Hey all I’m interrupting your regularly scheduled Retro Game Friday with a post on Net Neutrality and why we need everyone to tell those fat old men in D.C. to shove their twisted schemes up their own rears. This post is for those in the US, but anyone else may want to read it in case their government decides this BS is okay to do.

Net Neutrality?: Net neutrality is the principle that Internet providers like Comcast & Verizon should not control what we see and do online. In 2015, startups, Internet freedom groups, and 3.7 million commenters won strong net neutrality rules from the US Federal Communication Commission (FCC). The rules prohibit Internet providers from blocking, throttling, and paid prioritization—”fast lanes” for sites that pay, and slow lanes for everyone else.

So why is this coming back now?: Well it’s been an on and off issue pretty much since the start of the internet. People like Comcast’s CEO want to make more money off a service that is deemed a public utility and want to charge more for getting access to sites and your connection speed? You think you lag bad online now? If this shit passes it’ll only get worse, and you’ll end up paying tons of money just to play your favorite games online, or read stuff like my blog posts. Hell you might even be prevented from seeing websites all together because the “government” wants to block public access for whatever reason. All of this is bad, bad news.

What can I do?: Well first go to this site, battleforthenet.com, and send a letter to Congress telling them to get off their fat bums and do their jobs properly. There’s even a convenient template letter on that site, and I highly suggest you use it. Second call your local congressional representative and jam their phones. Afterwards, tell others. Even just simply retweeting or reposting this will do.  Finally, well if this continues on I’m not going to advocate rioting in the streets, that’d be illegal. But if you should decide that you are outraged enough and decide to organize a flash mob outside your local governmental office or capital steps I wouldn’t say you were in the wrong. Feel free to get angry and loud, in fact it’s best if you do so. Please, so I can continue writing about all sorts of things, make a ruckus. I might be unable to continue writing posts like this if these jerks get their way.

Also bless you Wikipedia, you are awesome.