Jonathan Mollet

Why SOPA Doesn't Matter

Jan 20, 2012 at 3:32 PM

By Jonathan Mollet

SOPA (and its equally dangerous cousin PIPA) could if passed be the death of the internet as we know it. As such they have sparked a massive viral campaign of "Friday"esque proportions. Every site which allows any sort of user uploading, or commenting is in a mad frenzy. Finally it seems that the general population has realized that our government has to be stopped.

Too bad it'll be all for nought. I'm not saying the bill will pass; that's actually rather irrelevant in this case. The seas will be calmed as the millions of once furious internet users return to their daily routine of listening to illegally uploaded copies of Justin Bieber and torrenting poorly translated copies of the Romanian release of "Tropic Thunder."

This is all good fun and the general population will surely remove themselves from the nasty world of politics. And this is where we will fail.

Last month the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) was signed into law allowing for the indefinite detention of U.S. citizens without trial. The internet barely let lose a hiccup in contrast with what SOPA has caused. Why is this, you ask?

North Dakota State: Kicking things off with recruitment!

Sep 8, 2011 at 2:28 PM

By Jonathan Mollet

Young Americans for Liberty just added another state! This fall at North Dakota State University, our chapter kicked off its inaugural year by attending our campus student organization fair on August 31st. Over the course of 4 hours we handed out over 250 flyers for our first meeting and had 20+ sign-ups of especially interested members who wanted to join the group. We had a great response from many of the students who came to the booth. As a whole we were well received on campus from both the students, faculty, and other student organizations and we certainly laid the groundwork to rapidly increase our membership as the year begins!

The event was also a great time for our previous members to learn a lot about the most effective ways to promote the ideas of liberty. While it was certainly a success, in the future we will push students to sign up on our email list even if they are only slightly interested in the group. Our recruitment has also hinged on working towards becoming an official group on campus. On that note we also had a huge success a faculty advisor for the group letting us move forwards in becoming official. All in all we have gathered a great group of members who are ready to take our activism to the next level on campus and in the state of North Dakota!