Are You Free?

[Pergamos]

Well this is incredible. 

[Q. G. Pennyworth]

Need some opinions on layout. Also I'm adding some more people to the booklet form of this and I'm very open to suggestions!

http://imgur.com/a/uk5z5

Also did three more in the original style:

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Holy shit, I love this. This is really, really good.

[Q. G. Pennyworth]

First draft of the print document done!

The font on the last page should be a messy kind of script, let me know if it comes out wrong on other machines. Like the other print pdfs, this is designed to be printed double sided (landscape, flip on short side) and folded into a neat little booklet. I can do a non-print version that will look better on screens if there is demand.

I'm also still really interested in suggestions for more people to add in.

[Q. G. Pennyworth]

Not entirely kopyleft-safe, many of those images are protected. Probably meets fair use for noncommercial, though.

[Q. G. Pennyworth]

Okay, this one has some new entries and is in online/single page flyer format.

[trix]

This is what The Stick looks like.

A hacker turned FBI informant, acting under the watchful eye of several government agencies, assembles a team of unwitting accomplices to break into a private security firm and sell information about their deals with the US government to a foreign national that has released mountains of data the state would rather see buried. When the data is extracted, one of the team members releases the data before it can be sold, removing any possibility of nailing that enemy of the state with a crime in the US (purchasing stolen goods). A journalist links to the data dump after it has already been reported on in national and international media outlets.

The person who released the data early just got sentenced to ten years in prison without the possibility of parole. The journalist is facing 105 years if convicted, and has already spent one year in jail awaiting trial.

An army intelligence officer witnesses multiple incidences of war crimes in Iraq, and is told to SHUT UP about it. She copies reams of data onto a disk labeled "Lady Gaga" and releases it to the public, including a video showing two journalists being murdered by trigger-happy helicopter gunmen, and two children injured for having the gall to be passing through on their way home from school. This is in addition, of course, to the other anonymous Iraqis who were caught in the crosshairs. The data released proves over and over how the US government has been using diplomatic channels to spy on their allies and enemies, in violation of international norms and in some cases laws.

The army private is serving 35 years in military prison. No one else is going to jail.


A bright young scholar, entrepreneur and activist devised a method to download thousands of files from a University network: files that were accessible to anyone who was on this deliberately open network to read, download, and print as they saw fit. He downloaded them faster than the company liked (though this was not in violation of their terms of service) and the company asked the University to look into the problem. When they discovered who was downloading the files, the secret service stepped in because of the young man's politics. Despite the company actively requesting that charges be dropped, and the University not requesting it, a criminal investigation went forward. All he wanted was to give the research back to the public who funded it.

The young man could not live with the knowledge that he would spend the rest of his life a convicted felon, and hanged himself instead.


A journalist who had already taken down a five star general with his investigative reporting told friends and colleagues he was on the verge of uncovering something even more explosive than his previous stories. His excitement turned to anxiety, and he warned others that he might need to "go dark" for a while as he continued his research. One night he went downstairs to ask his neighbor to borrow her car, as he was afraid his had been tampered with. She could not, because she needed the car later in the evening. He went out in his car.

It crashed into a tree at 100 mph, exploding in a fiery wreck. There were no skid marks.


DO YOU FUCKING GET IT YET?

THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU DON'T SHUT UP. THIS IS WHAT THE STICK LOOKS LIKE.

It's not subtle and it's not discerning and it's not legal or moral or right. And we let it happen. We let it happen right in front of us day after day and they keep locking up literally anyone for any goddamn reason from "couldn't pay fines" to "participated in a protest" to petty possession of things that will be legal within the decade. There are over a hundred non-violent offenders in the US on life without parole. They arrest kids in school and bodily violate traffic offenders. They let off murderers and the architects of global financial catastrophes and shoot veterans in their homes.

THESE ARE NOT OUTRAGEOUS CLAIMS. THIS IS WHAT THEY ADMIT TO, WHAT THEY ALLOW ON THE FRONT PAGES.

This is what The Stick looks like.

Bumping this old thread due to its brilliance.

And because the above quoted post literally made me cry.

Especially knowing I'm far too chickenshit to get off my couch and go be FREE ALL OVER THE PLACE, like the amazing people described ITT.  When I do bother to get off my couch and throw a wrench into the gears, I do it like a coward.  Small, petty, dumb shit done under cover of darkness with absolutely minimal risk.

The existence of people like the above is one of few redeeming qualities of our fucked-in-the-brain species.

I don't know what to say, I just had to say SOMETHING due to how much this thread affected me.

Thank you, Q. G. Pennyworth.  I am utterly in love with 80%+ of the things you post on PD.  In fact, I found this thread by stalking your Previous Posts via your profile.  Since yesterday.

[Q. G. Pennyworth]

Thanks, Trix. I'm really glad this place has been here for me to vomit into because I'm pretty sure I would have lost all my shit if I tried to keep that bottled up. Always feels good to know something I wrote might be useful to someone else

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

You are, indeed, a deliverer of fine, fine content.