Uspol - Blog Posts
made a beautiful google slides infographic in 60 seconds on why u should Fucking Vote
im sorry this is so fucking funny to me. they woulda taken my 8year old ass outback and put me down like old yeller
URGENT: đ¨đ¨EARN IT ACT IS BACK IN THE SENATE đ¨đ¨ tumblr's nsfw ban hitting the entire internet this spring 2022
February 1, 2022
Iâm so so sorry for the long post but please please please pay attention and spread this
WHAT IS THE EARN IT ACT?
The EARN IT Act has been roundly condemned by nearly every major LGBTQ+ advocacy and human rights organization in the country. This is a bill that will make children less safe, undermine online safety and security, and trample free expression, because it carves out another exception to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA 230), which the ACLU describes as âfoundational to modern online communications.â This has been the law that has let the internet grow into what it is today, weâve had this law since the 90s. (For context, Trump wanted to get rid of this law because he knew it would lead to mass govt surveillance and censorship of minorities online.)
The EARN IT Act will lead to online censorship. Platforms will be incentivized to scan their usersâ communications and censor all sex-related content, including sex education, literally anything lgbt, transgender or non-binary education and support systems, and sex worker communication according to the ACLU. All this in the name of âprotecting kidsâ and âfighting CSEMâ, both of which the bill does nothing of the sort. In fact it makes fighting CSEM even harder.
If this bill passes, we're going to see most, if not all, adult content and accounts removed from mainstream platforms, for fear of the liability that could come with ever accidentally hosting CSAM, as well as the erasure of end-to-end encryption on messaging platforms.
This is really not a drill. Anyone who makes or consume anything âadultâ online has to be prepared to fight Sen. Blumenthal's EARN IT Act, brought back from the grave by a bipartisan consensus to destroy Section 230.
EARN IT will open the way for politicians to define the category of âpornography" as they â or the lobbies that fund them â please, (Right now, right wing organizers are catgorizing books about racism as âpornâ to ban them from schools) which is a cherished goal of organizations that seek to reintroduce obscenity prosecutions for content now protected by Free Speech jurisprudence. This will 1000000% be used to eradicate anything LGBT online.
What this bill says it does on the surface is make platforms liable for their usersâ activity if that activity involves sex and minors. However, because of 230, platforms are not liable at all about their users' activity. This has allowed platforms to grow and thrive and many niches online to as well. The bill also creates an unelected commission to create âbest practicesâ to combat online child sexual exploitation. While these recommendations are nominally voluntary (so Americans have no decision on who gets to be on it), platforms that refuse to comply will be liable for criminal prosecutions and lawsuits should the government decide any of their users is engaging in online child sexual exploitation.
This is already a nightmare enough. But the bill also DESTROYS ENCRYPTION, you know, the thing protecting literally anyone or any govt entity from going into your private messages and emails and anything on your devices and spying on you.
This bill is going to finish what FOSTA/SESTA started. And that should terrify you.
Senator Blumenthal (Same guy who said âFacebook should ban finstaâ) pushed this bill all of 2020, literally every activist (There were more than half a million signatures on this site opposing this act!) pushed hard to stop this bill. Now he brings it back, doesnât show the text of the bill until hours later, and itâs WORSE. Instead of fixing literally anything in the bill that might actually protect kids online, Bluemnthal is hoping to fast track this and shove it through, hoping to get little media attention other than propaganda of "protecting kids" to support this shitty legislation that will harm kids.
The entire EARN IT act is based on *multiple* misunderstandings of the law and reality. It's a really really really bad policy that will do serious harm. But because Senator Blumenthal wants headlines, he'll pretend that it "helps protect the children." It won't. It'll do real damage. It will make CSEM much much worse.
One of the many reasons this bill is so dangerous: It totally misunderstands how Section 230 works, and in doing so (as with FOSTA) it is likely to make the very real problem of CSAM worse, not better. Section 230 gives companies the flexibility to try different approaches to dealing with various content moderation challenges. It allows for greater and greater experimentation and adjustments as they learn what works -- without fear of liability for any "failure." Removing Section 230 protections does the opposite. It says if you do anything, you may face crippling legal liability. This actually makes companies less willing to do anything that involves trying to seek out, take down, and report CSAM because of the greatly increased liability that comes with admitting that there is CSAM on your platform to search for and deal with. This liability would allow anyone for any reason to sue any platform they want, suing smaller ones out of existence. Look at what is happening right now with book bans across the nation with far right groups. This is going to happen to the internet if this bill passes.
(Remember, the state department released a report in December 2021 recommending that the government crack down on "obscenity" as hard the Reagan Administration did. If this bill passes, it could easily go way beyond shit red states are currently trying. It is a goldmine for the fascist right that is currently in the middle of banning every book that talks about race and sexuality across the US.)
NCOSE, the far right anti-LGBT hate group behind the global anti-sex legislations, is pushing the idea that any form of sexual expression, including talking about HEALTH, leads to sex trafficking. Their goal is to eliminate all sex, anything gay, and everything that goes against their idea of âGodâ from the internet and hyper disney-fy and sanitize it. This is a highly coordinated attack on multiple fronts.
The reason these bills keep showing up is because there is this false lie spread by organizations like NCOSE that platforms do nothing about CSEM online. However, platforms are already liable for child sexual exploitation under federal law. Tech companies sent more than 45 million+ instances of CSAM to the DOJ in 2019 alone, most of which they declined to investigate. This shows that platforms are actually doing everything in their power already to stop CSEM by following already existing laws. The Earn It Act includes zero resources for proven investigation or prevention programs. If Senator Bluementhal actually cared about protecting youth, why wouldnât he include anything to actually protect them in his shitty horrible bill?
The Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) along with a coalition of 26 civil society organizations urged the United States Senate to reject the EARN IT Act. Groups on the left and right, including the ACLU, Fight for the Future, EFF, and Hacking // Hustling oppose it. Because it threatens free expression online and will threaten marginalized peopleâs safety while being totally unnecessary and failing to fix the problem it claims to address. The EARN IT Act empowers states to give law enforcement access to usersâ private conversations and force companies to create encryption backdoors for law enforcement. This is totally unnecessary. Platforms are already handing over CSAM to the federal government. Itâs actually likely to make prosecuting child molesters more difficult since evidence collected this way likely violates the Fourth Amendment and would be inadmissible in court.
I don't know why so many Senators are eager to cosponsor the "make child pornography worse" bill, but here we are.
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
EARN IT Act was introduced yesterday! And itâs already scheduled to get marked up, which is the first step post-introduction. Most bills never go to markup, so this means they are putting pressure to move this through. IF YOU LIVE IN THESE STATES (IL, VT, CA, RI, MN, DE, CT, HI, NJ, and GA), CONTACT YOUR SENATOR AND HOUSE MEMBERS NOW. THIS IS URGENT. This is who gets first crack, and folks in all have Senators who are on the Judiciary committee.
I'm guessing this month or March is when the bill would be passed if there is no opposition đ The bill was re-introduced yesterday, already set for markup this Thursday. This feels like an attempt to fast track it this month. Additionally the current makeup of Congress favors those who want it passed. Back in 2020 it was mostly Senate republicans and democrats who are basically republicans (just like now, check the sponsors) pushing it with Ron Wyden using the filibuster to stop their efforts. The house dems didn't want to give Trump a win and needed to appear as pro-privacy/free speech for the 2020 election. Now the dems have the presidency, both chambers of Congress and if you've noticed have spent a few years repeatedly demanding social media censorship and desperately want to give Biden victories. biden isn't like obama who opposed sopa/pipa to appeal to younger voters. This is similar to how FOSTA passed with the group who made it happen last time back again. Far as I'm aware Wyden hasn't spoken about new earn it yet but even if he does oppose it, it's very possible there will be enough Senate democrats to join the republicans in passing it beating a filibuster. Then pelosi's band of house idiots pass it and we have to choose between breaking the law because they can't stop us from using encryption or being obedient sheep to a group who consider themselves above laws.
It already has a fifth of the Senate cosponsoring it. There is a very very very real chance this bill becomes law. This is an uphill battle that's going to happen fast and quick. PLEASE, FIGHT NOW.
202-224-3121 connects you to the congressional hotline.
This website takes you to your Senator / House members contact info. EMAIL, MESSAGE, SEND LETTERS, CALL CALL CALL CALL CALL. Calling is the BEST way to get a message through. Get your family and friends to send calls too. This is literally the end of free speech online.
More sources to read about this bill:
https://cathyreisenwitz.substack.com/p/the-earn-it-act-is-anti-evidence
Fight for the Futureâs Statement
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=678EW8v09z8&t=1s
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20220131/22423648395/senates-new-earn-it-bill-will-make-child-exploitation-problem-worse-not-better-still-attacks-encryption.shtml
EARN IT Act treats Myths as Facts.
https://surviveearnit.com/what-is-the-earn-it-act/ From 2020, but little has changed about the bill.
https://www.protocol.com/bulletins/earn-it-act-back
Center for Democracy and Technologyâs Statement
TLDR: The EARN IT Act will lead to online censorship of any and all adult & lgbt content across the entire internet, open the floodgates to mass surveillance the likes which we haven't seen before, lead to much more CSEM being distributed online, and destroy encryption. Call 202-224-3121 to connect to your house and senate representative and tell them to VOTE NO on this bill that does not protect anyone and harms everyone.
As predicted, they're coming for Obergefell.
Idaho has, today--01/01/2025--asked the US Supreme Court to revoke Obergefell v. Hodges, and strike down the legality of gay marriage.
Iowa's governor signed a bill that makes discrimination against LGBTQ+ folks legal by removing them as a protected class. This is the first state to do so and sadly we will likely see other states follow suit.
"Couldn't they all come at once and get it over with?"
- Scrouge
!['You'll be visited by 3 spirits' and 'The spirits:' [Image of three bullets labeled 'DENY,' 'DEFEND,' and 'DEPOSEâ]](https://64.media.tumblr.com/79d4b5d1f714c062231b372daa0c296f/e0f69d5e5aae2605-38/s500x750/6b0808a800f71bb4dd8204fcee9fb95ba1204d60.jpg)
Scares the Dickens out them. đł
Vote.
No buts. No 'all evil candidates.' No excuses. No bullshit. You either give a shit about what's happening to you in the United States or you fucking don't. No pleasantries, no argument to hide behind, this is it. Been seeing a lot of Propaganda cropping up again in my feed and I am 10,000% not here for it. I have officially hit my absolute limit for complete and utter nonsense spouted by right-wing bots and plants as some psyop to get the chronically online to not vote.
Bite your lip. Hold your nose. Hell, complain the whole time if you want. But fucking vote. If you care, you fucking vote. That's it.
DOGE just froze funding to vital Federal and Indigenous conservation programs devoted to supporting the very delicate and tenuous existence of the black-footed ferret.
I fell in love with these animals as a kid traveling to our National Parks. Their rarity and ferocity made me sharply aware, even as a child, of just how much of a responsibility we have toward our environment. I can't bear the thought of them being a fucking casualty of Trump and Musk.
Look at them! They do war dances.
In before the ineffective leftists who actively work against their own future and the futures of others jump in: Yes, Kamala did indeed defend Israel's right to exist and ensure their safety and reiterate the United States' support for them. She also said she would work toward a ceasefire in Gaza, and work toward the Palestinian "right to dignity, security, freedom, and self-determination." Those were her words. So if you refuse to vote for Kamala at this point, or go balls to the wall insane and vote for Trump, know you're not actually abstaining/"revenge voting" for or in support of Palestine because one candidate is calling for their freedom, and the other wants them obliteratedâand it's not Kamala.
Somewhere I saw a post that was like, "any state can turn blue if enough people vote."
This is very true. And with so much at stake here, you shouldn't assume that people won't turn out in droves to vote blue even in red states.
Project 2025/Agenda 47 isn't the kind of thing that normal, everyday Republicans actually want. Trumpers are a weird bunch. As we raise more awareness, your Republican swing voter types are going to be like, "hey uh, wait, this isn't what I want" and a lot of them are going to start eyeing Harris.
So even if you live in a red state, don't assume that your vote is meaningless. Do not. For one minute. Assume this.
So far, one of the main things Trumpers have been trying to insult Harris with is her laugh. Seriously, her laugh, which is by all reasonable metrics a perfectly nice laugh. I guess it sorta makes sense that they'd do this, though; Trump built his platform on being a mean asshole, while Harris's laugh sounds warm and friendly. It's like they're trying to insult her for not being mean and nasty.
How it's going:
People are feeling hope for the first time in ages now that Kamala Harris is running for president.
People - everyday, ordinary people - are donating millions of dollars to her campaign.
Huge numbers of young people are registering to vote for her.
Donald J. Trump is scared shitless.
And it's only been three days since Joe Biden dropped out!
Whatever happens, two things remain true: 1. Trump might be distancing himself from Project 2025, but his Agenda 47, which is on his website, is basically the same thing. 2. Third party voting is useless without ranked choice voting; it's mathematically impossible to elect a third party candidate. DO NOT SPLIT THE VOTE.
Not to be an obligatory Donation link post, but while weâre at itâŚ
Planned Parenthood
NARAL Pro-Choice America
EMILYâs List
The National Abortion Federation
Center for Reproductive Rights
if youâre interested in donating, all of these orgs fight on a federal level to help ensure Womenâs rights & Womenâs right to choose. They aim to expand access to and provide resources about abortion, & elect federal officials who will support abortion rights
oh someone at the guardian has lost the will to live
There is so much more I could say about this, but there is not enough room. Remember to check with reality rather than believing conspiracy theories promoted, supported, and funded by white nationalist hate groups.
Missouri is proposing 20% of the nationâs anti-trans legislation this session. Gender-affirming care for young folks is on the edge of being criminalized (so much love to trans friends in states where that has already happened).
Please keep up with the anti-trans legislation in your state and combat it. There are lives at stake.
Transphobes do not touch this post.
Image ID: a 10-image cartoon comic featuring Joey, a boy with short hair.
Image 1: Joey, upset, gesticulates towards an open laptop. Text reads: The reality of St. Louis trans kids. Last week, a former (non-medical) employee of Washington Universityâs Pediatric Transgender Center was featured in a viral article about how the clinic was ârushingâ kids into medical care and âmutilatingâ us. Every single thing she said was a lie, but the media loves it. Footnote reads: I wouldnât give any more attention to this, but it is immediately endangering the lives of trans people. Missouri has launched a state investigation and is actively attempting to criminalize gender-affirming care based on conspiracy theories.
Image 2: Joey points to a map of the United States where Missouri is singled out, and a map of Missouri where St. Louis is indicated with a star. The text reads: The Transgender Center, located in St. Louis, Missouri, has been the target of hateful attacks from the far-right state legislature for years. It is part of Washington University Hospital, a branch of a prestigious private university.
Image 3: A younger Joey injects his T shot in his leg while someone takes a photo. Text reads: I can tell you that everything in the article is false because I received care at the Transgender Center beginning at 16 years old. My medical transition has brought me nothing but joy. What a gift it is to be trans!
Image 4: A younger Joey sits on a couch and stims with a tangle fidget toy. Text reads: No one is ârushedâ. I sat on many waitlists, had to have 6 months of specialized gender therapy and a diagnosis of gender dysphoria before even being referred to the Center, and I was denied as ânot ready enoughâ by an endocrinologist the first time I finally got an appointment. Footnote reads: If youâre curious about what it looks like to be a trans kid, I did another piece on that! Check out tinyurl.com/transkidscomictumblr.
Image 5: A colorful map of the United States shows how many states have a Negative Gender Identity Policy Tally and how many states have criminalized gender affirming care. Joey holds a credit card. Text reads: St. Louisâ Pediatric Transgender Center is the only one in the region, meaning the waitlists are extremely long. Plus, no one in the only industrialized country without free healthcare is getting medical care for fun. Many American trans folks have to fundraise for our care.
Image 6: Joey, distressed, sits on a couch while talking on the phone. The person on the other end says: âThatâs me!â Text reads: This former employee spoke about specific cases, and patients have been able to identify themselves. She shared our private medical info and called us horrifying.
Image 7: This is split into two panels. In the first, Joey holds up a box of condoms and a packet of birth control pills. Texts reads: She especially hated trans men such as myself, saying that trans ideology was destroying âgirlsâ. She lamented about hormones making us âsterileâ, which is a complete lie. We trans mascs have to actively prevent pregnancy. In panel two stands a doctor. Text reads: Every time I had an appointment at the Center, doctors reminded me: Remember: testosterone is not a contraceptive! Footnote reads: The wonderful Erin Reed wrote a breakdown debunking all the lies in the article. See tinyurl.com/erinreedmissouri.
Image 8: Joey, masked, sits at a circular table with his brother, an unmasked boy with fluffy short hair. Joeyâs brother is showing him his phone. Text reads: Major newspapers continue to platform these complete lies because they bring in engagement and money. The Washington Post tracked down my little brotherâs personal cell phone number to try to get in contact with our mom â the president of an organization supporting trans kids in Missouri. Freaky, right?
Image 9: Joey, looking disgusted, leans against a door frame while talking on a cell phone. Text reads: But no one wants to talk with me, the adult who medically transitioned at this clinic as a minor and has not âdesistedâ in six years. The Washington Post reporter, who didnât know anything about trans people, talked with me for 20 minutes and used a sentence of mine in an article about âboth sides of the debateâ. She didnât mention that this former employee is being legally represented by a recognized anti-LGBT hate group, nor that all of her claims are unsupported by reality or science.
Image 10: Joey looks angry and gesticulates. Beside the drawing are two photos of Joey, one of him happy in front of a trans flag, and the other of him drawing up testosterone to take his first T shot. Text reads: There is no debate. There are trans people, and there are people who want us dead. There is truth and there are conspiracy theories. Where is my viral article in a major paper?
Published Feb 16, 2023. End ID.
Can we please stop calling Republicans compulsive/pathological liars, psychopaths, sociopaths, narcicists, delusional, etc? And can we please stop calling Democrats the r slur? I don't care what they've done, cut it out
Yes, even when it's Trump.
Once again, leftists are forgetting disability in their activism.
The vast majority seem unable to acknowledge how dangerous a Trump presidency will be for disabled people along with other minorities.