Wednesday, January 18, 2012

SOPA Hating is Everyone's Cause: But have you ever shared your other ones? Well, I did, and I just got personal.

"We often refuse to accept an idea merely because the way in which it has been expressed is unsympathetic to us."
--Friedrich Nietzsche

How many of your friends statused and/or tweeted something about stopping the SOPA/PIPA bills going through the US Congress and House in the next election? I'm grateful that these social media platforms make way for like-minded people to rally, spread information, and share support in order to conquer some serious bullshit going on. It's awesome that people show how much they care when one of their freedoms, access to information/knowledge/business/power, plug-ins to comfort and happiness is in jeopardy. Man, people get mad.

But like Nietzsche recognized long ago, when there are other less-represented or silenced people who have their freedoms hindered, or their lives endangered, and it does not affect us directly, we may be refusing to accept an idea. How many causes are going on right now within your own house, neighborhood, country, that need your support and alliance in order to bring equality, healthfulness, knowledge and happiness to those who reside there? Obviously, we are re-recognizing the strength of our power in numbers and solidarity when something as interconnected and all-inclusive as the Internet becomes endangered, and the masses come out from the shadows and speak up against censorship.
(Cont. below)


[Some background Radiohead to go along with my call to you, my friends]


There are times when I bypass articles about other people's causes, and forego signing their petitions because they don't affect anything in my life. I, too, ashamedly, am guilty of such behavior, but it is natural. We don't all have time to take in everybody's cause. Although, I do know that there are a few people out there in my networks whose passion and repetitiveness forces me to acknowledge the things they're requesting from me.

Since I'm in Japan, and have several highly activated:) (activist) friends, I have read countless articles regarding not only the status and health levels of the Tohoku area, as well as tons of personal accounts of people who are still suffering under the radar of both national and international news. Just today I read one from a woman who lives in a place deemed safe within Fukushima, yet her daily life is drenched with semi-conscious worrying of keeping the windows closed, drying laundry inside, watching her daughter leave for school carrying a radiation dosemeter with her, becoming annoyed when people say "gambarou, Nippon", and throwing away seemingly delicious produce from their garden. Where's the solidarity of millions posting on Facebook and Twitter, circumventing the pathetic National media, protecting their rights...to live without constant paranoia, fear, and invisible poison?

Since I'm gay, and have several highly gay friends:), I also keep quite updated with things going on in this front as well. With the campaign trail going strong, gay marriage and abortion issues are always up in the spotlight. Both of which, I support, by the way.

Just yesterday, Rick Santorum, one of the leading Republican candidates mentioned how he does not hate gays, and his views on marriage rights are just "public policy differences". WTF? Public policy is EVERYTHING!!!!

I think Rick Santorum, and the other anti-gay Republicans' voices and opinions should matter MUCH LESS than this kid's.


But, unfortunately, they don't. Children and adults who suffer from social condemnation live in this existence because of people like them who spread hate through "public policy".

Four years ago, when there was a California vote to overturn the rights to gay marriage, many people in my own networks, religious/conservative family members and friends, voted Yes, and weren't afraid to voice their opinion on why they did so. I wondered if they knew how this affected and still affects me. Did they not care because, as Nietzsche said, the idea was unsympathetic to them?


And even if California maintained gay marriage rights, I still wouldn't be able to live in the United States with my partner because immigration will not be allowed until gay marriage rights are recognized at the Federal level. So now as the situation stands, if I want to live together with my partner, I must reside here, in Japan.
I wonder, where's the blackout, the mass of stati and tweets standing up to this injustice?

The Occupy Movement, another cause close to my heart, has awoken the world just a bit, but not nearly as much as this SOPA/PIPA controversy, despite the cause involving 99% of the world's population.
Aren't you confused by this?


Because I agree with the facet of human nature that Nietzsche touched upon in his quote, I can't question why more people aren't impassioned with the desire to care for other people's causes. All I can do is understand that it exists.

Even so, how will anybody know my causes if I don't voice them, share them, status, tweet, blog, and gather more people to voice theirs as well. So today has inspired me to share my concerns for the world around me, and open my eyes to the causes and concerns surrounding those around me. Though I'm active on the internet, post and share often, I rarely discuss my deep personal concerns and experiences, but I guess I better start somewhere.

How about you? How will you support me? And more important to the collective cause, how will you call upon me to support you?

1 comment:

  1. Lillian7:22 PM

    Good question. It helps when there's an incipient issue, right? When Prop 8 came up we were tweeting, posting, putting up signs, calling people, emailing our friends, etc. (Of course, I put the "B" in LGBT, so I have a horse in race even if I'm married to a guy.) But anyway, people's attention spans are kinda short and they need something like that to focus on, I guess. :-/

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