SOPA

[Chocofreak13]

i have family in sweden anyway. :3

[Bella]

Guys, seriously.  The US needs to stay the fuck out of other soverign states' business.  Spain has just passed a SOPA-style law and Wikileaks has revealed documents showing that your government forced them into it with the threat of sanctions and trade embargoes.

http://torrentfreak.com/us-threatened-to-blacklist-spain-for-not-implementing-site-blocking-law-120105/

Good fucking job...

FOR FUCK'S SAKE, STOP FUCKING BLAMING THE AMERICAN CITIZENS FOR THE ASSFUCKERY OF OUR GOVERNMENT. IT SHOWS YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW OUR POLITICAL SYSTEM WORKS (OR DOESN'T WORK).

Our elected officials have absolutely no ambition to help their constituents, all they care about is lining their pockets with money and getting ahead in politics. They're liars too - promising the world to their voters during elections and proceeding to metaphorically screw them over with rusty farm implements once they get into office. They care nothing about serving American citizens, they're all in the pocket of corporate special interests groups, and this is why congress has something like a 7% approval rating at the moment.

Also, the last I fucking checked that SOPA-style law was passed in Europe, not the US. Spain is a sovereign government that could have told the US government to metaphorically Shove it up their ass, if the Spanish government want to bow to US pressure their own god-damned fucktardery is to blame.

[Red-Machine]

FOR FUCK'S SAKE, STOP FUCKING BLAMING THE AMERICAN CITIZENS FOR THE ASSFUCKERY OF OUR GOVERNMENT. IT SHOWS YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW OUR POLITICAL SYSTEM WORKS (OR DOESN'T WORK).

I AM NOT.

I'm perfectly aware of how your political system works.  When I say "The US" this or "The US" that, I am ALMOST ALWAYS referring to the US government.

My point was, the US government should not be trying to influence or threaten another soverign state into passing a domestic law that suits its interests.  That's not how you do things.  Period.

[Bella]

That's a relief, thanks for clarifying.

Also, it drives me fucking insane hearing this "LET'S ALL MOVE TO SWEDEN/CANADA/UGANDA/MYANMAR/>INSERT OTHER COUNTRY HERE< IF SOPA PASSES!!!!!!!" shit, since it implies that OTHER places in the world won't be quick to adopt these SOPA-style laws if the US and/or Europe does it first. Seriously, there's going to be NO place on earth unaffected if this shit gets passed, which is why it's so vital that it DOESN'T.

[Red-Machine]

The US government wouldn't dare pull that kind of shit on us, we're too important to their agenda and too politically powerful in the UN and EU.  If I was Prime Minister and they came to me with a demand like that, I'd expel the ambassador from the country in disgust.

[Chocofreak13]

i think this topic should be closed.

SOPA sucks ass. all in favour?

[Nichi]

Aye

*gets out radio, says something in code about a "lock"*

[IanDanKilmaster]

>.> WTF guys?

If this isn't clear enough evidence why a debate thread/sub-forum should never be a part of this forum, I don't know what is.

In any case, I think we can all agree that SOPA is not something we want.  It doesn't matter what country such a bill exists in, it's an affront to freedom everywhere.  The very essence of the bill is far-reaching and oppressive, which means that every person who uses the internet has an equal opportunity to have good old righteous corporatism reaming their joy-loving asses.  The point is, we can all do our part to try and prevent this bill from passing by doing more than just whining, finger-pointing, and name-calling.  We can try and stay informed, then do our due diligence to make sure everyone we know is also informed - talk to people who can actually get things done.  The mainstream media isn't going to say anything about this bill because the people who own the major networks either directly support SOPA or either stand to benefit from its passage in some way.  That's why word of mouth is so essential here.  I suppose that's all I have left to say, so hopefully I can get this all in before the thread is closed. :/

[Pitkin]

A decent closing statement from IDK.