A very long time ago I was drifting after finishing school. An ex-lover's mother guided me to a job in Washington D.C. that helped process documents for federal cases. This was before computers hit it big. Anyone could get a job there, as the work involved manually going through hundreds of pounds of documents. Most of my coworkers were lawyers new to DC using the poorly paid grunt job as a stepping stone to getting established in the city.

Nobody loves to talk politics more than lawyers in Washington D.C..

There were huge lunchtime bull sessions and since most of the work was mindless the conversations continued throughout most of the day.

I learned a lot from those conversations, though at the time many of the things they said sounded bizarre to me, though it proved to be amazingly spot on.

One of those things was a lawyer who told me that you just can't pass a law to solve a problem, like a king issuing an edict. All laws have unintended side effects.

This SESTA/FOSTA debacle is perfect proof of that.

It is tempting to think it is the result of ignorance or arrogance on the part of lawmakers part.

I think those two factors were certainly in the mix, but I also prejudice unconsciously closed ears to many warnings.


As a child I used to love to watch WWII documentaries and lament "only if the allies KNEW Hitler's plans". When I was older and studied WWII in more depth I learned just about EVERYBODY ( or at least many people ) could see where things were headed in post WWI Europe. However the people who held the power just didn't want to hear it for emotional reasons.

That is my guess about what happened here. Enough lawmakers with enough experience to know that laws have unintended side effects. Plenty of people giving them warnings. In addition to arrogance, their emotions blinded them to the warnings, and they also just did not give a shit. They wanted to pass something high profile and feel good, other things being of a secondary concern.