SOPA was killed by a catchphrase. It was killed by “SOPA = censorhship.”
For a recent article on the subject, see today’s New York Times article by Cary Sherman, What Wikipedia Won’t Tell You.
I probably agree with most of what is presented.
The new WMD: the catchphrase.
Yet I cannot stop from considering it is like “what goes around comes around.” Not in the sense of the substance of the issue, but in the realpolitik.
Those who have a cause have seen that the proper manipulation of the ignorant is the key to power. And that the catchphrase is the new WMD.
My best example of this is the liberal use of the term “racist” to apply to anybody who disagrees with them on any subject, regardless of the irrelevancy of “racism” to the facts at hand.
Other liberal catchphrases also come to mind: “tax cuts for the weathly”, “corporate greed”, and you probably knew this was the soap box I was headed for.
In any case, just as a major corporation might spend hundreds of millions of create a new logo, those in power need to “spend” the equivalent to come up with the appropriate catchphrase to be their WMD.
You cannot seem to stop any of them:
- SOPA = censorship
- racist
- etc.