Make Some Noise

Fairly regularly I see some explicit or implicit criticisms of people like me for freaking out about a particular issue such as Social Security. The basic issue is something like "You said Obama was going to cut Social Security and he didn't!" Well, I never said Obama, or Democrats, were going to cut Social Security, just that they're leaving the possibility on the table. And I think not cutting Social Security is rather important, so when the possibility is raised I'm going to freak out about it. I don't know if this blog or any activism at all is good for anything, but the point of freaking out and making noise about a possible policy option is to send a message that people like me... are going to freak out about such things. Maybe that freaking out serves no purpose, in which case I don't know why people care at all beyond the basic "somebody on the internet is wrong" dynamic, or maybe, just maybe, it manages to play some small role in convincing lawmakers to do their damage elsewhere.