Futurama Fry

No joke. I'm sure that has a lot to do with it.

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtains.

Its really the big ISPs (Comcast, Verizon, etc) who would be benefiting. What they would theoretically be able to do would be to show preference to some sites while placing others on a lower level of priority. For example, if you have Verizon internet and you decide to visit the site of a competitor to check their rates or potentially change service, they could slow down your access to the site, charge additional fees, or even block you altogether. Companies like Facebook, Google, etc don't want this because they don't want another company potentially controlling their users access to their sites. If for example Facebook were to get onto Verizon's bad side, either because they became a competitor or otherwise, Verizon could affect their users ability to access the site by slowing it way down, charging additional fees, etc. Internet Service companies of course love this because it gives them a monopoly over the internet. Companies dependent on the internet hate this for the reasons I just mentioned. Bottom line doing away with net neutrality is great if you are a Internet Service Provider executive, not so great for everyone else with an internet connection.

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I just did.

That doesn't mean we have a great, noble, or trustworthy government but even a blind squirrel finds a nut every now and then and this is an example of that. There are loads of anti-trust laws passed in the early part of the 20th century that still protect us today all you have to do is look it up.

[image deleted]The market will always protect freedom better than the government or fcc ever could. Don't like the product? Don't buy from Comcast or Verizon. They're not monopolies, so don't give me that. Net neutrality is anything but neutral. It was a government power grab. The big internet companies made billions, and could use their lobbyists to truly control the internet through government.

That is a falacy. The market doesn't protect anyone from anything especially when the market makers are allowed to lobby congress to protect them from the very market conditions that they preach to everyone else. If the market protected everyone we would never have had a great depression, great recession, S&L crisis, or any one of the multitude of cases in which "The Market" failed to protect anyone from anything. A free market IS vital to the health of a society and Capitalism (not the kind we have) is to date the best system yet conceived to provide the best quality of life for a society. But its not a free for all. There has to be basic regulation of key industries or else you have situations like this where the big get bigger and everyone else loses the ability to make those kinds of microeconomic decisions that you speak of. If you have only 1 or 2 or even 3 companies selling a product it doesn't matter if you want to "go somewhere else with your business". This was true in the days of the railroad barrons, it was true during the Rockefeller Standard Oil days, and its true now with internet and even cable companies. You are right in saying that these companies dis make billions and HAVE used their lobbyists to lobby congress and this push to eliminate net neutrality is the result of it. It always makes me laugh the supposed free market warriors never seem to have a problem with welfare as long as it is corporate welfare. A free market isn't free if a few big companies get to hold all the cards, make all the decisions, and keep all the profits. This isn't good for the economy, for the consumers, and isn't good for capitalism.

Whatever dude. I don't even know why I engaged in an internet argument. I feel stupid for letting it go on this long. I honestly hope they kill it. The internet was fine 4 years ago before it existed, it'll still be fine if they kill it. I'm just making memes here, I don't expect to change anyone's mind. It's like the old saying goes: arguing on the internet is like competing in the Special Olympics. Even if you win, you're still a retard.

Fair enough. Thanks for a civil debate.

You too :)

all I can say is that I pay to go where I want to on the internet. Without net neutrality, it'd be like filling up my Jeep's gas tank, and then being told by the gas station where I'm allowed to drive.

Then no one would use that gas station, they'd go to a better one. Net neutrality wasn't even around until 2014. What internet company was telling you where you could and couldn't go before then? None, because it would be stupid.

Ahh, you don't recall Usenet, do you? The ISPs got tired of paying out of pocket to support the backbone of the internet. They found a perfect pigeon in Andrew Coumo, then AG of New York, to start a campaign against Usenet because it was "flooded" with child pornography. Per their manipulations, they were able to get him to lean on them with threats of lawsuits for distributing kiddie porn. Soon Comcast and other broadband providers "buckled under" and dropped Usenet using the threats of this SJW as their reasoning. besides the millions they saved in fees to the Usenet providers (Comcast easily saved $15 to $30 million a month by not providing that service, although they didn't bother dropping their rate. Now they have extra profit) This, in turn, herded the sheep to the web. I don't know how many of my friends dropped their Usenet accounts once it became an extra charge. (I was paying about $10/month before I finally dropped the services, but I kept them for several years) Now, with the web based internet, it's easier for them to throttle when and where they need. The only competition is people that access the internet via cell phone, but who is behind that.

Why do the companies you mention want to keep net neutrality? Those companies would have never gotten to be as big as they are now without it. But it's companies bigger than them that are pushing for it.

I have a rule about not arguing on the internet. I'll reply just to reply, but in the end I'm making memes. If a meme changes your political opinions, then I have a timeshare I'd like to sell you

BUT I upvoted your comments because you pushed me over 10000. So thanks!

Okay. We each have out views. Appreciate the upvotes. Glad you got 10K.