I think the biggest source of the complaining is that the Internet gives people the opportunity to criticize laws, law enforcement, politicians, and corporate behavior in ways that the otherwise government established media cartels would never do. Before it was easy for corrupt behavior to go unnoticed. It was easy for the government to convince people of bad laws. It was easy for them to tell people that red light cameras are a good thing, video games are the cause of so much violence, IP infringement leads to bigger crimes and is costing corporations absurd amounts of money, etc… No evidence needed. It was easy to convince people that the FBI were these really awesome James Bond types defending us in ways we don’t know. Congress could pass all sorts of invasive bills without anyone even being aware of it. Most of what goes on was unknown to the public because the big government established media cartels would keep us in the dark and feed us with nothing but propaganda. Now things are very different and the government and law enforcement don’t like being criticized and challenged when they say or do something. It’s not that the Internet facilitates crime that they don’t like. It’s that the Internet, in its current form, makes it harder for the government and others to simply brainwash us with propaganda without any sort of criticism or resistance.

The real problem is that these people have gotten used to having a bought media deliver nothing but propaganda and ignore or censor messages that the government-industrial complex don’t like. I remember many years ago, when red light cameras first came out, the media proclaimed that these things were definitely a good thing and reduced accident rates. This was a one sided message by the media. They didn’t mention all the corruption that went on behind the scenes (that was mentioned on Techdirt) and the fact that the data wasn’t all that clear (some data indicates that they reduce accident rates while others indicate that they increase). No, they gave a one sided, unilateral message. Only after the Internet started exposing these things and the problems with and criticisms against it did the media finally begin to catch up and do the same (only because of the Internets influence on the media). For example, the media wouldn’t independently mention that many of these red light cameras were taken down after ticket revenues started to decline (ie: after people became more aware of these cameras and stopped crossing many red lights). Discontinuing them after a reduction in revenue would suggest that their intended purpose is to generate revenue and not to reduce accident rates. In fact, the only reason the media is more honest now is because of the Internets influence on it. No longer can the media easily get away with blatantly one sided propaganda without having a wide Internet community call them out on it. This is, fundamentally, what is hated about the Internet.

What we need to do now is to do exactly what the government-industrial complex doesn’t want for the exact reason they don’t want it. We need to destroy all government established broadcasting and cableco monopolies for private or commercial use. These monopolies make it easier for the government-industrial complex to brainwash us with propaganda and overcharge us for commercials and to control the information that we get and to ensure that we only get information that advances their personal interests. These monopolies are not intended for the public interest and they must be abolished.