[craftyguy]

> Reddit, Tumblr, Etsy and other sites have put up Red Alert banners as part of a day of action to drive petitions in support of the resolution.

I get the feeling that these sites are just 'preaching to the choir' (i.e. their customers already support these things, and most likely have let their 'representative' know).

Is anyone doing anything to give the 50 senators who are against this a taste of what is to come? I recall cloudflare or someome along those lines threatenning to throttle traffic from government IPs, or maybe that just happened in my dream..

[dlgeek]

As someone else put it... "That's how you get the choir to sing!"

It's not about changing minds. It's a call to action - they're specifically trying to get their users to contact their representatives.

[_asummers]

Those sites are a huge portion of overall internet traffic. While on e.g. Reddit, people may subscribe to tech subreddits, there are many people who don't and are unaware of anything to do with net neutrality. If they can convince a nonzero amount of people to contact their representatives, that's worth the hour or two of some intern's time to put up a banner. Who knows, some of those people might be in states represented by those 50 senators.

[rhcom2]

Not to introduce flame bait but one of the reasons the NRA is powerful is the ability to quickly motivate their very vocal members.

[mch82]

It would be amazing if someone could figure out a way to measure constituent opinion that didn't involve people showing up at or calling in to an office.

[PhasmaFelis]

Well, that's kind of the thing. Everyone's willing to kill and die for their beliefs on the internet; a lot fewer will actually campaign and canvas and march and vote for their beliefs. The inconvenience of calling or mailing your politician tells them that you have passed a rock bottom threshold of willingness to act, and might conceivably have an effect on their vote totals next election.

[jacquesm]

The fact that those members have guns might also have something to do with it. 'Do this or else we will sick our gun carrying members on you' even if they do nothing at all is a more powerful signal than 'Do this or a bunch of people will show up to protest'.

[msla]

> 'Do this or else we will sick our gun carrying members on you' even if they do nothing at all is a more powerful signal than 'Do this or a bunch of people will show up to protest'.

That threat is entirely without teeth for two reasons:

One: Disorganized militias fail against a well-regulated military force. Especially since this militia would be a minority group, composed of the subset of gun owners who are outright crazy/stupid enough to go up against their own government.

Two: It would destroy the NRA in the public sphere. They'd go from being a normal political group to truly being Yall-Qaeda, the armed paramilitary force of reactionary idiots no normal person can support. The NRA can put on a normal face right now, and get practically everything it wants through politics, but if it tries to force the issue through armed insurrection, it gets crushed like an insect. A small insect.

[glenndebacker]

Maybe they can crowdfund ? If I read the news and see the prices to get "insights", it may be doable.

Then again I find it troubling how easy politicians are getting bought these days while in essence it's not that hard to govern with all the people in mind instead of them self. But I may be very naive in this regards.

[esaym]

>Is anyone doing anything to give the 50 senators who are against this a taste of what is to come?

No, because I am fine with the way things are, ie unregulated.

[craftyguy]

It's not currently 'unregulated.' Consumers are being regulated by ISPs, who are driven by profits and literally nothing else.

[Jaymoon85]

> 'unregulated'

In the sense of 'government regulation'. They are the ones who can arbitrarily enforce rules, pick and choose winners, and complicate the barrier to entry so much to discourage competition ...all within the law mind you.

> ...ISPs, who are driven by profits and literally nothing else

They live by the profits, and die by them too. That's how free market works.