Republicans encounter angry citizens after killing online privacy rules.

Source: Why one Republican voted to kill privacy rules: “Nobody has to use the Internet” | Ars Technica

Filed from the “Is Anybody Actually Surprised At This Point” Department.

I try and remain impartial but we all know that impartiality is next to impossible in this day and age.  Nobody in their right mind is should be surprised at this point that any politician (especially any Republican politician) is against privacy protections.

That being said, “Nobody has to the use the Internet” is an especially (exceptionally even) dumb statement.  That being said, it’s coming from the same party who has people who claimed that the internet is a “series of tubes” — so we should be doubly un-surprised.

Except we’re not.

And worse than that, people are exclaiming (especially on Reddit) that the Republican congresscritters are out of touch, off base, or just completely out of their minds.

I think this is a disservice to them.  I think it’s time to wake up to the reality of the facts: they know exactly what they’re doing and exactly why they’re doing it.  And even better, they’re banking on you thinking that they’re incompetent.

They are not.

They are devious, and brilliant.

They’re trying to make access to information impossible. They don’t want us to have information that contradicts their statements.

They want to have control of it all. They want to be the endpoint. Fact checking hurts their cause.

“Nobody has to use the internet.” Just trust us, your friendly politician who totally has your back. What we say is the truth and disagreement is treasonous.

And that makes them dangerous.

Very. Very. Dangerous.

And it is time for us to wake up and do something about it.

The Resolution can be found here.

The vote tally can be found here.

Hint: it’s almost entirely down party lines.  Actually, it’s entirely down party lines.  If your Senator is Republican, they voted in favor of the resolution, or abstained from voting which is just as bad as voting for it).  If your Senator is Democrat or Independent, they voted against the resolution.

And that says it all right there.

-M, (annoyingly) out.