Conversations With My Sisters Cat

Net Neutrality: What it is and What it isn’t

I care about net neutrality a lot, yet I haven’t reblogged any posts about it yet. You may be wondering why and simply put, the misinformation on this site is pissing me off.

Many of you may have seen posts going around with pictures like these:

They’re very scary and compelling. They illustrate a dystopian future where websites are sold like cable packages.

The problem is they have jack shit to do with net neutrality and what the FCC is trying to do, and frankly it makes those of us trying to protect net neutrality look completely ignorant.

So, what’s actually going on? Sorry, but it’s not as interesting as the pictures convey. If you don’t read between the lines it’s going to seem like boring shit. Sorry, guys, but the way that scary as fuck legislation gets passed in this country is by hiding it in a mundane, boring package that no one cares about or pays attention to.

So, what is the net neutrality that’s in jeopardy? Back in 2015, broadband providers became reclassified as common carriers under Title II. The FCC actually pushed for this Title II reclassification at the time so they could come up with stronger Net Neutrality rules. Basically, the FCC has legal authority to keep companies like Comcast, AT&T, and Verizon from interfering with web traffic in any way under Title II.

So what’s happening now? Trump’s FCC chairman and Verizon’s bitch, Ajit Pai, wants to reclassify broadband providers as Title I, and let the internet providers, companies like Comcast, AT&T and Verizon, do whatever they want to control web traffic. This includes slowing down service by means of bandwidth throttling.

What does this mean for the internet and how we use it?

1. Companies will have to pay extra money to the internet providers, so their web traffic isn’t interfered with. This will seriously harm up and coming websites. If Google was invented post net neutrality they never would have been able to flourish in the way they have. They likely never would have gotten off the ground which is why even big companies like Google and Facebook support net neutrality.

2. The internet could turn into an oligopoly with only the big companies like Google able to pay enough to keep web traffic flowing. If broadband providers are able to interfere with web traffic to smaller sites there will be no competition on the internet as a marketplace. Oh, you’d love a version of Amazon that doesn’t treat it’s workers like shit and actually cares about mitigating its environmental impact. Too bad, the website is slow as shit if it even loads at all.

3. Any websites the internet providers disagree with will have their web traffic interfered with. This includes important social justice movements like BLM, LGBTQ pride websites, antifa and so on.

Please stop spreading misinformation about net neutrality. These are the facts. Visit savetheinternet.com for more.

Why do we say that capitalism must be “dismantled”?

You’ll hear phrases like “Smash the state!” “Eat the rich!” and “Smash capitalism!”

And, yes, of course, but… :)

However relevant those sayings are, our work must be careful, highly organized and above all planned.

Because capitalism and all of its associated systems are not discrete, abstracted entities we can attack independently.

It is a structure, like a complicated machine with many thousands of working parts…

And right now it is connected to absolutely everything.

If we do this… [picks up huge hammer and smashes the machine]

Then a lot of vulnerable people will die.

The machine was built and improved and redesigned and patched over the course of generations. It is very good at its intended purpose, which is ultimately to generate profit.

Every human being alive today relies on the byproducts of the machine to survive, without exception.

The machine’s engineers want it to keep working like it does. In fact, they want to optimise it.

That will kill all remaining life on Earth.

So, we must destroy the machine, quickly and carefully

We must examine its deadly programs and mechanics and replace them with alternatives we built together.

The engineers don’t want us tampering with the machine.

However, we make it run…

So we can make it STOP. Together.

How will YOU help us to safely dismantle the machine?

iww.org

p.s. My computer is on its last legs. If you would like me to draw you a little cartoon and help me get a new computer, learn more at this post.

There’s so much to unpack here:

Pack of Beakers

Goth Beaker

The Beaker snitching and pointing out the photographer

The Beaker that’s about to unload on the photographer

The terminator strut before the ass whooping and you know he’s moving at speed because of the blur

The ominous feeling that you know this is 3 in the morning

a Starstorm animation opening!​

wait did tumblr unfollow me from you- sorry shgdhjsk

Lol ur good m8!! Glad to have ya back! <3 /P

I liked how my previous pastel NASA logos turned out, so I decided to make a few pastel lgbt+ flag versions!

You can find each of them on my Redbubble: Rainbow | Bi | Pan | Trans | Ace

the Warrior dropped so many guns that i almost forgot about Jack

Hey there, everyone! I saw that my friend’s blogs were full of StarStorm stuff now, so I thought I’d explain the concept to y’all incase your interested! If you’ve got any questions or are interested in anything, let me know! I’d love to talk about my work

Space station