While I know it's not nearly as heady an issue in light of the shitstorm of corruption and hypocrisy that is currently infecting the government, it is an issue that needs to be addressed anyway.
I am not sure why it's happening at this point in time, but lately, there have been numerous commercials from the telecom barons telling us that Net Neutrality is a bad thing. They say it costs us, the average internet user more money to have it than it would to abolish it. They tell us that those who support Net Neutrality are the problem, not the solution. They tell us that when it comes to the internet (and/or communication in general) they know best.
To me, that sounds an awful lot like the kind of crap the Oil Pigs spew at every turn. Trust them to keep oil prices stable. Trust them to keep the environment foremost in their minds. Trust them to remain on the lookout for alternative energy solutions that might be better for our world overall.
Net Neutrality is about freedom of speech. In this age of meglomanaiacal, mega-lying, mega-media conglomerates, Net Neutrality retains the only safe haven for the words of the dissenters. While there is no shortage of right-winged internet sites where one can fall to one's knees in front of the monitor and praise the words of spin alchemists and other Neo-con twits, the internet is the last true bastion of visible dissent. The words of others and myself are still safe and accessible to all eyes that wish to view them because of Net Neutrality. I can use any or all of the seven deadly words without having to worry about paying some arbitrarily large and bogus fine to a puppet government agency whose only real purpose in existing is for licensing airwaves to broadcasters. In other words, here in the world of the tubular, dump truck world of cyberspace, I have true freedom of speech.
I realize that I am preaching to the choir here. That is really not my purpose in writing this article. My purpose is to give all and sundry a heads-up. There are still legislative actions pending in direct reference to Net Neutrality. This last bastion of freedom of speech cannot and should not be seen as safe by any stretch of the imagination. Those who would blindly assume our on line right of free expression will never end are probably the same folks who assumed torture would never be acceptable in this country. In other words, it's not safe.
While the supposed promise of a Democratic turnover in congress would mean that Net Neutrality would be slightly safer, even this assumption cannot be made with absolute certainty. Let us not forget, apart from Mark Foley, most of the congress (both House and Senate) are completely ignorant when it comes to this issue.
Remember Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska? He's the moronic twit that likened the internet to tubes and dump trucks. His complete and total ignorance of the workings of the internet are more the rule, not the exception. If there are even users of the net who are ignorant of what it really is, it's a surety that those who have not even a nodding acquaintance with it are more apt to be clueless on the issue.
But the internet is about more than its hidden underpinnings. The structure and composition of the internet is just the basic framework of computers and other hardware that make it work. The most important part of the internet is the information which it carries. Abolishing Net Neutrality would mean that along with paying for their basic connection to the internet, companies and organizations would be forced to pay even more in order to insure that their words and ideas get out to those who plumb the depths of the internet for their information.
Who would the winners be in a non-neutral internet? To answer that question, simply open your email box, and count up the number of spam mailings. Now multiply that number by ten, or a hundred, or a thousand. If you think you have a mountain of spam extolling the virtues of Anatrim, Cialis soft tabs, on line casinos, Hoodia, unwanted stock solicitation, or chemical penis enlargements now, just wait. Get rid of Net Neutrality, and you might as well kiss Aunt Gertrude's pictures of her vacation to Tuscany good-bye. Oh, they may still be there, but you'll have to wade through even more garbage to find them.
However, that is not the worst of what ending Net Neutrality will bring. Let me spell it out for you realistically, C-E-N-S-O-R-S-H-I-P! All one needs to do to know the truth of this is look at the conglomerated media. They are in the business of censorship! You can look long and hard, and you will only find a few media outlets that do not practice some form of censorship. Whether it's looking the other way, putting important news stories on page ten, or at the bottom of the screen on a rolling news ticker, or completely ignoring news that would make for bad feelings with the powers that be, our media censors the news continuously.
The internet remains as the last place where unvarnished truth can be found. It remains free from the worst forms of censorship. End Net Neutrality, and that all goes out the window. Sites like OpEdNews would be rendered if not completely inaccessible, at least very difficult to get to, and slow, very, VERY slow. And, of course, the sites that cheerlead for the powers that be would not only be easy to get to, they'd send all manner of spam to you just to attract you to their mind control sites.
So, as we plod our way inexorably to November 7, let us all pause for a moment to think about how lucky we are to have places such as OpEdNews.com, which exist to balance the spin spewed from the rest of the media. Remember that it is Net Neutrality that allows the words at this site to show up on your monitor in an uncensored, timely fashion.
Remember that Net Neutrality is freedom of speech! Remember that Net Neutrality is freedom of digital expression. Remember that like all the rest of our freedoms, Net Neutrality is under attack by those who would rather keep us spoon-fed on a controlled diet of standard media pabulum. While we still have our voice, let's use it to speak out against those who would prefer our silence. Let's prove to congress that there are still people who have courage of conviction!
Blessed be!
Pappy
