I think I have a way to address the proposed new FCC policy - a policy which will revoke Net Neutrality.
It's easy to implement, will improve your life, requires little effort, and is guaranteed to have immediate results.
Never mind calling your elected representatives: they no longer represent you. Don't bother to call the FCC: they are now a cheering section for the Baby Bells and the Cable Companies. The ruling class of America doesn't care what the congress or the FCC say publicly, and neither should you.
I propose we cut out all the hangers-on, the middlemen, the beltway bandits, and their lapdogs on Capitol Hill. Stop wasting time caterwauling about fairness, either as a doctrine or a principle. Don't bother to plead a case in Washington, either: the political class is no longer concerned with ordinary people or fairness or any cases but the ones holding the expensive booze they import by the truckload as a lubricant for the machinery of power you and I can never see or affect.
Here's what I think we should do -
Don't buy anything that touches the Internet this holiday season. No "Internet Aware" TV, no remote control thermostats, no Wi-Fi alarm systems, or routers, or PC's, or anything that has an Ethernet jack or a Wi-Fi chip in it. Don't worry about any so-called deals you might miss: there will be deeper discounts available after the holidays than any you are seeing now.
Write letters to every advertiser that you see on TV in the next week (however you currently get TV) and tell them that Network Neutrality is too big an issue to ignore and that you're boycotting their products to make them understand that they must get involved. Every car company. Every soap manufacturer. Every appliance store. Every firm that wants your money needs to know the reason you're going to wait until next year to buy something you were thinking of getting now. The letters will have a much bigger impact if they're hand-written, but write *something*!
Turn Facebook and Google and everything else off for the holidays, including cellular data plans. Tell the kids that they need to go back to the basics of reading books and writing with pencils and thinking for themselves. Tell them that they'll need to learn to do without the Internet because Republican stooges are trying to steal the network that your taxes paid to develop and debug and deploy, and make sure they know that they should tell their teachers and their friends the same thing.
That's it - simple, direct, a long-standing American tradition: hit 'em in their wallet and you'll get their attention very, very quickly. Please start right away. The statisticians at the advertising agencies keep very careful track of how many eyeballs are being delivered to how many advertisers, and any drop *WILL* be noticed very quickly.
Feel free to pass this along, but please wait until AFTER you've told every advertiser everywhere you visit that you're boycotting them because the FCC is stealing the Internet.
No matter what the FCC decides, you'll be able to hold your head high. At least you'll be able to say that you tried to stop it.
Bill