I told you so (The modern burning of the "Great Library")

On ATS you see a lot of predictions being made and for a most part, they're usually bogus and convoluted. I typically abstain from making predictions and choose to stick to speculation. I don't like certainty, typically because certainty proves to be a short term symptom. But since I've been on ATS, there has been one prediction I've held myself too. The internet was going to be a prime target and would be reeled in.

Net Neutrality, Joe Stacks, Cass Sunstein, File sharing and now "cyber security".

Frankly, anyone with a keen eye should be able to see the relation shared between these topics.

The issues of file sharing has been around the longest although it was a concern shared purely by the music industry. The concern spread as the availability of faster connection speeds increased, with the movie industry becoming concerned, software firms, and now the gaming industry. Now, there are laws against file sharing but they can't be practically enforced. Furthermore, the minds involve tend to evolve their methods as soon as enforcement increases. The only way to reign in file sharing was to have heavy sway over the ISPs...

So, how do you gain heavy sway over the ISPs and create legislation that allows the enforcement of file sharing legislation? Fear mongering. In comes Net Neutrality. To those unfamiliar with the concept, Net Neutrality is basically the concern people have that major ISPs who typically hold a monopoly in certain regions would start controlling the connection speed certain website received. With major websites, the speed would be like a lightning bolt. But for small businesses, independent artists and others, it would be as if you were trying to connect with a 56k modem. The solution in Net Neutrality? GOVERNMENT! Because as we all know, when governments take heavy control of the internet in their country, the flow information remains unhampered. Of course, some ISP's are actually in on it, such as Comcast, who has made it their mission to actually act like the perceived threat net neutrality presents. So Net Neutrality creates the situation for the consumer of being between a rock and a hard place. Unhampered corporate control of the internet, or unhampered government control of the internet? Of course, like all paradigms presented as real on this planet, both sides come from the same coin.

The idea of government taking control of the internet though remains a scary one in the minds of most American's. The moment the thought is presented, we imagine China, Egypt or Saudi Arabia. But now even western nations are bringing about this control, just look at Australia. So how do you get American's to get behind this? Well, more fear mongering of course!

The agenda to paint any "conspiracy theorists", "political radicals", and other terms is directly related to this. The internet is a network of free information and is largely responsible for people around the world awakening to what is being done. Ironically, the internet was created by the US military. They created they're worst nightmare. The ability to transfer information, around the world, at roughly 0.7c (That's the speed of light times 0.7) is an amazing one, especially when coupled with storage of said knowledge. A man named Terence McKenna once said this about our time before he passed; (and this isn't a direct quote but basically what he said) "Never before in the history of humanity was one human perspective capable of perceiving the entirety of humanities information". It's quite easy to see what the threat to them is now.

So now you have Cass Sunstein, a "czar" in the US government, who has openly stated his wish to hunt down anyone talking anything contrary to the view presented by the government, infiltrate them, and bring them down from within. He paints anyone like this as a potential domestic terrorist and a threat to national security.

To make his fear as a reality, you have Joe Stacks. Whose that? What, you forgot already? Remember he was that crazy guy that flew a small plane into an IRS office building in Austin a little while ago? Remember everyone crying "False flag" (not that this is outside the norm for most of the users on this site)? Well, the one thing this and some other events did was present the idea that these "conspiracy theorists" are indeed unstable, mentally speaking, and a threat to others. And we remember that this guy did a lot of his "theorizing" online, and that last will and testament he posted. Same thing for the fellow who attacked the pentagon with a handgun.

So now you've got a realized fear presented to the public. Let this sit on the burner for 5 minutes, we'll be coming back to it.

Something else I would like to mention was a little something on CNN a while ago, I think back around march or april. It was a mock security council meeting talking about something. What was it? Cybersecurity threats. In the mock scenario presented, some foreign threat caused considerable damage "hacking into the internet and into networks" of our power grid system. In the scenario, it was presented that about 1/3 of America went without power. For about an hour, a bunch of former security individuals had a mock security council discussing what should be done, how this can be prevented, and why didn't we do this further.

Now one question should be asked by everyone....why the bloody hell would a corporate news station create this mock scenario? Yes, the answer is obvious. If you can't see why yet, well, have fun voting in the next Bush/Obama into officer in 2012.

Lets return to the burner now. Mmmm, our fear mongering has festered for a while. Let's precede to the final step; legislation. And more fear mongering. You can NEVER have too much fear mongering.

We come full circle now, with presenting the idea of Obama being given the ability to "kill" the internet in the case of national security. Along with the presentation of this idea, you need to make sure you apply fear mongering every 10 seconds and stir briskly.


I've been saying it would come to this for several years now and it's the only serious prediction I risk my name in saying WILL happen. And guess what? It's happening. Right now.

The internet is too much of a threat for them. Before, it was just a lost in profit. Now it's a threat towards their clandestine and secretive manner. For all we know, the wikileaks fiasco may too be part of this, or perhaps wikileaks is their major concern in bringing this out right here, right now. But keep in mind this was never a case of if, it was a case of when. I'm not the only one who saw this coming, hundreds of others have as well including quite a few on this site. And now it is reality.

This is one prediction that came true, guys.

Die DHCP, IPv6 here we come.

Fixed IP's for everyone and everything...

If possible, download and save documents and information that you think might be taken down. Thats really all you can do at this point. If eeryone did this then we should be able to preserve most of the most important information, though certainly not all.

Originally posted by time91
If possible, download and save documents and information that you think might be taken down. Thats really all you can do at this point. If eeryone did this then we should be able to preserve most of the most important information, though certainly not all.

I consider the fact that it allows people to communicate at 0.7c quite a bit more substantial than that.

Should we return to smoke signals?

reply to post by SpectreDC

Hello,

I hope I'm not looking foolish here...

Will this effect our cell phones also?

Sure, the older people not so suave with the internet in general may not understand what type of threat the government can impose on the internet.

Thats ok, my generation will be Pissed off enough to do something.

Two links for your with reference to alternative internet possibilities that cannot be taken down.

Netsukuku

Netsukuku on Wikipedia

reply to post by 7even7eas

Sure, the older people not so suave with the internet in general may not understand what type of threat the government can impose on the internet.

Careful now! How are you defining older people? I am in my 60s and my mother, who also uses the Internet (although agreed probably does not have the understanding) is nearly 90.

Do not think "O wet behind the ears one", that you have a monopoly on being "Pissed Off" just because you are young. Us older folks have more cunning and patience that you might imagine.

[edit on 23/6/2010 by PuterMan]

The internet cannot be taken down unless you get rid of the actual data being transmitted. Shutting down satellites would be an example.

I've thought a lot about this, with the internet gone or severely restricted, how would we communicate and organize? It's not like I have your phone # or email
If it got that far I would print out facts on our tyrannical government and pass them out downtown...hoping that I don't pass one out to a DHS agent.

A coworker asked me how far would they have to push us before someone fired the first shot...I'm not so sure but sadly I think people will bend over quite a bit more before they turn around and shoot the government rapist

Good writing there SpectreDC. You present a good case for non-interference and lay bare the thinly-veiled antics of the government to gain control.
Damn it! Stop making so much sense

Originally posted by PuterMan
Two links for your with reference to alternative internet possibilities that cannot be taken down.

Netsukuku

Netsukuku on Wikipedia

reply to post by 7even7eas

 

Sure, the older people not so suave with the internet in general may not understand what type of threat the government can impose on the internet.

Careful now!

How are you defining older people? I am in my 60s and my mother, who also uses the Internet (although agreed probably does not have the understanding) is nearly 90.

Do not think "O wet behind the ears one", that you have a monopoly on being "Pissed Off" just because you are young. Us older folks have more cunning and patience that you might imagine.

[edit on 23/6/2010 by PuterMan]

I refer to people like my grandparents. yes i know many older people are good with the internet.

but once WoW goes all hell breaks loose.

You're right; the internet can not literally have a kill switch.

I only presented what has gone on though. I've never asserted the killswitch is an actually killswitch. In my belief, it was actually a PR stunt.

It was a comment made to interpret what the reaction would be to such a suggestion. They are testing the waters of opinion.

It's a gamble in my eyes actually. They want to present the idea without causing too many alarms. But they want attention. A lot of it. They want to see what the average person thinks about it.

This may pave the way to future legislation that doesn't have a killswitch per say, but actually just restricts things and allows more regulation.


And there is a lot more to this besides what I've mentioned. In fact, someone mentioned IPv6. Coincidentally, there has been a lot of fear mongering the in tech world about how "IP addresses are becoming less available" and the "internet is getting too big" and how IPv6 is supposed to fix this.

Then there are the policy laundering attempts being made between America and it's allies, trying to circumvent congress by using treaties to enact internet control. By any chance you are wondering which allies America has been talking to about this, one of them happens to be Ausfailia. That isn't a good thing,

Originally posted by 7even7eas

Originally posted by PuterMan
Two links for your with reference to alternative internet possibilities that cannot be taken down.

Netsukuku

Netsukuku on Wikipedia

reply to post by 7even7eas

 

Sure, the older people not so suave with the internet in general may not understand what type of threat the government can impose on the internet.

Careful now!

How are you defining older people? I am in my 60s and my mother, who also uses the Internet (although agreed probably does not have the understanding) is nearly 90.

Do not think "O wet behind the ears one", that you have a monopoly on being "Pissed Off" just because you are young. Us older folks have more cunning and patience that you might imagine.

[edit on 23/6/2010 by PuterMan]

I refer to people like my grandparents. yes i know many older people are good with the internet.

but once WoW goes all hell breaks loose.

I resemble those remarks. And I am very close to 50 with a degree in Computer Repair

we need some other form of internet communications. some way of linking phones line the old web! yes I know, stupid. but with modern technology. I bet some one can do it. pirate internet. just think about that. there must be a way to piggyback the internet.

the best of ATS need to talk with the press. I think the time is ready for ATS conspiracies to go public. some news groups are showing interest in conspiracies.
the internet is the last big true free information.
if they get total control of the internet we lose!
they will be able to kill any one they like.
and as many as they like.

If the government were to actually shut down the internet, I think they might be surprised by the unintended consequences.

Boards such as ATS are an outstanding source of information but imo they actually serve to temper the rage. I come to ATS (and others) and read other peoples opinions, occasionally share mine and assimilate information.

Many of us without this outlet would indeed be talking to neighbors, distributing flyers and arranging physical meetings with like minded people.

To get another ATS member to read yet another article about the NWO or... doesn't really accomplish much, they were already looking for information. Trying to inform those that are unaware would be much more fruitful. Physically assembling aware people would be beneficial too. It's really hard to work up enough fervor venting on this keyboard to actually convene a rally on the steps of the Capitol but get enough angy people in one room you might just start a revolution.