
TISA: Yet Another Treaty You've Never Heard of Makes Secret Internet Rules - jakobdabo
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/05/tisa-yet-another-leaked-treaty-youve-never-heard-makes-secret-rules-internet/
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grownseed
When does this stop? When have people had enough of the secrecy, the
continuous infantilization of the general population, both nationally and
internationally? How little empathy and respect do our supposed
representatives have for us?

I feel powerless, the constant stream of such news and underhanded measures
makes me sad beyond words. It's one despicable act after another, it just
seems near-impossible to catch up, which from the looks of it is exactly what
our "democratic" governments are trying to achieve, i.e. overwhelm and
distract us.

When governments get to unilaterally decide when, where and how democracy
applies, they are no longer democracies, no longer legitimate representatives
of the people, and therefore no longer our governments.

~~~
deciplex
I think a big problem with modern western democracies is that legislation is
totally decoupled from the effects its proponents claim it will produce before
passing it. And, legislators have gotten _really good_ at writing laws in such
a way that you can suss out _any_ intended effect you like, with enough
wordplay. Combine that with an alliance between the national media and power
brokers in government, and it's basically impossible to figure what the fuck
anyone in government is actually trying to _do_ , much less whether you should
support it or not.

So (proponents claim) the TPP and TISA and whatever else will give every
signatory nation full employment for the next 35 years, and put a check on
Chinese influence in Asia, and increase education standards, and progress
culture at a rate of 11 Star Wars per month, and mow your lawn, and everyone
will be farting through silk, etc etc. And so then we pass this shit sandwich,
and none of that stuff happens, and then...

...well, tough luck!

There needs to be a _hard requirement_ , as in baked into our constitutions,
that new legislation be _explicitly coupled_ to effects. We should not rely on
our own interpretation of the proposed policies to figure it out - since
ultimately the courts will interpret the law, not us. Nor should we rely on
the word of the people supporting the new legislation since they are clearly
biased. Rather, every new law ought to make a falsifiable claim what effects
it will cause and by when. And, legislators ought to show (again, in the law
itself) a reasonable chain of causes and effects that they think will bring
about the intended result (so, no banning drinking on Sunday so that the Sun
rises on Monday, for example). Then, if the claimed result is not achieved by
the deadline agreed on, the law is _immediately and automatically repealed_.
No Supreme Court, no public referendum - it just disappears from the books. We
will need institutions similar in size and scope to our current justice
system, to ensure that chains of causality baked into laws are reasonable, and
that the claims they make regarding their intended effects are falsifiable. So
it is a huge undertaking, naturally. But it might be worth doing anyway.

~~~
namlem
100% this. The desired outcome should be baked into every law passed, and all
laws that don't achieve their desired result should be able to be invalidated
by the lowest court fit to rule on them.

