AWKWARD ZOMBIE

The media's been getting its fair share of skewering since the election. Rightly so, in my opinion.

This piece from the magazine Jacobin gives a brief history of the commercialization of American media, commercialization that greatly aided Trump's election. Various protections that were instated during the New Deal era were dismantled, paving the way for a high amount of consolidation and for media companies to let the public interest take a back seat to profit.

This article from Fortune criticizes the post-election media sensationalism surrounding both "fake news" and Russia. Specifically, it picks apart a poorly-thought-out piece in the Washington Post that utilizes sources such as a conservative think tank with an axe to grind against Russia and an organization/site that practically popped up out of nowhere.

Both are worthwhile articles, in my opinion, for pointing out 1) A systemic problem with modern news and media that resulted from actions a ways back in the past and 2) Media going overboard after the election trying to figure out how somebody like Trump could get elected and possibly trying to pass the blame somewhere else that may or may not exist.

Yesterday, thanks to the U.S. Justice Department under Obama, the FBI gained more powers to more easily hack into people's computers. AT&T has ran and continues to run a huge mass surveillance regime for law enforcement. This will likely never be brought up during the hearing regarding AT&T's merger with Time Warner, which would make them one of the biggest, if not the biggest, media conglomerate ever.

What these two things have in common is how shockingly little media exposure they got. The changes to the FBI's Rule 41 got articles in the likes of USA Today, Gizmodo, and Engadget and Reuters in the day of December 1st and the day after, but I can't find much in the way of articles on these mainline news and tech news sites in the weeks and days leading up to December 1st. The AT&T Hemisphere program was uncovered in 2013, but the company has faced shockingly little backlash since then.

The amount of complacency and neglect that people show these issues both irritates and disturbs me. I think that a lot of average people thought that after SOPA was defeated, everything would be good from then on out and no steady amount of pressure or scrutiny would need to be maintained. People got over the Snowden Revelations stunningly fast. The only real wins that the public's gotten since then have been the net neutrality ruling in 2015 (and the subsequent court cases that have affirmed the FCC's power to uphold net neutrality rules) and the widespread coverage of the FBI trying to force Apple to break their own security (and to set a precedent that they could get other tech companies to do the same). Apparently people only care when you mess with their ability to easily stream Netflix or if you mess with their beloved multi-billion-dollar tech brands. Of course all of that will likely go out the window with our upcoming President. The only thing that he can't undo is the untethering of ICANN from the U.S. Commerce Department. Glad that got done before the election.

You'd think that with Trump being the President-elect, there would've been more widespread coverage of things that could have the potential to give him even more easily abuse-able power. The Justice Department just gave him a massive new power, and Obama, being the head of the Executive branch, could have easily stopped the go-ahead with the changes to Rule 41. But he didn't. And nobody seems to have really called him out on that or his other non-actions on issues pertaining to mass surveillance.

Complacency and apathy in all of their forms are the worst things for us to keep on with during these upcoming four years, especially in regard to policies that deal with the openness of the Internet and the ability for governments to mass-spy on their citizens.

Because the focus is ON Donald Trump. And because things like this crop up every 3-6 months (or more regularly but causing smaller waves because smaller threats/less visible need for signal boosting), people get tired of it and tired of caring. After the 4th or 5th SOPA thing getting shot down people think that there's no chance that politicians are dumb enough to pass it this time or that it's not as big a deal as people make it out to be because we survived all the other things happening.

Look how long it took for the Sioux Falls thing to get in the news and NOW it's just being covered as a "Oh these people better move out of here and stop protesting because their lives are in danger from a blizzard, surely nothing is worth staying out in this blizzard when a deadline is coming up to start building."

It's not really shocking that this is happening honestly, at least to me.

Finally some good news on the subject of the DAPL. However, I feel I should point out that this isn't over. The protesters have been subjected to utterly inhumane treatment, and those responsible need to face consequences for their actions. On top of that, we still need to be wary of where the pipeline will go and the threats it poses. And of course, I don't see any reason to trust that the Trump administration will honor this decision or give a daisies about what environmental threats the pipeline could pose.

EDIT: FFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK

Well time to kick start this thread again wheeeeeeeeeee

So now the CIA is claiming that Russian hackers helped Trump to win the election, and that the GOP did nothing to stop it despite having knowledge of the hacks

If this is actually legit, then holy fuck

Like, this is actual, world changing shit going on right here

Does this mean Bernie still has a chance?

What? What does that mean? Is this a communism joke?

Has the news been right about anything at all lately? Honestly, it's just an anonymous source, if the CIA actually came out and said something then maybe it would hold ground. Controversy sells, and with Trump being president elect, it's a field day for them.

North Carolina Republicans have passed a bill severely limiting the incoming governor's power. This is following an emergency session that was supposedly called to discuss hurricane relief - you know, THE THING THAT FROTHING MUG OF SANTORUM PAT MCCRORY CUT FUNDING FOR IN ORDER TO DEFEND HIS TRANSPHOBIC BATHROOM BILL.

Oh, and by the way, the FBI is in agreement with the CIA that Russia interfered with the election.

Snopes confirmed it too so can we please not do the whole "bloohoo you can't believe everything you read on the internet" spiel that my dad is always yanking out of his booty at me

"I mean, sure, Russia are a bunch of assholes, but isn't it a good thing that they want to patch things up with the president?" -My Dad's actual thoughts after living his whole life like the Cold War never ended and Red Terror is still a thing.

But hey, if the Republicans say it's good, who is he to question it?

He's the exact kind of person I dislike on this kind of stuff because he'd have a heart attack if Hillary was implicated with or said half the shit that Trump did.

It looks like North Carolina is finally going to get rid of HB2…after the anti-discrimination ordinance in Charlotte that prompted it in the first place got repealed. This doesn't feel like a victory. Fuck North Carolina.

Okay so... is the U.S so completely fucking retarded that it cant tell that Vladimimir Putin is the same person as Donald Trump, except Putin is capable of doing his actual job? Seriously, the ENTIRE WESTERN WORLD can tell except you, and its embarassing. I dont blame the Russians for supporting Putin because Yeltsin was a drunken failure who could barely dress himself, but Trump s basically the evidence that Russia was right all along - western democracy IS just a joke.

And Russia interfering in the election process; what they did was EXPOSE DATA. Thats it. They had no control over the voting system, that was ALL YOU. They made absolutely no move against you, it was ALL YOU. ANYTHING THAT HAPPENS FROM THIS POINT ON IS YOUR FAULT!

Do not take a single step farther with this aggressive, angry, hate shit. 62mil out of 318mil people is not the entire US. I don't care how you feel or think, we're done with this shitslinging. You wanna criticize our system? That's not a problem, but do it without saying people are retarded or screaming at a country you're not even a part of like we just kicked a dog. Keep it up and thread gets locked for the holidays. I've already had to say that last time, I'm not gonna do it again.

Merry non-denominational winter holiday of your preference. We are not turning this into drunken relatives screaming about politics at the dinner table.

RIP George Michael and Carrie Fisher.