[dchyrdvh]

TBH, it's nothing to do with those lazy petitions. This happened because the CA's AG chose to be a good guy, leveraged his power and put a lot of effort into fighting the bad guys. I'm sure he's been offered fat kickbacks and received thinly veiled treats. After this stunt he won't be offered a high ranked corporate position to scheme shady things and won't be able to buy yachts and helicopters left and right. That's basically the price he's paid. I think attributing this win to some "voices" would be dishonest.

[TheRealPomax]

So he made a sacrifice because, what, he just woke up one morning and felt like it? No. It's because the public brought it to his attention with enough public support to probably not hurt his career.

[kbenson]

Sometimes it's because they woke up and felt like it. You don't immediately stop having having feelings about issues like you or me as soon as you're in the AG office.

If that's just too wild to consider, it probably also looks good come next election.

[ardy42]

> Sometimes it's because they woke up and felt like it. You don't immediately stop having having feelings about issues like you or me as soon as you're in the AG office.

Maybe, but probably not in this case.

The idea being put forward here is the AG's actions had "it's nothing to do with those lazy petitions" and other kinds of activism. That's clearly false. There are literally millions of good causes and issues, and no one just wakes up and decides to help one in particular. They need to learn information about both the problem and the action, and that information needs to be brought to their attention. For instance, it's almost certain there's something like a charity that you'd certainly give money to, but you don't because you're totally ignorant of it. It'll take a news article, a conversation with a friend, etc. to bring it to your attention, first.

Petitions and activism are, among other things, ways of steering the attention of those in power. I doubt the AG would have taken action independently unless his attention has been so steered. Organizations like ICANN are not of perennial law enforcement interest.

[kbenson]

> The idea being put forward here is the AG's actions had "it's nothing to do with those lazy petitions" and other kinds of activism. That's clearly false.

It's likely false, because I'm sure it had something to do with those petitions even if a very small amount, but there are many other possible reasons it could have become a priority to an AG. It's not either the petitions or he did it out of the goodness of his heart.

But my point wasn't to imply he did it because he's a good guy, but to point out he's a regular person with myriad motivations which likely includes doing what he thinks is the right thing in the calculation of what to do. There's no reason to assume that just because someone holds public office they're entirely self-serving. People are more complicated than that.

[dchyrdvh]

I'm sorry to be dense, but that's a naive view, that an otherwise sleazy sociopath can be forced to behave by public opinion.

Good people give food to homeless because they see value in doing so, not because they fear repercussions from public opinion.

[jrochkind1]

I think it's basically the theory of democratic elections though.

That someone has to present themselves as a non-sleazy person with non-sleazy plans to get elected, and if they do something different once elected or otherwise do something the voters recognize as super sleazy, they won't get re-elected. So a person in an elected position is responsive to public opinion, or does not remain elected.

Whether it's working out so well for us in the USA, I dunno.

[burkaman]

Why do you think AG Becerra chose to put some of his limited resources toward this issue?

[dchyrdvh]

Because "in the world of souls there are two poles and between the two, wastes time and disappears into nothingness the majority of the humanity".

[_jal]

Citation needed.

Other than your cynicism about the effectiveness of petitioning for redress, why do you think this is true?

What in Becerra's background makes you think he's angling for a revolving-door job?

Other than you showing us that you "know" how the "game" is played, what can you back this view up with? Something seems lazy here, and it isn't the people writing letters.

[blibble]

not to denegrate the achievement of beating the scum, but the bad guys here are minnows in the grand scheme of things

they're selling domain names, not running an oil major or large defence contractor