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Comment by nhayden | Hacker News Reader

I'm not sure what this is supposed to do. You're showing a congress a list of people who disapprove of privacy violations. Then what? Congress knows people disapprove and they don't seem to care.

I dislike slacktivism like this. I feel that it's damaging because it wastes attention and effort that could be put to good use. Instead of taking a photo of yourself and writing a hashtag, become an informed and educated voter who actually votes, votes for people who represent the majority of your beliefs (don't be a single issue voter), and votes for someone who has a track record of governing as they promised they would. Encourage others to do the same. It's literally the only thing that will fix these problems.

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> I dislike slacktivism like this. I feel that it's damaging because it wastes attention and effort that could be put to good use.

I don't think it's a waste of attention. This is also something you should share after you've done -- the hope is to raise awareness. In addition, they want to put faces to the constituents who are against privacy violations. Ethos is a valid appeal.

"Slacktivism" is a word that devalues small contributions on the part of constituents who might otherwise do nothing to express their voice. Behind every group of "slacktivists" is a passionate group whose goal is to make unheard voices apparent. To decry "slacktivisism" is to decry the work of those people, to say it doesn't matter when in reality it has a measurable effect. E.g online activism against SOPA/PIPA, Aaron's Law, these are outgrowths.

> become an informed and educated voter who actually votes... Encourage others to do the same. It's literally the only thing that will fix these problems.

The people running these campaigns are doing exactly that, encouraging people to vote if they can. Barring that, signing petitions is the next best thing. Anecdotally I've become better informed because of projects like these, and in doing so become a better voter.

The issue is not a lack of awareness. The vast majority of the voting-capable population has heard, to at least some extent, that the NSA/others are surveilling communications. The issue is either they don't care, they agree with the surveillance, or they are too lazy to become informed and vote to change it.

There is literally nothing on this site about being involved in voting or the politicians supporting or fighting this type of activity. If they at the very least gave visitors some way to continue their participation and become informed, I would be fine with it. Right now it's just attention for the sake of attention. It needs to be channeled into something useful.

The site is a showcase for the organizer to get attention to win a job at a big tech company. See also: the online self-appointed leaders of Occupy who went to work for Google on adtech.

This isn't true, and is an incredibly cynical sentiment.

https://www.fightforthefuture.org/aboutus

> See also: the online self-appointed leaders of Occupy who went to work for Google on adtech.

I don't know about the veracity of that but it doesn't seem relevant. Some people care / try to effect social change. These people are some of them. This is one of the main groups that helped bring SOPA / PIPA to light (see: Aaron Swartz)

> The issue is not a lack of awareness. The vast majority of the voting-capable population has heard, to at least some extent, that the NSA/others are surveilling communications.

"at least to some extent" is quite a qualifier. Fact is awareness is always important, and projects like these do exactly that.

> The issue is either they don't care, they agree with the surveillance, or they are too lazy to become informed and vote to change it.

"Awareness" also involves grabbing the attention of otherwise "lazy" people who aren't incentivized to care.

> There is literally nothing on this site about being involved in voting or the politicians supporting or fighting this type of activity. If they at the very least gave visitors some way to continue their participation and become informed, I would be fine with it. Right now it's just attention for the sake of attention. It needs to be channeled into something useful.

This app is part of FightForTheFuture (https://www.fightforthefuture.org), it gives visitors a way to donate and the organization has lots of info. It is useful.

Most people share instead of taking action. That's why it is slacktivism

Sharing is taking action. Awareness is important.

If that's all the part someone is willing to do, fine. If a lot of people are like that, OK. But some decide to do more when they become aware, and that's why this is important.

> votes for people who represent the majority of your beliefs

This is currently very close to impossible in the US. We have a two-party system, solidified by our First Past the Post voting system. I am forced to cast one vote for the candidate who represents my views the most, which ends up being about 10-20% of my views.

On top of this, once someone does get elected, our political system is such that politicians listen to the highest payers first, constituents at a distant second.

Going out and voting does very little. Yes, we should still do it, and not give up, but until we fix our broken voting system such that citizens can vote for people who actually represent them without the spoiler effect and until we fix our political system so politicians are accountable to their constituents again, internet activism, public shaming, and what comes down to basically pestering the hell out of these people is a perfectly good line of defense.

This is why when I vote, I put a lot of weight on those who advocate campaign reform and voting reform.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcotizing_dysfunction

Narcotizing dysfunction is a theory that as mass media inundates people on a particular issue they become apathetic to it, substituting knowledge for action.

That's a nice thing you can do for yourselves as US citizens. What can I do as a non-US citizen to help out? I don't want to see your large-militaried country become an authoritarian regime any more than you do. :)

Are you concerned about privacy in your own country? You should be voting for leaders who don't allow the US to put their fingers in your pie. As an individual you should be taking steps to protecting your online activity and data.

Develop, deploy and promote open-source encrypted communications tech, with strong secret keys.

Vote and agitate for depowering your federal govt, in favor of local government

You are proposing a false dichotomy.

I think you are taking my post too literally, but please feel free to explain further.

You phrased education and voting as an alternative to participating in this campaign. They are not mutually exclusive, and I suspect that people who participate are likely to also educate themselves and vote.

I agree they are not exclusive, but I can see how my comment suggests they are. There's no harm in people doing both, and I agree they're more likely to vote if they participate, but mostly only due to correlation and not causation.

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