organic lemon

Mary Beth Edelson

"See For Yourself"

Grapčeva cave, Croatia, 1977

…You know those bad internet bills I keep talking about? Like EARN IT and the SMART Copyright Act and that sort of thing?

Well here’s another one, but this one’s state-based! Specifically, it’s in California, and it basically wants to mandate websites to force you to use your real ID to interact with more or less anything, in the name of “protect the children,” because of course it fucking is.

Now, not only does this fuck over sex workers, but it fucks over everyone privacy-wise, including kids! Imagine being forced to give all of your sensitive data to strangers to basically do anything online. and it becomes clear how much of a nightmare this is.

And that’s even before we think about the implications of eroding online privacy like this in a post-Roe world, or the real probability of privacy leaks!

And make no mistake, as one can probably gather from the famous “this product is known to cause birth defects or cancer in the state of California” labels, this is very likely to affect these services in other states.So this bill is dangerous.

So, if you live in California, contact your members of the California State Assembly and State Senate and tell them not to vote for this bill, because it is awful and will put a wrecking ball through privacy online.

women?

CHECK IF YOUR LOCAL PUBLIC LIBRARY HAS IT.

Not only is it safe, legal, and far less likely to fill your computer with malware, but you are actively supporting an organization whose entire ethos is free access to information.

You don't necessarily even need to go in-person! Many libraries have their entire catalogue available to browse online, some will deliver right to your door, and most libraries have digital catalogues as well through sites like Libby.

And lots of modern public libraries are SO MUCH MORE than just an archive of books. Safe injection sites, makerspaces, tool libraries, aquaponic gardens, recording studios, and so much more (or less depending on the library system) are available FOR FREE through your local public library.

Libraries are the socialist ideal in praxis in a lot of ways. Most are unionized, they're a public service that ACTS LIKE IT, and they're almost completely free to use.