Perhaps the most burdensome complexity is simply explaining what to oppose. Opposition to fast-tracking the TPP combines an opposition to fast-tracking in general with a specific opposition to what the TPP is likely to be. Except I can't tell you exactly what the TPP is likely to be because the trade negotiations contributing to its composition are a state secret. Fast-tracking in general probably IS worth opposing all the time, but it's particularly bad now because of what's likely to be passed by using that democracy-stripping procedure.
And I can tell you part of what's likely to be in the bill that might get fast-tracked thanks to some important leaks, but even those relevant sections of the bill might be changed somewhat from the leaked fragments. As for the parts that haven't been leaked I can only speculate based on the damage done by other "trade deal" scams. Eyes glazing over yet?
The inherent complexity to articulating what's wrong with the TPP may explain why, for example, the folks who pulled off the SOPA internet strike aren't turning up the same level of pressure against the TPP just on their own. You'd think they'd be motivated to mobilize their own anti-SOPA constituents with at least as much urgency and radicalism as they mobilized against SOPA...and you would also think that the constituents would be just as motivated to answer the call. But though organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation have come out in opposition to fast-tracking the TPP, they have not gathered a critical mass for anything like an internet strike to stop the actual fast-track bill now sitting on the doorstep of Congress.
I suspect that if the TPP were only threatening internet freedom then the anti-SOPA folks would have been able to craft a simple message about it. Then they would have raised the alarm loud enough to be heard, and might be anticipating the same level of bill-stopping success they had with SOPA--and with related bills like PIPA for that matter. I'm not trying to slam the internet freedom folks in particular (count me as one of them in fact). I could have substituted anti-fracking activists, immigrant rights activists, labor activists or any number of TPP-affected movements. All of these movements have had some success at mass mobilization, but all are now having difficulty tapping those talents to stop the fast-tracking of the TPP.
Ingroup favoritism
Compounding the cognitive miserliness problem, in fact, is how different these affected groups are. A lot of social psychological research suggests that people are inclined to favor their "ingroups"--the groups they feel like they're "in"--and don't care as much about doing right by "outgroups."
Some religions and ideologies have tried to work in pro-outgroup sentiment in order to build a more inclusive pan-human community, but these ideological supplements are not very strong prophylactics against our ingroup-favoring human tendencies.
Post-Constantine Christendom has historically treated non-Christians pretty abysmally even though Christian leaders presumably read and understood outgroup-favoring Gospel passages like the Sermon on the Mount and the Good Samaritan story (and the less known but pretty straightforward Samaritan village passage in Luke Chapter 9). And contemporary liberal moderns aren't immune either. 21 st century ideological taboos on verbal expressions of racismsexismhomophobia haven't kept us from looking the other way when it comes to structural racism , the feminization of poverty and the still untamed worldwide scourge of AIDS. Cultural influences can expand or contract our potential to show moral concern for others, but on average we still tend to favor ourselves and our own.
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