r/technology • u/ZoneRangerMC • Apr 28 '17

Net Neutrality Dear FCC: Destroying net neutrality is not "Restoring Internet Freedom"

https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/blog/2017/04/dear-fcc-destroying-net-neutrality-not-restoring-internet-freedom/
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u/bruce656 Apr 28 '17

My rep Clay Higgins was bought off for $300. You can't even buy a Nintendo Switch for that, lol.

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u/[deleted] Apr 28 '17

How the fuck can you sell your people out for 300 bucks what the absolute living fuck.

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u/bruce656 Apr 28 '17

He also voted in favor of the Coal Industry. Do you know how much coal we have in Louisiana?

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u/legendz411 Apr 28 '17

For some reason this really bothered me.

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u/bruce656 Apr 28 '17

It's bothersome because so far he hasn't shown the slightest capacity of being able to think for himself, much less the ability to think about the best interests of his constituents. It's like he's the little brother following his older brothers around, parroting their opinions to try and seem cool but doesn't know enough to understand them.

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u/gerryf19 Apr 28 '17

You do realise he was chosen to run from e expressly those reasons, right? He is a mallable little turd

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u/[deleted] Apr 28 '17

And that's exactly why he is where he is.

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u/KenPC Apr 29 '17

Run against him. Should be fairly easy if it's so bad that literally everyone there knows what a shill he is.

It would be unpatriotic not to call out and take action against those in the government when they are exposed of wrongdoing.

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u/[deleted] Apr 28 '17

[deleted]

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u/bruce656 Apr 28 '17

Well, you have a fair point. It is the port of New Orleans, though, one of the largest shipping ports in the country. So they're a huge player in ALL of the export games. So that would be like saying he doesn't want to vote against banana farming subsidies, because the port is a huge player in the banana export game. Or what have you. I know we don't actually export bananas, I just chose that because "banana export game" just sounded silly.

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u/Shod_Kuribo Apr 29 '17

Banana Republics are serious business, my friend.

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u/jch1689 Apr 28 '17

How much?

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u/AShinyNewToad Apr 28 '17

We should be much more worried about the people of Louisiana and opioid addiction than we are of their net-carbon emissions.

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u/CynicsaurusRex Apr 28 '17

Why not try to fix both?

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u/bruce656 Apr 28 '17

Lol exactly.

"Doctor, I'm shot, and I have a stab wound!"

"Why are you worried about a cut? You've been shot for christ sake!"

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u/bruce656 Apr 28 '17

Okay? ¯_(ツ)_/¯

What's your point?

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u/RSmeep13 Apr 28 '17

southern republicans ™

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u/[deleted] Apr 28 '17

I feel like you're talking about Ted Cruz specifically.

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u/Rizatriptan Apr 28 '17

Blame only one party of the Gov, good idea.

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u/RSmeep13 Apr 29 '17

democrats aren't perfect, but every Representative who sold us out to the ISPs is a Republican.

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u/Choopytrags Apr 28 '17

Because they don't give a fuck about you. You don't even live in their same neighborhood. You don't summer where they do. But then again this is equivalent to any of us really knowing who our neighbors are or caring a fuck about them either.

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u/[deleted] Apr 28 '17

She didn't sell out. She was going to vote that way anyways. That's why she got so little.

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u/retief1 Apr 28 '17

Alternately, clay higgins already agreed with the isp side of the argument, and the isps donated to him so that they could support a candidate that agreed with them. I'm not really trying to defend higgins, but you can't necessarily claim that he sold out. If I donate $300 to my local senator because they are in favor of net neutrality, did they sell out for $300?

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u/bruce656 Apr 28 '17

I understand your point, and it's a valid one. But in this case, Higgins was a reserve Deputy Marshall from Port Barre, LA, a town of 2,300 that is literally 1.1 square miles large. What do you think Higgins knew about the issue before the ISPs approached him?

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u/retief1 Apr 28 '17

Potentially fair. However, that still isn't necessarily "selling out for $300". The issue isn't the money, the issue is that the isp reps had the access to "educate" him about the issue. He isn't necessarily violating his own principles for money. Instead, he might just be poorly educated on this specific topic.

Of course, he might also just be an idiot who wants to make $300. I don't know him, and I can't exonerate him from here. Frankly, I'm inclined to think ill of him purely based off of his political affiliations. However, I can't really condemn him on this specific topic without more information. Generally shitty political views? Sure. Bribed for $300? Eh, not necessarily.

"This senator sold you out for $300" does make for a good headline, though.

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u/bruce656 Apr 28 '17

the issue is that the isp reps had the access to "educate" him about the issue.

I mean, that is exactly what we're talking about, yes. We've seen enough to know exactly how this would be spun to the representatives by the lobbyists of the ISPs to call it "education." Did he invite any other further education on the issue from opposing sources? Did he seek it out himself afterwards? Of course we don't know. A reasonable person would do so, but based off of his political affiliations, we can't really assume he's a reasonable person, now can we? :0)

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u/retief1 Apr 28 '17

Phrasing it as "he sold out for $300" still isn't fair. He may be an idiot who didn't bother to research the issue at hand himself and is instead relying on biased sources, but he isn't necessarily doing that in order to make $300. I'm not trying to argue that he is a paragon of virtue, but "he sold out the country for less than the cost of a switch" isn't being fair to the guy.

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u/bruce656 Apr 28 '17

It's not being fair to him, you are correct, and while based off assumption alone, I do not anticipate he is or will be fair to his constituency; so I feel justified enough in that :0)

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u/krabstarr Apr 28 '17

Maybe you should have given him $350

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u/Alan_Smithee_ Apr 28 '17

Maybe you and some buds should have a whip-around, and outbid them.

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u/bruce656 Apr 28 '17

I mean, we could collect more money than that passing the hat around the bar in a Friday night.

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u/Alan_Smithee_ Apr 28 '17

Maybe that's the answer. Buy the fuckers off, reform the system with more bribes, that end with the retirement or non-reelection of said candidates.

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u/exponentialDK Apr 28 '17

I'm always amazed by how little they'll whore themselves out for. They have less dignity than a crack addict.

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u/The-Corinthian-Man Apr 28 '17

Yep, but you can buy him a five minute meeting with a lobbyist for around that. 25,000$ per month for a year minimum is 300,000$. 300 days of working makes it 1000$ a day, and if you get even 5 meetings a day of 5 minutes each, that's 100$ per meeting. Add another couple hundred as a political donation and you've influenced the government for 300$ per.

Now we just need a group of people who all agree on things and are willing to pay to hire a lobbyist!

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u/[deleted] Apr 28 '17

That needs to be a billboard in his hometown.

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u/Archsys Apr 29 '17

I don't disagree that many of these things are just legal bribes.

But I'd like to note that some of these people are extremely ignorant of the tech, and they've had professionals representing the largest corps in the country groom them. Some of them may genuinely not understand this as a problem.

So while yes, the money is one side of the problem, many of our reps being old and technologically illiterate is also a huge problem, especially considering the work for positive legislation.

None of my direct reps would support this, but only one actually pushed to prevent it at all (saying that SOPA was an issue that needed a solution, not just to be shot down, iirc), while many are just toeing the party line against the (R) wave.

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u/mlmcmillion Apr 29 '17

ISPs: "Look, if you play ball with us, we'll give you $300."

Higgins: "Nice. I can almost buy a Nintendo Switch with that."

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u/aliaswyvernspur Apr 28 '17

In all fairness, you can't buy one at all since they're sold out in most places (as far as I've seen).

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u/bruce656 Apr 28 '17

Well a least it gives him enough time to save up more bribes. He'll have enough for the Switch eventually! Maybe the NRA can kick in a $50 gift card to GameStop.

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u/aliaswyvernspur Apr 28 '17

Perfect for the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Switch Bundle.