The opposition to SOPA has been big and loud. That is, as long as you are a constant user of the world wide web.

While I suppose that is somewhat appropriate, given the fact that this bill relates directly to internet use, the fact sticks out to me for a different reason.

It’s really easy to ‘protest’ something on the internet. Change your status, blackout your webpage. In fact, here’s some code that you can paste at the bottom of your web page to black it out:

<script type=”text/javascript”>
document.body.innerHtml = "this website is blacked out because SOPA is stupid.";
</script>

It took me about 15 seconds to think up that wonderfully complicated code, which is a testiment to how dedicated I am to stopping SOPA.

Sarcasm aside, my point is that this whole online approach to protesting SOPA is really easy. It's convenient. You don't even have to leave your damned bed, if you have a laptop!

But SOPA isn't the point. It's just a proxy for the real point.

And the real point is that we like convenient protest. How many of those people that flood their facebook or twitter with opposition to SOPA will ever protest the legislation in any way not involving a keyboard? Now generalize it. There's plenty of modern legislation that could have freaked out a lot of people, but it likely wasn't opposed to the degree that SOPA is. That is, if you consider posting inane pictures and 140 character complaints to be real opposition.

The key word here is passive protest. That's what we have in abundance today. Lots of people willing to put in minimal effort with the expectation of maximal return.

It's passive because it's not really making any kind of powerful statement. Last I checked, my Congressman hasn't added me to Facebook, and he is not following me on Twitter. This is likely the case for you, as well. If not, then you probably have more of an influence on these matters than the typical person, anyway.

But I digress.

Go ahead. Keep passively protesting active threats to society. It has the advantage of letting you feel like you are taking part in democracy, while having the added benefit of costing you little to no effort.

Actively protesting threats to your value system is dangerous. It requires a great deal of effort. What's more, you might fail!