We are not a democracy. We are a republic. The two words have similar meanings and many people use them interchangeably, but they are not the same. In a Democracy, people vote for laws themselves. In a Republic, people vote for representatives who vote on the laws, which is much more efficient in a country of 300+ million people. The definitions themselves have blurred over the years, and the textbook definition of democracy has expanded to include votes by representatives, but when the constitution was written, this was not the case. Very technically, we are both, but only because of the changing English language.
Please don't turn this into a political discussion (although it's pretty much that). Civil discussion is welcome, the opposite not.
theonion.com is an completely satirical news site. You don't have to spend long on that site before you find that out.
Most of you guys, especially the "college" students from U to the S to the A are giving me more quality laugh than Al Bundy and Alf combined. Sometimes I feel like I should be actually crying reading some of the reactions, especially after seeing the marasm and struggle telling the difference between democracy, republic, socialism, national socialism, capitalism, communism, feudalism and theocracy. It is even more saddening that the people not knowing the difference(s) are, supposedly, going to be the "bright future" of this Planet. Now, you see, I am getting old (in fact I bet I am the eldest here, I just refused to give up on videogames) and my future is pretty much given. So I personally do not care that much, anymore. Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. Weak men create hard times. It is very unfortunate, that from reading some of the reactions on this topic (generally, not only here, please keep that in mind), we are obviously in the weak men creating hard times era. Prove that my statement is true will be the amount of triggered reactions. However, for those of you who presume that ending of something very vaguely defined and nicely called "Net Neutrality" will be their undoing, please remain calm. Really ... this is not an attempt to make any pun on rather Bri'ish meme flooding the funny picture sites, but just use of common sense which is so uncommon in these times. Especially among the younger ones, who think they are entitled to have everything, now and for free. No, you do not. Just a little DDoR*. The amount of certainity about what is going to happen if this proposal would be actually passed (still isn't - keep that in mind, again) is truly astonishing. None of you here, including me, knows what will actually happen IF it will be passed by the current goverment of the Unisted States of America. Now, I wish any of you would have some basic sence of how economy really works, because it is far from science, it has no absolutes and it changes more easily than weather during tornado season. What I will state below is purely my personal opinion and it is derived from my personal experience from last twenty five years; living and working in ex-soviet zone of Europe, after travelling good portion of this Planet. Try to visualize 1st February of 2018 (first date came up in my mind, just an example) and all the major news channels of this Planet are having a blast as the "Net Neutrality" bill was repealed. Especially the left-inclined media are having literal meltdown and all the keyboard warrirors are armed with ... keyboard and mouse? No, that was unfair from me, I admit. Now, even if this would not be a joke, but a sad reality, what will actually happen? Any of you thought about it? Without emotions or with no influence of his/her political views, religious beliefs? Hardly, but I tried. So now the big ISP's have no binds anymore to provide you with equal access to "services" that don't pay them to be put on the fast list or that you don't pay for extra charge. Or be included in the General package for 29.95 USD a month. I see your point, here, but then try to look at it from the other end (of the cable). ISP's will have to, in order to filter effectively connection speeds, employ team(s) of highly skilled programmers to actually do this technically reliable and so, that some higher skilled 13yo hacker will not bypass their speed limit gates, THEN as the general public would be in mass rage against them, they will have to hire a very, very good and very, very strong PR agency and will need to run large campaign to justify their actions. Now ... you all say, that this is about money. It indeed is. But all of that I just said, is more than probalble to happen IF NetNeutrality would be repealed; and all of that will cost big pile of money, of ISP's money. So, try to think as someone who is an actual ISP. It is not that hard. You are ISP. You provide internet to people. Suddenly, nothing binds you to keep it "neutral". Big day! Yee haw! But not really. First, there are other ISP's, not just you. And since cartel agreements among businesses of same sort or providing same services are forbidden, especially is USA, then you will have to watch out. And be carefully watching the situation. Hitting up the costs instantly for your services could be fatal. But at the same time, it could be fatal to act as an savior and offer PackNeutral for just 39.99 USD a month. Why? Lawyers. First of all, there could be massive lawsuits coming in against the ISP if he decides to restrict access to essential internet services. Trust me, lawyers are already sharpening their skills and are getting ready to fire "live ammunition" at the ISPs. Just imagine it that you as ISP decide to put most social media on the slow lane. Bam. Lawsuit from thousands of your customers is going at you with highway speed, as you have just cut back their 1st Amendmend rights. Not to mention all those customers are flooding your branches and are demanding end of their contracts. All this in thousands, not few ... but thousands. The crowd is strong, if you as ISP undervalue this, you are finished withing two months, out of business. We are still playing the role of ISP with no NetNeutrality binds. Well yes, putting on market PackNeutral for just 39.99 USD a month could be a blast larger than first walkman back in 1979. But, really would be? I don't think so. If you would pull that of without other ISPs blasting lawsuit against you (they will find reason, trust me), this would backfire at you within several days. The amount of people willing to sign in will be over your capacities. If by some miracle you would manage to accept the demand for that service ... technical issues will occur. Are all the actual metallic lines yours? Will your servers be able to withstand the raise of traffic? Are you sure that other ISPs will not sabotage you? The technical difficulties could be as fatal as going wacko with price list. Sure ... there are possibilities of all this going the dark path, but the chances are at least 50/50 to nothing will change at all. So, don't be an hysterical overlysensitive c*nt and if you hate your country, move out! Easy as that
Moving out is easier said than done, we can't just "leave", there is quite a bit of money involved in even going to Canada. Some people don't have that kind of money. And who knows, if this wack-o gets his way, not everyone who has internet can just "leave". Also, calling people cunts isn't helping here.
So you take out two things from his 8 paragraphs as your refutation? @Elwood, that was great. You said what I was trying to say yesterday, but said it even better.
Could you sum that up for those (me) with a tiny attention span? I keep trailing off and I'm barely at the 3rd paragraph...
