How Social Media Can Change the World

So I came home Friday night and decided to cruise the Rants & Raves section of the detroit.craigslist.org website. With all the stuff happening with Kwame Kilpatrick and his sordid shenanigans, it has become quite the hotbed for my fellow local disgruntled citizens to voice their (unfortunately and oftentimes racist) opinion of the city of Detroit and the people that run it. As an aside, I recommend everyone take a look at their local Craigslist Rants & Raves. It really has come to serve as a very accurate barometer of the current social climate.

On a lark, I submitted a half page post titled “No taxation without representation.” After finishing, as an afterthought, I submitted a link to the post on reddit.com and went to bed.

When I woke up, I had received over a dozen emails, including one that informed me that my post had landed on the front page of reddit. It has now been cross-posted by who the hell knows to the San Diego, Chicago and Tampa Bay Craigslist, as well as another dozen assorted blogs, including one in German.

I found it truly amazing that someone with such a small voice, in a secluded corner of the internet could say something in such a way that The People would take it up and REALLY make it THEIR voice.

That got me to thinking…

Although the network media has a strong sway on public opinion, it would seem that the internet has really become the voice of The People. As we have seen in this current election, the Net is a powerful fundraising tool. And as the early adopters of the Net already knew, and the corporations and powers-that-be have come to know, it is an even more powerful opinion raising tool. Even in the early days of Usenet, before the politicians and corporations got ahold of it, The People pushed their ideas and knowledge and opinions out there and changed people’s minds.

While reviewing some of the comments that people had left following my post, I was at first alarmed by some of them. There were suggestions of government intrusion into my life for what I had written and irrational conclusions reached by people that had misunderstood my ravings. There were even some questions, almost pleadings from people asking ME for direction. Questions like, “What’s Next?” and “What can people do?” I even had a mysterious invitation to join a secret and exciting “plan” of some sort (he wasn’t very specific).

And that’s when I got mad. Why should I be worried about my government coming to get me like some boogieman in the night? Any why are our fellow citizens, The People, coming to ME for advice when we pay SO much money in taxes to a government that is supposed to be WORKING FOR US AND SORTING THIS SHIT OUT!

It made me realize how important a single voice can be, and how The People can turn one voice into the voice of a hundred or a thousand or a million. So to answer the most rational of the questions I received, educate yourself, your family, your friends and your neighbors. Don’t depend on any one source for your information and listen to the people around you, even if you don't agree with them.

AND NEVER STOP TALKING ABOUT IT. I mean, the first line of the Constitution is We the People, and the very first amendment guarantees it as our right.

War is Peace - Freedom is Slavery - Ignorance is Strength

War is Peace
“I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we're really talking about peace.” - George W. Bush

Freedom is Slavery
"Freedom is about the willingness of every single human being to cede to lawful authority a great deal of discretion about what you do." - Rudy Giuliani

Ignorance is Strength
"The truth is a useless commodity that will hang around your neck like an albatross all the way to the homeless shelter." - Jeb Bush

(I was poking around the net one day and came across the first quote by bush. I said to myself, "there is no way I could find a good quote for the next one," but then guiliani delivered. The third one is a bit weak, but it was just too good to pass up. I mean, it's jeb! I even made a t-shirt for myself, so I could get beat up at the pub. Feel free to pick one up for yourself.)

No taxation without representation

What do I get for my federal taxes? Our public schools are failing, Social Security is insolvent, Medicare & Medicaid are run by a corrupt government that uses taxpayer money to overpay the corporations that run it. Our military is in shambles, our economy is on the brink of complete collapse and all our leaders can think of to do in order to solve the problem is to use our tax dollars to bail out the mistakes of corporations while Americans end up homeless and broke. And stuck with the bill.

Do people understand how much money we have spent in Iraq? Seriously really, get a grip and really GET how much money has gone down the hole? And even if they do, do they realize that the Iraq bill, from a dollar perspective, HASN'T COME DUE YET??? The shit going on with the economy right now has NOTHING to do with the THREE FUCKING TRILLION DOLLARS that this clusterfuck in Iraq will eventually cost us.

$3,000,000,000,000 / 300,000,000 = $10,000/ea.

That means that RIGHT NOW, without ANY interest, each and every American in this country is in for $10 fucking K. On top of our current federal and state income tax burden.

Now, I pay for electricity. I pay for internet. I pay for television and I pay for my phone. The tax I pay at the pump covers most of the cash either state or federal government spend on shit like road repairs, but whatever. I pay for the gas to heat my home and cook my food. I pay a shitload at the hospital and even pay tax on some of that shit. I pay sales tax. I even pay retail tax, even though the corporations pass ALL their taxes on to me when I buy their shit. So what the fuck do I get?

A military that is now broken. An infrastructure that is crumbling. A justice system that favors their own, the rich and the politicians, and if to add insult to injury, herd me like a fucking piece of cattle and actually go out of their way to find a reason to make me pay them for some bullshit slight.

So what the hell is a rational guy supposed to do? What did our forefathers do, when faced with this kind of bogus farce of representation, when bullied into paying for something they don't even want or need?

When a man with a checkbook has greater sway than a million voices, OR EVEN ONE FUCKING VOICE, then hasn't our grievance become that of the founders of this country?

(This was originally posted on my local craigslist as a rant in the Rants & Raves section, but then it ended up on the front page of reddit, discussion link here, and then kinda got away from me. Last time I looked, the post had already appeared on 8 other blogs and social networking sites, including a blog in german. The internet is crazy.)