPA and PIPA and how they're affecting the future of the internet, so I figure that while I'll touch off on those a little, I'm going to get to the meat and bones of why they're such a big deal: free speech.

  To those reading this from overseas I doubt it comes as a surprise to you that Americans, namely those in the United States, value their freedom of speech even higher than their guns. We value it so highly that when the constitution and bill of rights were made, the very first amendment to it was freedom of speech and of the press...closely followed by the second amendment right to bear arms.

  Now, you may be asking yourself; how does a bill that suppresses piracy impede my free speech? Well, if it was designed right it wouldn't. The problem is that it isn't. the Stop Online Piracy Act uses the suppression of copyrighted and user generated content. While this will stop about 10% of piracy, it'll also stop 90% of creativity.

 To give you an example of what I mean; the very man who composed and introduced this bill, Lamar S. Smith, could be charged with criminal acts under it because his website was found by an independent research team (AKA: 4chan) to contain a background image that while licensed under Creative Commons was not accredited to the photographer in the page footers nor the page source code.

  This means that he failed to attribute the art in the manner specified and could be fined or jailed and his entire website forcefully shut down for criminal copyright infringement. I don't know about you, but that's some pretty scary schist right there. It's scary because it could happen to any of us over simple oversights.

  In my personal opinion, this bill and its sister documents have only made it as far as they have because Americans are afraid. We can't hide it, and it's pointless trying. Look at airports, look at police, look at the most recently passed laws *cough* NDAA *cough* We're afraid to go outside and afraid to speak up in many cases. Peaceful student protests are maced in the face, Occupy Wall Street stand-ins are literally shoved out with bulldozers.

  This nation is crumbling under its own paranoia. People keep coming up with new excuses to trade freedom for a feeling of safety, and then have the nerve to look you in the eye and say "we can't let the terrorists win" look at yourself you simpleton. You're jumping from your own shadow. Terrorists act by using fear or terror to promote or force a religious or political viewpoint. Do the math. By allowing yourself to fear the dangers, they've already won.

  America, you've gone soft. That's the cold, hard truth. SOPA is the final straw. We've been addicted to laziness this entire time, taking it like a drug. When we're encouraged to learn about the sciences, when we're encouraged to learn about religions other than the Judeo-Christian family, when we're encouraged to eat right and exercise, even when we're encouraged to be more efficient with our resources. When the world screams at this fat and lazy drug addict, we shrug, tie that rubber band tight, and shoot up another needle of fear and complacency.

  We're on the verge of a massive heart attack that we will not recover from. The screams of protestors and the outcries of the internet are our doctor, warning us if we shoot up one more time, if we get high on laziness again, we'll die. I don't know about you, but I love this nation, every fat, flabby, lazy, arrogant, varicose vein covered hairy inch of it. I love what it used to be and what it's capable of, but dammit you've let yourself go America, put down the needle and stand up, be strong, be proud.

  Don't be afraid of people pirating your work, it's free advertising. Don't be afraid of plane bombings, we all have to die some time. Don't be afraid of disease, if you kept yourself healthy instead of hiding in your house you'd actually have a decent immune system. And don't be afraid of speaking your mind, it's a god given right for all humans, even atheists.

  And most of all. The big one. The one that many of us seem to have an instinctual fear of even discussing.

  Don't be afraid of your government.

  There is no evil too great to be uprooted, no challenge too immense to conquer. If you find a corrupt person, stand up, speak out, even if it means death. If you see something broken, if you see something wrong; fix it. Get off your lazy, complacent, sunlight fearing bloated rear, and DO something about it.

  If everyone stood up, if nobody feared pain or retaliation, if nobody cowered and hid, there would be no corruption, there would be no oppression, because there would be nobody to oppress. Only the weak let somebody rule them unjustly, so don't be weak, be strong. The only difference is initiative.

  I'm going to end this entry with a quote from a very great actor (Peter Finch) playing the role of a very great man (Howard Beale):

  "I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel's worth, banks are going bust, shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter. Punks are running wild in the street and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it. We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat, and we sit watching our TV's while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that's the way it's supposed to be. We know things are bad - worse than bad. They're crazy. It's like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out anymore. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we are living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, 'Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone.' Well, I'm not gonna leave you alone. I want you to get mad! I don't want you to protest. I don't want you to riot - I don't want you to write to your congressman because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street. All I know is that first you've got to get mad. You've got to say, 'I'm a HUMAN BEING, God damn it! My life has VALUE!' So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell, 'I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!'"