cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/2628014
Charlie Jane Anders discusses KOSA (the Kids Online Safety Act).
If you’re in the US, https://www.stopkosa.com/ makes it easy to contact your Senators and ask them to oppose KOSA.
"A new bill called the Kids Online Safety Act, or KOSA, is sailing towards passage in the Senate with bipartisa>n support. Among other things, this bill would give the attorney general of every state, including red states, the right to sue Internet platforms if they allow any content that is deemed harmful to minors. This clause is so vaguely defined that attorneys general can absolutely claim that queer content violates it — and they don’t even need to win these lawsuits in order to prevail. They might not even need to file a lawsuit, in fact. The mere threat of an expensive, grueling legal battle will be enough to make almost every Internet platform begin to scrub anything related to queer people.
The right wing Heritage Foundation has already stated publicly that the GOP will use this provision to remove any discussions of trans or queer lives from the Internet. They’re salivating over the prospect.
And yep, I did say this bill has bipartisan support. Many Democrats have already signed on as co-sponsors. And President Joe Biden has urged lawmakers to pass this bill in the strongest possible terms."
Blech, I’m visiting the states right now and I’m planning to get out of here again because it’s so conservative, and all my friends here are like: “What are you talking about? This country is so progressive.” Pppffff, this country is progressive in the way new coke was progressive. Nothing much changed, the things that did change were worse, and then they walked it back.
So did you like new coke or not?
Okay, I looked it up, coke had quietly changed sugar to corn syrup before introducing new coke and then when they went back to Coke classic, they just kept using corn syrup instead of real sugar. So classic Coke isn’t actually classic coke it was retro branded newer coke.
I can’t even remember, I just liked the analogy, although I feel like I remember reading an article about how all Coke today is actually new coke because when they went back to classic coke they didn’t actually go back to the classic formula, They just said they did but still changed some ingredients.
As far as I can recall, “new coke” tasted more like Pepsi? Sweeter. Did you try it?
No I don’t drink soda. It was meant more tongue in cheek, but I suppose by not even drinking soda it might extend the metaphor?
Like you could tell me anything and I wouldn’t have a clue.
It varies wildly depending on where you live. What state are you in?
Even the most blue states are conservative compared to other countries.
True enough, but there’s a huge difference between how conservative different places are.