A response to JXIIH's cell phone/computer/social media comment
My thoughts with social media is both the participants responsibility and the responsibility of those who have control over the social media.
You use social media such as cell phones and computers willingly. If what your saying is inappropriate or questionable then it is likely you shouldn't use such open forms of communication to express your ideas.
But also the responsibility falls on those with authority who think the information is inappropriate to make sure the information is public knowledge.
It's pretty much common since that if your plotting a mass causality attack of any sorts, you don't call CNN or BBC to do an article on it. As it is best for the person who is plotting the attack to tell someone who is logical to prevent it or if someone hears it to report it the responsibility is on them. It's the same with sensitive information.
If it's information everyone with a computer or cell phone shouldn't know; then it's either to keep it to those who should know it and use discrete communication or the information shouldn't be there to be known anyway.
For example: We all have those embarrassing secrets that we only tell our best friends at the most discrete of times in person. Not on our facebook wall or make a video blog on youtube where anyone with a computer can find it.
I know this is not exactly what is what JXIIH is talking about but it does place responsibility on both parties. The best analogy I can use is you get into a fight with someone. You didn't hit the person but you called his mother stupid which provoked him to hit you and you reacted by hitting him back.
Kind of the same thing with using computers or cell phones or computers. You didn't mean any harm by blogging about how unfair American corporations are but you provoked such a stir online that now there is a social movements with protests and pepper spray. (I'm not sure if this is what happened but it's my best guess that it is)
I can also see where JXIIH has a point in that some of the information is one sided. The Collateral Murder video I watched showed the armed forces as the people in the wrong. I do not agree with the action during the event but I also don't think that the helicopter pilots were completely wrong in their actions. I could point out flaws in their end. But I can also see mistakes that I could have made if I was in their shoes doing their job.
Part of what is wrong with anything when it comes to information is that you only get 1/2 the story a majority of the time its rare you get all the information. The Collateral Murder is all one sided. American soldiers are bad guys and bullies. Does anyone who think that know what it is like to be in a war? Does anyone know the feelings of the people in Iraq who have had big bully U.S.A. in their backyard for 8 years? Does anyone know if the helicopter pilots were under any stress that made them make mistakes? You can't form an opinion because a couple videos give a "Poor Iraqi" speech or show people (far from perfect) making mistakes or even show pictures of the victims. That's not fair to the people who may have actually been attacking the Americans it's not fair to the Americans who felt attacked.
My point is that there are more then one point to a story, there is a right and a wrong side. Also there are different responsibilities when it comes to communication. With computers and cell phones it comes down to what the sender says, how the receiver reacts to it, and the authority in charge of cell phone or internet service to censor and/or monitor the information and to make those conversations private after analysis.
Raine, as far as I see it is is not what is said - the content of social media messages, of texts, phone calls, etc, rather the how is it said and the ease by which this information can be stored, used for purposes other than for that which it was intended, and misappropriated by the government and mass media pigs.
People can use social media for good, to organise protests and demontrations, to exercise their democratic rights. This is a good thing, it is the real voice of the people making their real wishes and concerns known in a direct way. The policitians are sure as hell not in touch with that the average person suffers, feels or needs!
The problem here is that this very tool by which demonstrations are being organised can be used against people, to monitor people's actions and views, what they support...and do not support. The government, media and police can build up a very detailed picture of who a person is, what issues they support, where they go, what they do. This has been taken to an extreme, I see, in the UK, after the riots, where people have been prosecuted for "encouraging violence". Words have been outlawed. This is not a good thing, this is the thought police, Big Brother, being given power by the people, almost freely. Certainly without any forethought about how that information they post could be used against them, to profile them...and unfairly censure them.
I do not condone violence and destruction of property, per se, but I also am very concerned that that twitter, facebook and the like are being monitored by the Powers That Be, for subversive statements, and hints of actions which the State does not condone, and that information is being used to prosecute and harass citizens.
The world is not just America, and is not organised in "pro-american" and "anti-american" lines. Divisions of power, tribal loyalties, misplaced patriotism, or good old fashioned "nenenanana my country's better than your one" have no place in a civilised world. War is war, and those who glorify violence most often have never been actually involved in a dangerous, violent situation. Never feared for their life, and those of their children. I dont much care for war porn, it is all manipulated by the mass media, who sell the point of view the government wants to propagate with popcorn. Its time to fight back, to sell freedom with 3d glasses, popcorn and branded soda. It is the only way the masses will even think of buying it. I am nobody's stooge, and refuse to be manipulated in such a gross way, and so should you. So should everybody.
What makes the life of an Iraqi child less valuable than that of an American child, Raine? Not one Iraqi child is responsible for an American death, and yet they have been murdered in not insignificant numbers in a war with no justification apart from weapons of mass destruction, which did not exist. The mass media is manipulated so that people think in these terms, that the punishing of a whole country of people, a whole area of the world, a religion even, not just those who commited acts of terror, becomes a point of pride for the manipulated and sleeping masses. Hooah, take that, Iraq, serves you right for blowing up America....but when, Raine, when did Iraq attack America? It has always been a very small group of extremists who commit acts of terror, not a race, not a country, not a whole religion. I missed that one, I think? Its is not your fault, it is not the average American's fault...it is the extent to which you have been manipulated by your government and the media, and let down by an education system which values the transmission of patriotism and obedience above the facts and free thought.