Word Soup

I'm confused about something.

The kind of people who set up "forums" (either in print or say in the Ramada inn in Pasadena) to discuss network neutrality (start here if you've really no idea what this is), constantly hint that if consumer advocates and telecom lobbyists sit down they can achieve policy nirvana through "reasonable discourse."

As if the battle for relatively unimpeded networks versus massive corporations screwing you (and that is the debate in a nutshell) can be resolved if we're just NICE. That there's this reasonable middle ground waiting if we just talk it through for long enough, and most importantly talk it through while smiling.

A newsflash here: paid lobbyists and public relations employees' logic will not bend even if you placed the weight of the entire god-damned universe upon it and then bounced like an armor-clad rabid monkey suffering through barbiturate withdrawal.

That's right. I know, it's shocking. They're paid not to.

Meanwhile, find a REAL consumer advocacy outfit that doesn't support network neutrality. I know Google, who just discovered lobbying last Thursday, has a horse in the race, but it's to simply avoid being billed for bandwidth use at both ends. They, like consumers, just don't want to be fucked by the phone company.

Consumers and Google are not moving from the said position of not getting fucked. Well, Google might I guess if there's some ad revenue in it, but informed consumers generally keep "not getting fucked" as a constant ethos by nature. I know, they're difficult.

Apparently nobody has told these net neutrality debate panel architects that you don't beat AT&T and Verizon at the lobbying and public relations game. They will outspend you, out-spin you, and have built a disinformation machine second only to the oil (what climate change?) and pharmaceutical (what Paxil addiction?) industries. Said apparatus includes think tanks, fake consumer groups, hijacked (paid) real minority groups, partisan zealots and a sea of talking heads.

It helps that they all but own the FTC, FCC and Congress.

If you doubt their success, look at the current network neutrality debate. They've distorted the issue so badly they've got consumers arguing amongst themselves over whether or not they'd like to be screwed by a massive corporation, with many people supporting the idea. I'm telling you, these guys are good.

And then there's Betty or Bob consumer advocate, with their ten-dollar suit and all the good intentions in the world. Usually they're not invited to the forum because their spot has already been taken by a fake consumer advocate who works for the phone company, but when they're there, they try to convince the roomful of lobbyists and compromised industry folk that consumers matter.

But no matter how long they spend hugging it out with AT&T and Comcast's lobbying arm (or any of the million disguised extensions thereof), no real progress is made without cash contribution.

So gosh yes, lets have another chat with Mike McCurry -- surely it will be fruitful! He's an unyielding and ever-static living talking point, regurgitating a wall of distorted logic that simply adjusts and re-fires should you make a salient point that challenges his employer's assumptions. And there's five-thousand PR employees, think tankers, lobbyists and assorted other logic magicians standing right behind him with an unlimited amount of cash aimed at shutting consumers up.