Step 1: Facebook sucks. Facebook groups attract media attention and presumed human attention, but they don’t do diddly. Announcing your opinion on your Facebook profile (or your blog, frankly) is useless.
Step 2: Call Congress. A lot. In the past month, I have called my Senators multiple times — about the Brown-Kaufman break-up-the-big-banks amendment, net neutrality, Audit the Fed, and climate change legislation. Who knows if my voice will matter? Phone calls to Congress do work, but the side of the political aisle that crashes the Capitol’s phone system is Rush Limbaugh’s. I also called the FCC about the decision to regulate broadband providers as basic service telecommunications companies.
Not because of my call, but because of other calls like it, the FCC will in fact reclassify broadband providers. And Brown-Kaufman, as well as Audit the Fed, will hit the Senate floor for a vote.
If you’re not calling, the other side’s zealots are.
Step 3: Talk to cranky conservatives about politics. The internet is making the hermetic world even more hermetic. We only talk to the people who agree with us, which makes things dangerous for those increasingly out of touch with reality. People don’t trust the media, or the government. People do trust their friends and family. Snark and aggression don’t solve the problem (I should talk). Sincerity and honesty do.
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