There are all sorts of disturbing things in this world - such as Rod Blagojevich comparing his impeachment to Pearl Harbor, and doomed Wall Street titan John Thain spending $1.2 million to redecorate his Merrill Lynch office - but, for the moment, I'm particularly creeped out by a development in the never-ending California gay marriage imbroglio.
It has been nearly three months since 52 percent of the state's voters approved Proposition 8, the ballot measure banning gay marriage. Gay activists remain extremely ticked off, particularly because so many donors (and the Mormon church)came to the aid of the marriage banners. But instead of productively channeling their energies - by perhaps analyzing what went wrong; perhaps by tweaking the pro-marriage message so that it's more persuasive - some activists have apparently decided that it would be preferable to create a climate of fear.
Although, considering the technological tools currently available, maybe it should be called Fear 2.0.
After scouring the California campaign finance records, which list the names and addresses of everyone who donated to the anti-marriage campaign, the intrepid gay activists have enlisted the wondrous Google technology...and produced a series of handy online maps that make it possible for any ticked-off partisan to track down any anti-gay donor, and pound on that person's front door. Or do something worse.
Granted, the California records are public information, open to anyone who wants to track political donations. Donor disclosure has long been a priority nationwide, as a matter of public interest. But there is something inherently troubling about this particular incident, in which cutting-edge technology is being used to exploit the noble cause of transparency - and further imperil the right to privacy. Perhaps there should be some caveats to the old saw about how the truth shall make us free.
Granted, anyone who donates to a politician or referendum has to expect a little public scrutiny; a typical donor assumes at this point that his or her name, address, and contribution will be listed somewhere. But a typical donor does not expect - indeed, should not expect - to have his or her home address quickly pinpointed on Google Maps, for the potential benefit of any unhinged opposition individual who decides to cruise a target neighborhood with easy guidance from an iPhone.
Back in the old distant days - say, 20 years ago - newspapers reporters, such as yours truly - would pore endlessly over the campaign donation logs, which essentially recorded the public acts of private people. (I recall spending two entire days, in the spring of 1990, looking at the contributors to Bill Bradley's U.S. Senate re-election campaign in New Jersey.) We looked for newsworthy patterns, but we left most donors alone. In essence, we were the filter. Today, with cyberspace, there is no filter. And there is little privacy.
Privacy, as a concept, is already under sustained assault in our era. Thanks to the marriage of technology and transparency, we are perpetually vulnerable to hackers, identity thieves, web information brokers, and keystroke trackers, and we are routinely recorded on video when we leave our homes to venture into public places. It hardly seems fair to me to suggest that Americans who donate to campaigns and referenda - whatever the cause - should be willing to risk the privacy of their own homes in order to do so. Indeed, it wouldn't be surprising to learn, in some future political contest, that some would-be donors decided to forego any exposure in the public square, fearing retaliation on their doorstep.
Granted, again, there is as yet no evidence that the Google Maps of the Prop 8 donors have been used for illegal purposes. Nobody's house has been torched, or anything similar. But to those gay activists who see the maps as no big deal, I would suggest this simple test:
Reverse the players. Imagine how the gay community might feel if the "traditional marriage" forces cooked up a set of Google Maps that targeted the home addresses of pro-gay donors living in conservative communities. The gay community would surely denounce that as an open invitation to gay-bashers. As well they should.
Or take a totally different hypothetical. How would it look, in the aftermath (God forbid) of another terrorist attack on American soil, if anti-Muslim extremists were to craft Google Maps directing people to the home addresses of Muslim-Americans who had donated money to Muslim politicians and legitimate Muslim causes? It would all be perfectly legal.
But it's appropriate to suggest that a line of decency must be drawn somewhere.
Once again, technology outstrips ethics. George Orwell's telescreen has got NOTHING on today's G3 i-phones and the accompanying apps. I stumbled across this disturbing article following a link on DailyKos. http://www.wired.com/gadgets/wireless/magazine/17-02/lp_guineapig?currentPage=all— Phrossty- We must develop a new code of privacy that fits current technology. Otherwise, we will not be able to use the new technology for its best purposes. Besides this issue, there are many others; one of the most pressing is to find a way to digitize medical records in a way that is consistent with legitimate privacy concerns.— liberal
- Blago, Rangel, Kennedy (Caroline version), Dodd, Richardson. Ethically challenged Democrats. A new era? Hardly.— CD75
- Notice how it is democrats and gays resorting to basically terrorizing people?— CD75
- Seems to me that publishing people's donations to certain causes is a dangerous thing. It makes the possibility of violence against these people a lot more likely. If it was up to me these names would not be available. If we are all for protecting society (like against drug usage or terrorism), we should also protect identities. People who donate to support causes shouldn't have to worry about retribution.— James TL
- CD75: Do you think it's at all possible for a 'conservative' to do something wrong? Seems like you only blame democrats for everything that is wrong with the country and the world. One thing; Democrats (or liberals) don't promote terrorism any more than conservative republicans do. We are all Americans.— James TL
- Great post, and very on point. The WSJ on December 26, 2008 ran a piece detailing how some people were forced to resign their positions over protests and boycotts of their businesses just because they donated for Prop 8 passage. With opponents of the ballot initiative now suing in court to have it overturned, it is just indicative of how extremists organizations cannot accept defeat for what they deem to be politically correct. It does not matter what people want, or how people vote. What matters is they believe their position is the only correct one and anybody else be dammed (sic). Funny how this applies to so many items today in our society, from waterboarding being torture to the fallacy of global warming. However, while in most of these disagreements reasonable people can reasonably argue their respective positions, in the gay marriage circle, with so many militant groups, reasonableness has left the building.— tom - wilmington, de
- O'Reilly had this story 2 weeks ago.— waynoNE
- Free discourse? A marketplace of ideas? Hah. So much for the "open minded" and "tolerant" left. Six years in an Ivy League doctoral program taught that it's okay for you to have an opinion, as long as it's theirs. Kudos to Polman for demonstrating some actual intellectual honesty in taking his left wing comrades to task for their appalling and undemocratic behavior. Could we get some criticism of Obama next? Is that too much to ask?— ILikeIke
- I hate it when Democrats adopt the tactics of the right wing!— Djoko Pritza
- z— James TL
- Good for you Mr. Polman, finally:) There is such a thing as too much transparency. Sorry if I don't think the press as a filter is a comforting idea though:) If anyone dies because of some looney going over their house and is found with one of these maps, the publishers should be held criminally liable! The Mormans were working their idea within the law through donations and coordination, just like Acorn and such outfits work on their ideas. It seems like the same thing to me and should be treated as such!— NEPhilly
- Ah yes..liberals are for free speech as long as it complies with their point of view. All other views will be terrorized or branded as some sort of racist, sexist, etc. mantra.— palmyra21
- Good grief. One side alone doesn't do this stuff. The extreme end of any issue produces such people. There's no sense accusing right- or left-wingers of being the only ones. Surely you can admit that. I'm a liberal, but I don't like the fact that Geithner has now been sworn in. In my book waterboarding is torture, based on reading a number of articles by people who were curious about it and had it done to themselves so they could evaluate it. I won't get into the demeaning and dehumanizing nature of such tactics. My Quaker values stand firm there, and remain horrified at how many of you think that such behavior is justified. But that's another topic.— NigeltheMastiff
- Richard, so the dems are about to try to pass a pork-ladden, partisan "bailout" package that will not work and must of the money is spent in 2010 and 2011, and this is the only b.s. you can write about. Makes sense, because ecomomics is above your head (as well and most liberal loons). Instead, you write an article exposing the terriorism of the dems and gay community.— CD75
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