From: Jerry Levy (Gerald_A_Levy@MSN.COM)
Date: Sun Feb 26 2006 - 12:36:33 EST
> I'm not so sure. If 99% of internet stuff is commercially driven, still > people have considerable control over what they look at and very > considerable control over what interests them. One can pursue ones own > interests pretty damn effectively, it seems to me, and I've haven't seen > change in this respect over the years. Take 9-11: what stops you or me > from going to whatever interests us in this topic so important to the U.S. > government? Do you expect restrictions? Hi Paul Z, Like TV, it's true that you have some degree of choice -- you can turn the station (although, I guess, that's kind of an archaic formulation: 'use the remote' would be more contemporary). And, it's true, that you have more choice on the Web in the sense that there are far more web sites than TV channels (even including all of the cable stations). But, the amount of commercial sites has skyrocketed in recent years, their importance for corporations has blasted off, and commercialism has insinuated itself into many alternative forums. E.g. if OPE-L was a yahoo group, then there would be advertising alongside and pasted to every post. You write that you can pursue your interests pretty damn feely. To same extent that's true -- what you can't do often is pursue your interests without being confronted by advertising. E.g. let's say you're interested in baseball: the overwhelming amount of sites which concern baseball are either commercial sites and/or have commercial advertising. So, businesses _insinuate themselves_ into your interests even when not invited. Do I expect restrictions on your access to sites? I think the greater immediate danger is the monitoring of sites you go to. This is done by corporations (c.f. Microsoft; spyware) and -- I believe -- states. Don't you think the National Security Agency (NSA) monitors who goes to what sites? Let me give you an example: A good friend of mine is on the coordinating committee of Al-Awda so I checked-out some of their web sites the other day. Al-Awda (The Right to Return) has been classified by some right-wingers/ Zionists as "terrorist" (which, of course, is ridiculous). Given the current political context, I have every expectation that: a) it was recorded that I visited Al-Awda sites (which might be viewed by the NSA as a highly suspicious activity worthy of a terrorist sympathizer); b) by mentioning "Al Awda" in _this post_ I think it is quite possible that someone at the NSA using a search engine will end up reading this post [To NSA reader: F--- yourself!]. Do you think my expectations are unreasonable? In solidarity, Jerry
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