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Net neutrality must remain
Kootenay Crust
By Ian Cobb
Op-Ed Commentary
Are you enjoying a quiet Sunday surfing the net and farting around on social media and such?
If you are, you are doing what hundreds of millions of other people are doing at this very moment.
The Internet is a vast and amazing sea of things, from wonderful knowledge and know-how to complete and utter drooling nonsense and sick, twisted crap.
We are all free to experience as we wish, risk and dare (considering the myriad of bugs and viruses one can pick up) the gamut of the Internet because of this thing called ‘net neutrality.’ It maintains a level playing field for all users.
Naturally, seeing as how we are in the Age of Trump, where stupidity, avarice and brash, obnoxious denials of democratic principles and proved out science in the name of said avarice are favoured because those holding the power know they can manipulate systems to stack their personal decks, it makes sense that a select few mega-corporations seek to gain complete control.
It used to be nations run by men with tiny or useless penises and vast egos that sought to dominate the globe. The same things serve as the carrot but instead of nations, it has become corporations.
We truly are in an age of the Bond super-villain. Sadly, James Bond is a fiction and no one is going to save the world for us.
It is up to us; humankind – to present a clear and disturbing message ‘to the man’ and that is – ‘eff you – no more.’
The loss of net neutrality, as could be possible pending an upcoming vote in the USA, will result in two things; the death of the Internet as we know it and the true beginning of corporate control over all surveyed.
Companies such as Telus, Bell, Shaw and Rogers in Canada are apparently all for it, as are US companies such as Verizon, Comsast, At&T and others. Why? Because they can squeeze you for more and more money and block content in order to ensure their own products and content get first billings. In other words; higher prices and fewer choices. Sounds like a great deal, doesn’t it?
And you know the governments like it because that can result in the thought control they once applied to such great effect through television, radio and film.
We are at an ‘over my dead body’ moment but there is no single enemy to confront, no singular master villain to take down.
They are massive corporations holding sway over millions of lives. And they don’t just want to hold sway – they want to be the wind that causes the sway and they want to be able to completely and utterly rule you.
Our world has been locked into one form or another of indentured servitude since mankind bent its collective thumb, stood on its collective feet, sharpened a stick, fluked out by discovering fire and started figuring out how to grow crops.
I see this move toward removing net neutrality – even if just in the USA – as a furthering of indentured servitude and we cannot let that happen.
What hurts a corporation? Loss of revenue.
Who controls that tap? We all do. We can all make the conscious decision to say no to whatever corporations are trying to pull the wool over our eyes.
Keep your eyes on this issue because this could have massive implications that could cripple economies – local and global – and lock us all deeper into the new indentured servitude that combines credit/debt with complete informational control.
The corporations want to wash your minds of the concepts of freedom that you possess and replace them with their dictums – the foundations laid by the greasy weasel politicians who serve as filthy Igors for the Dr. Frankenstein companies.
If all that sounds a bit too over the top – and it is for good reason – look into this more yourself and KNOW that when you learn that YOU as a consumer ARE BEING JOBBED, you can fight back.
‘Customer retention’ is your friend when it comes to satellite/cable, cell phone and Internet service providers.
I recommend that if these companies are successful in creating dictatorships in cyberspace, that we bombard every company involved with ‘customer retention’ complaints and suck them dry (play companies against one another) – one mosquito bite at a time.
And if that doesn’t work, then let’s just do a major run on the banks and set the revolution into full flight. There is always a way to fight back. In every situation. DO NOT accept what they forcefully hand you.
Human history is all about the push back. Get ready to do some pushing!
The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) vote is coming Dec. 14 in the United States. Democrats and Republicans are apparently 70 to 80% plus opposed and 76% of Americans are opposed to changes to net neutrality, yet there is fantastic trepidation because corporations control government. They have for many decades but now they are taking the next step – from the shadows into the digital limelight, which they will control and we will pay for.
We must not let this egregious monopolistic censorship infect our world. If the Americans let this happen; the final line must be drawn in Canada because as sure as houses Canadian companies will be after the same thing. And damn those companies to penniless, broken ladder hell if they do!
Check out Battleforthenet.com and Savetheinternet.com for more information and for more insight into how this could impact Canada.
Above graphic from Software Engineering Daily
– Ian Cobb is owner/editor of e-KNOW, a small business that could, like all other businesses with presences on the World Wide Web, find itself squeezed by the digital mob (see also: the controllers).
