Petitions, protests, and political positioning

I just had an honest-to-god "kids these days" moment. Which is odd, considering that I don't actually have any frame of reference for how kids in days gone by were, only what I read in books and the admittedly-biased tales of my parents possibly-but-probably-not-misspent youth.

There's currently a lawsuit brewing around Facebook, because someone who is not the creator claims the original idea was his. Whether or not the suit has any merit is still kind of up in the air. That's not my issue, though.

In response to this lawsuit, someone started a Facebook group trying to "save Facebook". I've only seen one, but I have no doubt that there are others. Join and show your support for Facebook, sign the petition, etc.

Of course, this will have absolutely no effect whatsoever on the lawsuit. Or perhaps it might, but it shouldn't. If the judge is out there looking at Facebook groups as part of his deliberation, then there's a big problem with how that judge does his job. And if not, then no one's going to see the groups who has any effect, which is the way it should be. Whether or not something is popular doesn't mean it is or isn't in violation of the law.

My main qualm isn't that it's irrelevant, it's that so many people seem not to realize it's irrelevancy. Social activism is great, I'm all for it, but in order to actually do it, you need to have a basic understanding of how the issues work. If music and intellectual rights are your 'thing', as is a popular cause to take up with my age group, great. Can you tell me what exactly the issues in the RIAA lawsuits are? Can you explain what judicial precedent there is for the various suits? Do you know what the strengths and weaknesses of both sides' arguments are? If not, you should go and do some heavy reading before deciding to affiliate yourself with a cause. When people don't, when people mindlessly take up a cause and start chanting slogans without actually knowing the history and facts, it works against your cause, because it makes you look like a bunch of stupid kids.