Observations of a Slightly Sane Person

HOLY FUCKING SHIT.

That was my reaction when I woke up this morning and checked the comments I made last night. One of my Reddit comments had skyrocketed from 58 points to 1149 points. You know you’ve done something right when somebody decided to steal it on Digg, it’s featured on Encyclopedia Dramatica and it’s quoted on insurgen.info.

What had happened? Apparently, AT&T had decided to block access to img.4chan.org, where /b/ resides, the most popular and well-known image board on the planet. I recognized this as the first kill in the battle for net neutrality, and decided to post this:

First they came for the pedophiles, and I said nothing, for I was not a pedophile.

This is the eloquent version of “Dun dun duuuuun”. I was paraphrasing this poem about World War II:

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

Then they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
I did not protest;
I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,
I did not speak out;
I was not a Jew.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out for me.

The technique described here is known as boiling frog, and it goes a little something like this: first you declare something that everybody hates a public enemy. People go along with that. Then you declare something a little less questionable a public enemy, and people go along with that because they see it as an extension of the first. And finally, you declare something seemingly harmless a public enemy. And people will go along with that.

Except, if you had started with the last group, people would have called you batshit insane.

I don’t like that shit at all, especially when applied to net neutrality.

Encyclopedia Dramatica finishes what I started:

First they came for the pedophiles, and I did not speak out, because I was not a pedophile.

Then, they came for the pirates, and I did not speak out because I was not a pirate.

Then they came for anonymous, and I did not speak out because I was not anonymous.

Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak out for me.

(Note: I really only thought of the WWII poem, and applied the first line to net neutrality. I really think this version is much, much better.)

First they’ll block questionable websites “to protect the children”. Who can argue with that? Or are you some kinda kiddy-porn lover, huh? Then they’ll go after piracy, full force. Obviously these pedophiles need to get their porn from somewhere, and they get them at sites that support piracy. Therefor, a pirate is nothing more than an enabler for child pornography. And finally, anyone who is anonymous on the Internet will be suspect. If you’ve got nothing to hide, what are you afraid of?

This will be the end of the Internet as we know it.

And what are you going to do about it?

Are you going to enjoy it while it lasts and tell your children about how the Internet used to be a dangerous and awesome place, or are you going to make sure it stays that way?