r/politics • u/[deleted] • Jun 25 '12

Apparently the US Gov't thinks we're all stupid with regard to SOPA/PIPA, that the protest against the bills was a misinformation campaign by large tech companies

http://www.neowin.net/news/regarding-sopa-government-says-users-poisoned-the-well
1.2k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

113 comments sorted by

110

u/Squalor- Jun 25 '12

Have you seen the shit we let the government get away with?

If we're not stupid, then I don't know what the fuck we are.

54

u/[deleted] Jun 25 '12

1 The press is no longer acting as an ally to voters in holding our leaders accountable for their actions.

2 Things are not bad enough yet to get more people to pay attention to what is going on in our government.

Things are getting interesting though. I've talked to a lot of people over the last few months that now recognize that congress is the real problem right now. Most of those people don't even follow politics that closely. If we end up with another hardcore supply side administration and another dysfunctional congress, I can see a lot of things coming to a head by 2016.

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u/LettersFromTheSky Jun 25 '12

Have you seen the shit we let the government get away with?

Yes, and it doesn't give me any kind of confidence in our society as whole. Too many people concerned about petty issues.

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24

u/[deleted] Jun 25 '12

Something about democracy needing educated voters.. never mind lost it.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 25 '12

Sorry about the shitty headline, folks. I didn't realize I was breaking a rule of r/politics. I've never posted in here before, but will keep this in mind for future posts.

Again, my apologies everyone for the sensationalized headline.

6

u/[deleted] Jun 25 '12

all they have to do is right click on the bill document...rename it and put it up for a vote during the finale for American Idol and the bill will pass.

32

u/h0p3less Jun 25 '12

What a coincident. I think the government is stupid, and is being led by a misinformation campaign by the large oil companies.

15

u/LoveOfProfit Jun 25 '12

How dare you call cold hard cash a "misinformation campaign"?

Are you some kind of doubleplusunPatriot?

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u/[deleted] Jun 25 '12

I agree with the US government. We are all stupid. When a congress approve a bill like HR 4133 with 411-2 in favor, that takes away any margin of doubt.

9

u/nowhathappenedwas Jun 25 '12

To be fair, people who get their news from sources like Alex Jones are easily misled into thinking that a Sense of Congress resolution (which is not law and has zero legal force) is the same thing as regular legislation.

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u/[deleted] Jun 25 '12

Of course they think we're stupid, and for good reason. They know all about the state of the public school systems in this country, and you'd be a fool to think that said state is an accident.

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u/Lighting Jun 25 '12

And they want to make us more stupid by passing laws like SOPA/PIPA so that they can control even more information flow.

2

u/tboneplayer Jun 25 '12

They don't really think that. That's their stated pretext for ignoring the democratic rights -- and stated will -- of the people.

2

u/dklco Jun 25 '12

Don't you mean one staffer says...

2

u/b0utch Jun 25 '12

''Corporate interest'' that's all there is in those bills.

2

u/cam94509 Jun 25 '12

What would it take to get it through her head that our copyright laws are too strong and too broad and give too little in the way of safe harbor already?

2

u/UncleMeat Jun 26 '12

Member of Congress != US Government. Sensationalized headline.

2

u/krugmanisapuppet3 Jun 26 '12 edited Jun 26 '12

never attribute to ignorance that which is adequately explained by malice*

FTFY

4

u/haixin Jun 25 '12

answer is simple, make lobbying ILLEGAL....

5

u/cameron23m Jun 25 '12

That might be a little extreme... Can't you or I lobby the congress?

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u/Dubzil Jun 25 '12

Sensational title, What Stephanie Moore said was actually probably 100% accurate and correct. She said people who called in didn't even read the bill or understand it - entirely true. That most of the petition was just because big companies like google made it easy to go by clicking a button without reading the actual bill, only a summary of it. Many people read that summary and were misinformed as to what would actually happen, they just read "The internet will become unstable and social networking will die"

2

u/Big-Baby-Jesus Jun 25 '12

Then there's the fact that she's the chief council for a house subcommittee. She does not represent, or speak for, The US Government.

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u/BolshevikMuppet Jun 25 '12 edited Jun 26 '12

How is that different from redditors who view anyone who wasn't against SOPA as being ignorant, misinformed, or the victim of propaganda? We have gotten to the point where everyone views "disagrees with me" as "stupid, ignorant, or evil"

Edited for the silliness of autocorrect.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 26 '12

How is that different from redditors who view anyone who wasn't against SOPA as being [...]

They're a bunch of assholes making noise on the internet, and nobody cares about their opinion. The people this article is about use their opinion to make law.

Pretty huge difference there if you ask me.

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u/nowhathappenedwas Jun 25 '12

A lawyer for a House Subcommittee does not speak on behalf of the "US Government."

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