[guard-of-terra]

Internet is falling apart. I think that appreciation for free speech, press and freedom of expression is lower today than it was for a long time of recent history. "They" just push and push on it and we're helpless. Not even constrained by paying it lip service.

Do we still have non-violent ways to counter this and make our voice heard? Because otherwise violent ways become aspired.

[egeozcan]

I'm getting depressed by these kind of news. My votes do not seem to change anything and I feel hopeless. I can't find anything meaningful to say and I just want to ignore the whole situation but keeping silent just feels wrong.

[jliechti1]

Don't despair completely.

Not Internet related, but there are some large students going on in Taiwan right now [0] based on concerns on how a new trade agreement with China was passed. The bill was passed in a legal way, but many of the discussions around it were behind closed doors and the Taiwanese people feel that the government is no longer "representing the people." The response against has been pretty described as "unprecedented", people who are normally not interested in politics are getting involved to see how they can help.

"We do not want to clash with the police...we just have to let the government know that never try to fool the people."[1]

I find their vigilance inspiring. This level of spontaneous organization seems difficult to carry out in the US though. Taiwan is considerably smaller than the US, and I think that makes a large difference unfortunately.

[0]: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-03-19/taiwan-students-occ...

[1]: http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/19/world/asia/taiwan-student-prot...

EDIT (to respond to guard-of-terra): > "Turns out they just sit in their office and pretend nothing happens."

Definitely a valid point. We shall see how long this sustains for.To clarify, when I say "getting involved" I mean many people are taking to the streets, not just armchair activism.

[guard-of-terra]

Don't want to discourage you but we had this "unprecedented, people who are normally not interested in politics are getting involved" thing in Moscow a few years ago and it all died out. Turns out they just sit in their office and pretend nothing happens. And it works unless you actively overthrow them.

Of course they say Russians are a nation of slaves but there you go.

[egeozcan]

The same happened in Turkey last summer too. You might have heard, "the Gezi protests". Looking back, the whole thing just made everyone a bit more extreme on their views. Some government officials just ignored the situation while the prime minister went on a campaign to stop the so called "looters" (yes he did call the protesters that) from "disrespecting the public opinion". Now? It's a flame war between many groups, with some scandals here and there for what it seems to be entertainment only. Everyone, and I mean everyone -including me- seems to ignore everything opposed to what they believe. I try to be objective, but I can't. People believe in "stuff". I'm still getting amazed by how interested we are in believing in something and the lengths we can go just to keep our beliefs' integrity.

[guard-of-terra]

"Looking back, the whole thing just made everyone a bit more extreme on their views."

Yeah, that's exactly what we had in Russia. The protests were about rigged elections. They also happened to be peaceful. Nevertheless, you can now find a lot of people who call protester names as if that was something provably bad. You can also find a lot of people who outright support everything the state do - thing you could not find before. A lot of people switched from "not caring" to "actively fearing change and swearing on any critique of status quo".

[guard-of-terra]

This is funny thing you mentioned because my votes never did anything ever. Victory always goes to that other default side. So much for mock democracy.

[midas007]

Nonviolent ways are the only legitimate means to an end, other ways lose all credibility and support.

That doesn't stop one from inventing new acts of defiance that break through the monotony with awe and respect.