We Americans have a problem. We are addicted to outrage and that doesn’t lead to anything productive. I have to say that participating in outrage is the very tool that controls us. Join me to today talk about what to do about this.
Tag: social media
February 26, 2024 – The Electronic Addiction Problem
In 1998, there was a landmark settlement between four tobacco companies and what was deemed as deceptive and deviant practices against the taxpayers. Today, we have new threats developing in the open and we are willingly participating. I talk about the tactics that I see being used to keep us coming back.
January 22, 2024 – From Information to Opinion Overload
My first exposure to the internet as it is today was around the mid 1990s. When I think about the power of what it represents I am somewhat in awe. I even relate a story about the relevance and impact today. But, at some point the internet shifted from a repository of any information to a place that people go to feel better about themselves and with that, we are being programmed to keep coming back. As a result, we end up with hollow lives and brittle egos who are now addicted to the notification.
May 6, 2022 – Free Speech for Friday
It is a very interesting time we are in. I have heard from two different sources independently that all of a sudden, Twitter posts are reaching new audiences and gaining new subscribers. This is an unprecedented rate of change for both. One person said that he rarely gets more than 100 views despite having over 15,000 followers. All of a sudden subscribers are getting added several a day doing nearly nothing and views are going into the 1000s.
Another media personality said that he posts nearly every day and friends didn’t even know that he was active on the platform. It was said that those posts were never seen. Something very devious has been happening and we have just accepted it. We have been manipulated by the mysterious and unexplainable algorithm. Yet, all of a sudden there is a potential change in leadership/ownership and the first amendment is alive and well.
Make no mistake, I am not certain that Elon’s motives are altruistic. In fact, I would be willing to bet that they are not. However, that is the hammer being used to usher in a new algorithm. Discredit the old way and bring in trust for the new one. I can just say that this deal won’t even be closed until June and yet the writing is on the wall for the current batch of useful idiots.
These platforms have been lying for years using subjective labeling like ‘Medical Misinformation’ and ‘Inflammatory Speech’ as if the moderators are doctors or scientist or even subject matter experts. This is the zero tolerance approach to life (kind of). It is zero tolerance if you disagree with the establishment narrative regardless of your facts or arguments against. Yet, watching YouTube videos I am still trying to be convinced that I need to get a vaccine while wearing a mask. This is paid for by the State of Oregon, my money.
In my opinion, any sort of value judgement on someone else’s statements being visible is censorship. I have stated many times, it is not criminal to believe wrongly. There are so many people that think colloidal silver or high pH water is the fountain of youth that it is laughable. Plenty of people believe masks reduce the transmission of the virus despite having the data saying there is statistically no effect.
Or do they? Is this policy an attempt to reduce liability? Is this better to do something even if it is wrong? Have you seen those politicians without a mask on? There is literally no one that actually believes this or they wouldn’t do it, period. Who goes into space without a suit, no one because you will die, period.
If you do an internet search for ‘facemask efficacy’ you are going to find a lot of studies preporting that they do. However the top results are sources like CDC, Stanford Medicine, Mayo Clinic, etc. These are the same sources that have built a legacy of pharmaceutical managed, chronic disease treatment. I am not disputing that there is a lot of knowledge, but how smart are they really? Smart enough to dupe all the regular people that we need drugs to survive.
By the way, how did we get chronically sick? By trusting the science and by eating the food pyramid that is a majority carbohydrates. This is a non-traditional way to eat. Sure, we are getting plenty of calories to give 50% total obesity rates and skyrocketing type 2 diabetes over 50. It is not that someone or an institution cannot be mostly wrong and occasionally right but what is at stake here? How about grant funding?
End Your Programming Routine: I am not going to end on face masks even though I devolved. I am all over the place and for that I apologize. Some days I just start writing and something else comes out. Today is one of those days. My point was really isn’t it interesting how the cockroaches are moving away from the light as quickly as possible? Elon isn’t even in charge yet, the deal has not even been completed and all of a sudden speech is becoming more free at Twitter. I find this extremely deplorable. Clear, transparent and equally enforced policy is the way to build trust, Twitter et al. I can’t wait to see what happens next.
June 8, 2021 – Am I a Fan Boy, Do I Have a Man Crush or Is it Just Respect?
I have talked about my dabbling into social media in the past. I check LinkedIn almost every day but I don’t interact much because I don’t get any real value from it. I find Nextdoor to be largely busybodies that want to complain about their neighbors and identify speeders with blurry pictures. I also have a MeWe account that I made in 2019.
One of the podcasts I listen to made the entire switch from Facebook to MeWe last year due to privacy and Cancel Culture risks. I initially thought that I was going to push this blog more into interaction in MeWe in an attempt to build this enterprise. But, I just get turned off every time I log in. I am not interested in memes and snark all day long. If Instagram was not tied to Facebook, maybe that is more along my lines.
I want to see people doing cool and inspirational stuff, that is really it. I find that these platforms attract an echo chamber of whatever flavor of ‘room’ you happen to be in. Today, I made my first ever contribution to a post on MeWe that someone else made because I wanted to. It happens to be a group for a podcast that I joined. I have been listening since probably 2012 and the podcast has ebbed and flowed with the times.
The podcast is Harvest Eating. The owner is Keith Snow and he has had a cookbook (which I own) and a TV show (which I haven’t seen). But in the end, he is just a man that I seem to have a lot in common with. He is a about my age with a family is about the same age. We seem to share values about food. faith and politics. People that have lived in my house know his name because he has inspired me to cook things that I might not otherwise, like sauerbraten.
I can’t remember what ‘holiday’ it was but one time my wife ordered some olive oil from him (for me) and he threw in some seafood seasoning because the shipping was so expensive. While that may not be the best business move, it shows that he cares about his customers. It is that kind of caring that has made it difficult to reconcile careers in the corporate world, which I think we both share. We care about the impact that we have.
I suppose another reason that I like and identify with Keith is that he is spontaneous to where he doesn’t just stay in the food/recipe box. I feel like even though I have a formula here, I do wander around and change things on a whim. The basic thrust for my style was influenced by his podcast because I have just enjoyed it. I liked knowing what his kids were doing or hearing a rant about poor cookware or the infamous ‘Chinese Chair’ as long as the I always got some value out of the overall episode.
I have waivered a bit about how much food content I want to have. There are already so many resources and competition out there that I don’t want to be another me too. Plus, I have too many other interests. But, I do want it to be my mixture topics. So, I am going to try and add back more along the food front. Ultimately, I would like it to be once a week.
Over the years, podcasts have come and gone. From Harvest eating, I have learned about and tried sauerbraten, migas, palak paneer, olive oil, crepes with mascarpone, butter, rye bread, fondue, german potato salad and steel cut oats to name a few things. I have improved techniques like a better Thanksgiving turkey, more perfect grilled steaks and Mise en Place. More than anything else, it has sparked my interest in quality ingredients and the effort that goes into them. It probably prompted my involvement into the culinary book club for a whole new perspective and certainly other podcasts.
End Your Programming Routine: I don’t know if I solved my initial question. I have been accused of invoking Keith’s name too often at times. I guess that what I would say is that this podcast pushes all the right buttons for me, it entertains and educates. I am really glad that he has come back to focus on his own business which means more podcasts. I cant say if this will tip the social media scales for me but if you are interested, join us at https://mewe.com/join/harvesteating
December 15, 2020 – Social Media and Privacy
How is it that that these social media companies have become so big and so valuable? How do they make money when their product is free? Because we are the product. Everything we are doing is getting recorded and stored and analyzed and sold.
Even after we leave these sites, by going there once, we have enabled the tracking to begin. I haven’t seen ‘The Social Delimma‘ yet, but I have heard all about it. This will be on my short list of things to watch in the coming weeks.
We are rapidly becoming a society that will no longer have privacy. Without privacy, we will have no freedom. I really think that people don’t even care. I think that they are already so strung out on social media that they don’t care about the consequences of continuing.
Part of the reason that I am writing this is the ‘Cancel Culture’ and the manipulation aspect of this is driving new alternatives that at least proclaim to respect privacy. Building a brand as I am, I want to build it on a stable foundation, one that I won’t have to move if I invest the time needed to get it going.
Here is a list of alternatives that I have heard good things about
You see, the browser or the application enables the functions and starts transmitting data. The safest way to use these things is to login using a secure browser and not the application and then log out when finished.
I know, it is inconvenient. I know that you are not going to get instant notifications. But you see, this is the point of appropriate use. We have to train ourselves that it is not important to immediately acknowledge every ding and post immediately. These are the behaviors that get us hooked on the action.
Admittedly, I have been a very slow adapter of this technology. The only two I use routinely is YouTube primarily for knowledge and entertainment and also LinkedIn which I don’t believe there is a suitable alternative.
The good news for a some of these platforms is that they have built plugins to simultaneously post in two environments like Oddesey. That is a great thing for content producers that need to be concerned about de-platforming because their business is on YouTube.
I was reading this articles about COVID the other day in the local newspaper, not very carefully and I came across a quote. I had to reread the article to find out the credentials of the person that made the quote.
This is what encapsulates the problems of our society succinctly. People that ostensibly know better, giving advice or permitting non-sensible solutions. I would say that we cannot have it both ways. We cannot know one thing and do another. I think everyone knows that I stand for freedom and choice, including the choice to be wrong. But, if we gave a shit about our future, our privacy, our patients or whatever, then we need to stand on principles.
Why would doing something that does not work be better than doing nothing? Maybe he was misquoted? It makes no sense at all. The same with social media. If we know that it is close to evil, then why would we use it? I grew up in a world without it, I am sure that it is not necessary. If we are going to use it, then let us know what we are getting into and do the best we can to avoid the very worst of it all.
July 7, 2020 – Freedom isn’t free… or wanted nor appreciated
I had a good Fourth of July. It certainly wasn’t normal or typical. One of the best benefits of living in a small town on Main Street is the parade that goes by our house every year. We usually have a a sizable gathering of friends and family to watch and then the grill goes on afterward. Not this year because of COVID.
Our sister city next door puts on a 40 minute fireworks display that causes enough traffic to take over an hour to move two miles. Not this year because of COVID. As a result, a lot of people were home and a lot of people were itching to celebrate.
It is common knowledge that I live in Oregon. I feel like I have written enough about my opinion that you can probably speculate on where I am going to come down on a lot of issues, but I want to divert to fireworks for a bit. Throughout my years, I have watched this state go from an independent thinking and acting group to an increasing statist leaning. Fireworks are no exception. Oregon has very strict laws on what fireworks are legal under the guise of personal safety and fire risk.
Despite that, Washington does not adhere to the same laws. I am literally sixty miles from purchasing any fireworks that I would like to buy. I can somewhat understand the fire risk argument, however I have rarely heard of a fire started by errant fireworks. I prescribe that it is a more nanny state rule, than fact. I lived in South Carolina for a couple of years and they definitely enjoyed their freedom when it came to fireworks. Ironically, North Carolina did not and we were ten miles from the border in that case.
I want to introduce a term here – Agorism. You can look up the definition but it to summarize it is the voluntary association of people for mutual benefit. We live in a society that is the opposite of that; involuntary association that uses the power of the state to make people comply to arbitrary rules or opinions.
Another applicable term that is misunderstood is Anarchy. The common perception of Anarchy is violence and chaos which I would argue is much more akin to revolution than a society without rulers. I am going to show some examples of what I saw on Nextdoor after we got done with our celebration on Saturday.
In this case, there was a half-hearted attempt blast out an plea to stop lighting fireworks (I am assuming illegal). The first issue is that the people lighting them off are not reading Nextdoor posts right now, I sure wasn’t. Additionally, she made no attempt address the people that she had the issue with. But the real problem I have is the reasoning is not solid. I am willing to bet that there is no one with PTSD in that household. Pets – maybe, but I believe that the real issue is that Becky does not want to enjoy freedom.
Before I get too carried away, I want to make sure that my position is clear. There is a time and a place to light fireworks. Fourth of July, after dark and before midnight is the time and the place to do so. I talked with my neighbors while we were lighting fireworks off. If I knew that someone had a problem like PTSD, I would appreciate it if we had a discussion where we would set clear expectations about what we would do.
I was already kind of agitated when I read the second post.
The white supremacist’s are looting and rioting? What? If you read all the responses you would see that Howard is lamenting the lack of fireworks display – cancelled because of COVID but yet the city (of Salem) is staffing up for a Black Lives Matter protest. People such as Deby are now using completely flawed logic to push her agenda and lash out. There has been no looting or rioting in Salem, Marion or Polk counties (Nextdoor’s target group). Those activities have occurred within the protest ranks. I am not sure what she is tired of.
My point with all of this is that a lot of people don’t really want freedom. They like to think that they do, but true freedom has to let people do things they want, whether they agree with the activity or not. They want to live in neighborhoods with and association dictating what they can do. They want to use the power of the state to enact laws based on their own beliefs. Both sides of the political isle do it. It just depends on your flavor rule.
I think it goes part and parcel with people not using logic and blathering nonsense whenever they feel like it. I am looking for a way to opt out of Nextdoor as I speak.
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