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The "Techie" Vote?
Ironica writes "This Los Angeles Times article discusses a compelling trend: techies are making their collective voice heard in politics. Quote from the article: "After years as political agnostics, the programmers and engineers who orchestrated the technological revolution of the 1990s are trying to reboot government...They have money, earned during the boom. They have time, found since the bust. And they are using their technological savvy to recruit even casual Internet users to their causes." Perhaps instead of "boxers or briefs," our next presidential candidate will have to answer "POP3 or IMAP?""
Nothing like being patronised by the mainstream media to make people feel relevant.
This is not a big news story. The internet has given everyone a voice, but those who know how to speak are genreally understood more readily.
So we have this huge inter-connected network which spans the globe, now what do we do with it?
Hey! Let's talk to each other!
About what?
Politics...
User: regsucks
:-)
Password: regsucks
imho, this is typical upper management incompetence ~ as well, imho, most rich people totally suck and are abusive, arrogant, immoral, lazy parasites
As any large and economically important collective, "Techies" have an influence in politics. As their experience, wealth, and age grows, so does their influence and interest in politics. Those important in Techie industry in the 1990s are now reaching an age where politics becomes atractive.
America: where liberty is a statue and patriotism is trusting the government.
Yes, a little bit here, a little bit there, perhaps. Most techies don't talk directly about politics--they speak in code. Most have the drive to get involved, but when it comes right down to it, they act like mice. But they do monitor current trends, though. And when politicians make them angry, it does get filed in their memory, which is a key point to make here. Political shenanigans are a source of frustration for techies as well. Maybe it's time for techies to compile a list of good candidates that would be compatible with their viewpoints.
I'm going to be helping this former IT geek with his campaign:
http://www.EmmonsForCongress.com:81
this guy spent 18 years in the biz, only to have to train his 'less expensive' replacements.
I'm sure I'll be in the same boat sooner than later, however, I refuse train anyone. If upper-manglement wants to replace me with some cheap labor, THEY can figure my code out.
The problem is that the people-at-large are disinterested in public life & politics in general... look at the new trends in middle-class houses -- there is no side windows! Everyone wants to live in a personal castle.
People send checks to be members in interest groups like the Sierra Club, EFF, and AAA. But that check is the sum total of their participation.
The only people interested in politics are people with something to sell or something to keep.
Conformity is the jailer of freedom and enemy of growth. -JFK
The tech community is a fractious bunch and thus completely useless as a political group. Why? Because "Speciality in IT" != Any political agenda. The camps of liberal, conservative, and libertarian thinking are wide and diverse. Hell, look at any thread on the RIAA. Probably the only platform all tech folks are for is rational copyright law (i.e. showing SCO who's the daddy). But other than that, there is no cohesion.
There's a reason why police unions, the AFL-CIO, and the Christian Right are all strong forces: they have a complete package of beliefs that they can get a large body of voters to agree on. Religion? Government? Taxes? The tech community could never get such a gestalt.
I think it is one of the great tech-urban legends that IT is a uniformly liberal RMS-style social group or ever was.
What is music when you despise all sound?
The suits trying to steal the internet (after letting it get away from them ) and our computers know full well the people who actually have a grip on this technology are few and far between.
The sheep-like consumer who they are trying to lock into a TV-like, owned by the few, push technology state and who make up all the numbers, won't care.
Things are going to get worst before they get better, if they get better at all.
It's Christmas everyday with BitTorrent.
Then again, it might not.
I'm one of the older generation of techies who did get involved in politics as far back as the 1960s. In the 1970s I joined the now gone L5 Society because I thought space had a real role to play in human affairs. It still could.
But it would be helpful if today's political activists learned a bit from our mistakes. Practically all L5ers were political neophytes. We took up our cause with enthusiasm. For awhile we gathered some attention. So why aren't we all living in space colonies now? Here are some reasons I can think of:
These are just a few thoughts early in the morning. Others will probably be able to think of others.
Summing up, try to learn from our mistakes -- and from our successes. Politics isn't as neat and orderly like technology.
"Beer is proof God loves us and wants us to be happy." -- B. Franklin
It's safe to assume that having millions puts you in a better position to influence government.
Though P2P and GPL seem to be the battle cry, it's worth considering the potential of those systems to generate a new round of millionares who can, in turn, influence government.
Here's what I do: Bitty Browser & Andromeda
As a registered voter, it is my right and resposibility to involve myself in the politcal process. I have every right to gripe, moan and complain about my government, my taxes and the Addiction World going up down the steet, two blocks down from...and Addiction World.
Check one, two. I have that right and privilege as long as I protect it. Not with guns and violence, but by electing competent individuals as representatives. Not voting only makes it easier for the person you do not want to be elected. I have no idea how valid a comment that is, but if it gets more people voting, I will scream it from the mountain tops.
Because I may have the right and privilege to complain about my government, but do I have any point of reference if I do not even bother voting?
The cancel button is your friend. Do not hesitate to use it.
The problem with generalizations like that in this article is that techies like most other groups in society don't speak with one voice. For every John Gilmore spending their millions to protest government policies there are others actively spending theirs to support conservative causes. To act like it's a single hidden group now exerting political influence is pure nonsense, IMHO...
I was trying to figure out the significance of this all. I know ever since I started checking Slashdot every day I've become a bit more vocal and interested in politics. I asked myself why. I've got a little experience with the military, I've got a pretty decent education, but why did I wait?
I don't really think it's an issue of "techies", but more of "techies that care". Not just any clock-punching techie is going to be vocal on Slashdot (or any other "organization") and be interested in how this legislation will affect that privacy, how this bill will help Company A and screw Company B and how it all affects us and our economy. This transcends all groups though, not just techies. Your random worker at Kmart may care about gun laws a bit, but it's the member of the NRA that will follow the bills and legislations and try to have their voices heard. Same with your random citizen watching the war on TV as compared to someone with a family member in service...they've got more interest and thus are more apt to be vocal and take part in politics.
I think the techies are getting more coverage now though because it's finally socially acceptable to be a geek and know how to configure mom's computer after a crash. Computers are such a part of modern society and not just for the geeks anymore. It's easier to let it all out, speak your mind, and not be shunned.
"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts...for support rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang
Any nitwit sluggish enough to prefer POP mail isn't fit to serve as president of a POS Ford Pinto, nevermind be POTUS & technocrat leader of the free world.
A better question in a similar vein could involve SMTP: does the candidate in question recognize that spam is a legitimate problem to 'net users, and what efforts would she sponsor to address the problem? The answer to such a question could be a fascinating insight into how she feels societal problems should be addressed: should we try to legislate the problem away, knowing that spam transmitted from other jurisdictions (Asia, Africa, etc) would continue regardless of US law, or should we find a way to let the markets correct the problem? If the markets won't fix themselves, as so far they have failed to do, then can we stimulate a technological solution? Would the candidate be willing to invest R&D into coming up to a successor to SMTP & related protocols? Or would the candidate take a more laissez faire approach, and not see spam as a problem in the first place? Any technically savvy candidate could have a wide variety of insightful commentaries in this vein.
POP or IMAP though, that's just dumb. What kind of moron doesn't prefer IMAP? :-)
DO NOT LEAVE IT IS NOT REAL
In my opinion, it all comes down to what you said, "responsibility" in the political process.
I get into rant-fests with people from time to time about, "The Government is corrupt! Get these bums out of there!", and I can only reply, "the Government is YOU. It starts with YOU, and ENDS WITH YOU."
Typically, I these people I argue with are not voters. The usual response to a question about why they don't vote is, "Because it doesn't matter." or something equally insane.
My prime focus right now is, and I hate to use this, but, "Getting out the vote".
I don't care who a person votes for, that's their business. All I care about is that people VOTE. Vote for Bush, Vote for Gore, vote for your Aunt Milly, I don't care. Just Vote.
We mobilized to b!tch slap specific spammers.
/.ers are probably never going to agree on a particular candidate, but that doesn't mean we don't attempt to change the world because of what we read here.
We mobilized to protest Turbotax spyware.
We mobilized to protest the "Patriot" Act.
Come to think about it, that's exactly what the Bush team is doing. Taking away health care and welfare from the poor, and giving it to the rich through tax returns.
So it works both ways, I suppose. But there again, I might be another clueless rabid commie zealot...
In Soviet Russia, our new overlords are belong to all your base.
So? First off, what's to keep us from forming several different special interest groups based on our diverse political leanings? Each with a geek focus, of course. Secondly I believe there are more things than 'rational copyright law' which cross the geek political spectrum; for example privacy issues.
/. has also clearly shown, on the balance geeks tend to be socially liberal and fiscally conservative -- with a wide streak of 'leave me the hell alone' onryness. Generally that would describe a Libertarian, except that I think most of us consider the Libertarians idiots who we would rather not associate with.
Besides, as
So what is to keep us from building a geek political coalition around these shared values, while ignoring or compromising on the differences? In many ways existing organizations like the EFF are already doing this. And that is certainly no different than the 'police unions, the AFL-CIO, and the Christian Right' you mention. Do you think they started out as monolithic political blocks? Do you think they really are such now, even if their dollars end up lobbying on single issues?
Our (geeks) biggest problem isn't that we have too diverse a group to reach cohesion, it is that we tend to be individualists who prefer not to act in groups. Overcome that and we geeks are a force to be reckoned with...
- -
Are you an SF Fan? Are you a Tru-Fan?
" Please spare us from this Repub generated fib- AG never said that he invented the internet."
It came from CNN, hardly a Republican source. Al Gore said an interview that he "Created" the internet. (He also said that he "took the initative" , which makes him among the first of its inventors). If you look up the meaning of both words, they mean the same thing in this context.
Denying that he said it is like saying "no, she wore a crimson dress, not a red dress you liar!"
And no matter how many times you try to repeat that he did not say it, it is still a matter of public record.
.. what are some of the "extremist ideas that reek of communism" that are "frequently explored" on Slashdot? From my experience on Slashdot, there are just as many right-wing zealots here as there are left-wing zealots. For every person espousing (for example) a completely public government health care system, there's another person arguing (for example) that we ought to end income taxes and all entitlement programs. It all goes back to the original point: the "tech community" has no coherent political agenda.
We're going down, in a spiral to the ground
This was reflected in the successful effort to stop the censorship provisions of the 2001 Methamphetamine Anti-Proliferation Act, where liberal leaning geeks were able to reach Democratic members of the House Judiciary Committee, while Libertarian/Conservatives pulled in just enough Republican Reps to bury it.
Ben Masel: 51,282 votes for US Senate in the Wisconsin Democratic Primary
Like this techie is doing. "a 26-year-old high-tech programmer from Mountain View", who has already won the unofficial endorsement of Washington Post Writer Howard Kurtz, though this seems to be mostly based on her using cafepress to sell endorsed thong underwear as a fundraising tool. Regardless, she is using the net to propel her campaign to an extent that she is garnering press attention even among the strippers and pornographers and actors.
I think the Dean campaign shows that it is media access that makes the biggest difference in getting an unknown launched, and techs are the media of the 21st century.
Work for Change & GET PAID!
We mobilized to b!tch slap specific spammers.
We mobilized to protest Turbotax spyware.
We mobilized to protest the "Patriot" Act.
Yeah, and look at what we've got.
An infinite number of spammers.
Turbotax spyware.
The Patriot Act.
It's a pretty good indication that politicians don't give a tinker's damn about us, and we have about as much influence as ants on the sidewalk.
I couldn't help but notice that we make up all of about 5% of the current Internet population, never mind the rest of the population.
"No problem. I have the capacity to do infinite work so long as you don't mind that my quality approaches zero."-Dilbert
I have that right and privilege as long as I protect it. Not with guns and violence, but by ...
Actually, this is why the right to bear arms exists. So that if the Government becomes too corrupt and evil and starts to self-perpetuate it's own power, growing uncontrollably, the people can rise up and strike the gov't down. That is the beauty of the US constitution/bill of rights. It was a government that was designed to be overthrown.
This could be extrapolated to current times. I can just see it now, a big red button in a glass case in every home with sign that says, "In case of excessive government corrupt, break glass and push button."
-Ab
Nothing fails quite like prayer.
Unfortunalty most of the candidates on the balots seem to be a choice of bad and bad. Democrate or Republican they just do not seem to care. They are only capable of ranting and raving about one or two issues to try and touch some particular segment of the public. There is very little intelegence or though about anything. The patriot act stupidity was purely reactionary and cover you ass legislation.
Money votes because money gets the name out. American citizens need to learn to listen to all the candidates. Not that that often helps but I have often voted for the little guy who seemed to want to do good in public office. They rarely get elected.
I think a general cleaning of house in in order. There is absolutly no reason a person should be in office more than 10 years. They need to get on with thier lives a citizens and come back to some understanding of what it means to work for a living.
Vote out the incumbant!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You know, I really life the EFF. Only the occasional email, and they make it absolutely painless to contact your representatives. Use their form letter or write your own. This is what many folks have asked for; you really have no excuse now.
I'm really glad these folks are around.
Now that I think about it, I think I'll log on tonight and donate a little change.
~Dalcius
Rome wasn't burnt in a day.
Actually, this is why the right to bear arms exists. So that if the Government becomes too corrupt and evil and starts to self-perpetuate it's own power, growing uncontrollably, the people can rise up and strike the gov't down.
That was actually true at one time but not anymore. The problem is that citizens with guns (say militas) are next to useless when combating governments. At one time, that wasn't the case. A couple of hundread years ago, the difference between a soldier and an armed citizen was very small. They both used the same guns, had similar training, etc. But that isn't the case anymore.
Nowadays, the military (in any country) is just SO MUCH more powerful than armed citizens. Not only do they have better guns (automatic, more powerful, etc) but the emergence of mechanized vehicles renders citizens next to useless. Regardless of what you think, guns can't take down a tank. Forget tanks. How about APCs? You and your heavily armed family won't even scratch an APC!
You just need to look at the history of the world over the past 100 years. Even if cases where citizens are armed, they are next to useless. A good modern example is Afghanistan, where everyone is heavily armed (more so than Americans) yet they couldn't defeat either the Taliban or the US govt.
Having said all this, the emergence of the guerrila movement and asymetric warfare (eg. suicide bombings, truck bombings, sabotage, etc) can take down a govt. But governments generally label guerrila groups as terrorist and shut them down. That's why most armed groups in USA are militias and not guerrilas. Militias, needless to say, are sitting ducks and will be crushed very easily by the govt.
Sivaram Velauthapillai
Sivaram Velauthapillai
Seeking the meaning of life... @slashdot of all places