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Comment by 1337biz | Hacker News Reader

As a concerned citizen I believe white house petitions are the most counterproductive tool to channel citizen rage.

Indeed. It is somewhat of a faux-vote. You are given the impression that you 'vote' counts. It doesn't really. I'd never thought about it that way before.

It's a manipulative way to discourage action. Oh, I can just sign a petition and everything will be cool? Sounds good, no need to call my representatives or take further action.

Certainly not the most counterproductive - the ballot box takes that cake.

What would be a good alternative?

Honestly - anything that makes elective representatives experience it. Best would probably be showing up at town hall meetings and asking smart questions. But even a two line email "I disagree with your stand on x. Please reconsider your position on x" is in my opinion making a much higher impact than any of these petitions.

One effective strategy that was used in Finland was buying huge posters of the politician in question and placing them in key areas where said politician had a lot of voters.[1]

The socialist minister tried to impose new copyright-related taxes. The poster says "Exploitation of the workers! Arhinmäki wants the buyers of computers and phones to pay a blank media tax". A few days later he succumbed to pressure.

Demonstrations haven't been that effective.

1. http://imgur.com/b58pLB4

This is great stuff. Now who is up for a kickstarter? Feinstein definitely deserves a few NSA billboards of her own!

I'm going to try to attend my congresswoman's town hall next Thursday to ask questions about NSA surveillance. What "Smart" questions would you recommend that I ask?

Paper letters force staffers to use time on them. Pissed off staffers makes hell for the officials. The more letters, the better. It's like a DDoS, but legal.

Could make a great API where users can either compose a short letter or donate for the postage.

Perhaps just as much of a "faux vote" but...

Right now the White House is promoting the hashtag #WeTheGeeks to talk about tech on Twitter.

I'd love to see We The Geeks reclaim this hash tag to talk about how we feel about NSA Spying.

Term limits.

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