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by flipgimble 3500 days ago
your cynicism and the oh so impressive "I've seen it all attitude" adds nothing constructive to the conversation. You try to belittle valid concern over corporate lobbyists taking over the agencies that are supposed to keep them in check. If I were a corporation trying to control the message on social media I would use pretty much the same language.

Resistance to the slowly creeping dismantling of consumer rights and freedoms will require frequent hyperventilation and the ability to be outraged. Having grown up in a totalitarian state, it all felt banal and common place. I'm not saying this one piece of news indicates that's the future in the US, but we will get there with hundreds of compromises like it.
2 comments
mixedCase 3500 days ago
The solution has been, is and will be to free the market for smaller ISPs to compete without being regulated to death; and this will not change until economies are no longer a thing due to human extinction and/or reaching the singularity; certainly it will not be because AT&T, Comcast et al grew a conscience.

During 8 years of Obama the only thing in the table was more regulation. Now your only hope is for a Trump administration that pushes for more competition; which given his policy on healthcare I'd say that's a battle worth fighting for.

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throwaway4891a 3499 days ago
"If all men were angels, no government (regulation) would be necessary."
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mixedCase 3499 days ago
I'm certainly not blind to the necessity of government and the need for some regulation to exist. The problem is that when regulation gets handed out like candy instead of being heavily looked at and discarded if its purpose is not clear or doesn't align with the interests of the population at large; then you have left the door open for oligarchy to come in and shit all over.
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MrZongle2 3499 days ago
"your cynicism and the oh so impressive "I've seen it all attitude" adds nothing constructive to the conversation."

As opposed to....your comment?

Hyperventilation is navel-gazing without the self-reflection. It is a step below hysteria. If you truly grew up in a totalitarian state, then you should be in favor of doing things right, by the law, rather than allowing a single person or small group of people circumvent (or pervert) it.

And that is the problem here. Executive Orders and appointees during both the Obama and Bush administrations have allowed the executive branch to do what they want, when they want. It's technically legal, but it's as permanent as smoke. And those who are upset that the smoke bridge to a better future is falling apart are fools.

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