KOSA And Migraines.

The “Kids Online Safety Act” is yet another trojan horse to regulate the internet. Regressive organizations have made it clear they will use it to target Queer people. We must stop it. Now.

Hello, friends,

I hope you’re all doing well.  Last week we talked about Accelerationism and the weaknesses of that system.  This week, well, I have a migraine that the topic of this article isn’t helping with, so I’m going to keep it fairly brief (or so I hope…?), and we’re going to talk about - well, you’ve read the title.

We’re talking about KOSA, the “Kids Online Safety Act.”

Also, before I dive further, I want to throw in a quick ‘programming note’ that I recently completed a Dystopian Review of the manga/anime series Berserk, by Kentaro Miura.  All trigger warnings apply to that series, but it’s damn good, so if you’re unfamiliar you may want to check out the review.  I managed to do it with minimal spoilers.

Anyway, on with the show you came here for:

KOSA Is A Terrible Bill And Must Be Defeated

KOSA sets out a noble enough premise:  To protect children from the potential harms of the internet.  And, fair enough.  When we talked about the use of social media, we mentioned that social media use could have harmful consequences if misused.

Keep that word “misused” in the forefront of your mind.

In that very same article, we also talked about how social media - which, for many, is the core of the internet these days - can have positive effects, too.  We talked about how it is frequently used by young people to discover things about themselves, from ethnic solidarity to learning about their sexual orientation and gender.

In other words, the internet provides access to information, and information is generally values-neutral.  It gains values attribution when it’s used in some manner:  It’s positive when it leads to self-actualization and happiness, and it’s negative when it leads to depression and bullying.

With me so far?  Let’s get back to “misuse.”

Here’s Jared Eckert and Jay W. Richards of The Heritage Foundation with a screed about how KOSA doesn’t do enough to prevent children from accessing information about, among other things, transgender identities.  Yep!  SURPRISE!  The regressives want ever-more to quarantine information about - and, thus, persecute - Queer people.

See, the devil is always in the details.  Who decides what is harmful?  In KOSA’s case, it’ll be state attorney generals. We know that in Florida, for example, they’ve deemed any grade-school academic discussions of gender as ‘harmful to children,’ so much so that they have effectively banned the teaching of Advanced Placement Psychology because that class requires discussions of gender and sexual identity.

In other words, KOSA is a trap - one Democrats are walking eyes-wide-shut into.  Leaving aside all of the risks of turning your personally identifiable information - such as a drivers’ license or other ID - over to internet companies that can be hacked or ‘misplace’ things, KOSA is an open invitation to regressive opportunists.  It basically says, “Hey, why don’t you discriminate against your Queer citizens?”

And it isn’t just Queer citizens who will be discriminated against.  The bill’s co-author, Senator Marsha Blackburn, has made very clear that she believes ‘critical race theory’ is ‘harmful to children.’  And what is KOSA about?  ‘Protecting children from harm.’  Rest assured that under her intended purpose of the bill, discussions about racial injustices such as slavery will be heavily censored.

This bill can’t be allowed to pass - under any and all circumstances.

So How Do We Fight KOSA?

You mean besides just posting this article to your local Senator?  Here’s where things get tricky.

A quick Google search hasn’t revealed what the bill’s status in the House of Representatives is, but as that’s dominated by the Fascist Party of the United States, it’s pretty clear it would pass there if proposed.  The idea that “small-government conservatives” will arise against a bill that gives state attorneys-general nigh-unlimited authority to censor information is a quaint one that does not reflect the modern-day ultra-right-wing status of the Republican party.  We have to assume it would pass there.

Meanwhile, in the Senate, KOSA was approved unanimously by both Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Commerce Committee.  That alone amazes me, and makes me dread that there’s little to no hope for this bill to be stopped.

What’s worse is that President Joe Biden has explicitly said “Pass it, pass it,” and “pass it,” in case his emphasis wasn’t clear.

So what we need to do is we need to call our Senators and Representatives and make very clear to them that we do not accept this bill.  They need to know that if they do support it, they will not get our votes - regardless of party affiliation.

Now, I know what you’re thinking.  I literally just wrote an article about how accelerationism is a bad thing.  Not voting for the not-Fascist party is, if you just look at the surface, counter-productive to the idea of working to repair a failing system.

However, passing a bill which is nakedly designed to discriminate against POC, Queer people, and others is the sort of thing which represents a clear-cut Rubicon.  Once it is legal to censor us, we are already second-class citizens.  “The system we seek to repair” will no longer exist.  The acceleration will already have happened - and it will have been a bipartisan effort that requires a secession from electoralism, at least with regards to candidates who supported the bill that stole our rights.

Maybe that’s an extreme take, I don’t know.  As a Queer person, I certainly feel like once you’ve voted to discriminate against me, you don’t get my vote anymore. Even if there are consequences to that decision that might hurt me further, what does it matter if you’re just going to do the same exact thing as the Fascist would - and do so with them, hand-in-hand?  What options does that really leave me with?

None.  There’s no good candidate to vote for, so, what, you don’t vote?

I mean, yeah, I guess at that point it’s just time for The Revolution.

So, as I’ve said before, it’s time to apply pressure to our politicians. NOW.  Before it’s too late - before they’ve crossed the Rubicon.  Because we can’t give in to the “Oh my Divinity we’re so doomed!” until, at the very least, the ink is on the signature line.

In Other News…

• I have a migraine.  This’ll be short.

• Speaking of “apply pressure to politicians,” Ohio is in the throes of record-breaking early-voting turnout as issues of women’s healthcare in that state are on the ballot.  Ballot questions are always a little janky - The answers are “yes” or “no,” but it’s all about how the question is framed - but if it drives turnout to defeat Republican plans, “all the better,” I say.

• There is a major developing situation in Africa.  It began to make major headlines with a coup in Niger.  Niger is a major supplier of gold and uranium, especially to France, and rumors quickly surfaced that Niger would be joined by Mali and Burkina Faso in banning sales of those resources to France.  Those rumors are apparently untrue, but the situation on the ground is changing rapidly as other African countries in the Economic Community Of West African States (ECOWAS) contemplate military or other actions towards Niger and its allies.  In short, we have no idea what’s going to happen next, but given the history of colonialism (both European and American), it’s painful to imagine what might happen next if ‘we’ intervene.  It’s also painful to imagine what might happen if we don’t.  It’s a nasty paradox I hope we don’t get involved in.

• Ex-President Donald Trump was indicted - again.  Fancy that.  Still, he hasn’t been held without bail (and apparently Jack Smith didn’t think to ask the judge for that…), so he’s upped the ante and begun threatening, well, anyone who is ‘going after him.’  Seems like maybe it’s time that Smith takes this seriously, but we’ll see.

Thank you for reading The Progressive Cafe.  If this article has helped you, please consider signing up for our mailing list.  This article is by Jesse Pohlman, a sci-fi/fantasy author from Long Island, New York, whose website you can check out here.