Fuck Facebook

From (Lo) Inprescindible:

OH, FRANCES

Yesterday Facehook, Instagram and WhattsUp were all down for hours, and the world did not end. It all happened very coincidentally, right after Ms. Haugen went on Sixty Minutes and brought the receipts about the abominable behavior of the tech giant. They're already spinning the damage caused by her telling the truth about how the social network giant is basically killing people, promoting white supremacy and dumbing down the whole world while exploiting their information for money. Damaging misinformation, political fuckery and privacy breaches are their daily bread. All for money. But you already knew that. And still, some of you still are on Facebook.

I think you should delete your Facebook account. Not deactivate it, delete it. That's it, in a nutshell. It's not a free platform. You are paying with your soul, more or less. Well, more than less, because you are giving Facebook all your time and personal information. And those, my friend, are very, very valuable to them. But that is not all. Facebook is a cesspool of ignorance and misinformation: it's a mix of the lowest common denominator in intelligence and the most rabid sense of entitlement laced with racism and hatred, and capable of going around the world in sixty seconds.  And you are enabling it. Your being on that platform is what makes it powerful. Yes, you're one of the three billion people who are addicted to its never ending stream of stupidity, but you can quit cold turkey.

I know, I know, your family/dear friends/ whomever the fuck you want to know about/ is on that platform and you wanna keep in touch, yadda, yadda. I've heard it all before. But what did you do in 2004, when there was NO facebook open to the public? How did you keep in touch with your family/friends/assorted people you don't care about? Oh, that's right. You called them. Or emailed them. Or simply lived without knowing the minutia of their lives and how deeply stupid and ignorant they were. Oh, and if you were not yet born in 2004, you have no business being on this blog. Skedaddle! I post pictures of naked men and swear a lot.

"There were conflicts of interest between what was good for the public and what was good for Facebook. And Facebook, over and over again, chose to optimize for its own interests, like making more money," ~ Frances Haugen

And that's not even the worst. According to Ms. Haugen, Facebook lowered standards after Uncle Joe was elected and basically (and knowingly) became a hub for the January 6 terrorist act. It promotes racism and misinformation about the COVID vaccines and is the go-to 'research' tool of the tools. If you are on Facebook, you have probably witnessed this firsthand. Your sweet aunt Doris, who used to make cookies and had two kitties, now shares memes blasting AOC for socialism, she insists on the daily that Uncle Joe is not the president and she refuses to get vaccinated because her 'research' makes her scared of the vaccines. The cavalcade of crazy never stops. And you are aiding it.

People ask me what you would gain if you leave Facebook and I will tell you that you'll gain peace of mind and a clean conscience. And the feeling of having done something good. Your leaving Instagram or Facebook is not gonna do anything to Zuckerberg, we know that. He's already richer than rich. He'll lose one hundred million dollars and it'll be a drop in the bucket. But you may feel better with yourself after you've left that wretched social network. It's a matter of morals, I think. I'm not on Facebook or Instagram because I put my money where my mouth is. And I don't miss them. At all.

The outage yesterday could be taken three different ways according to me: one, Facebook freaked out with the evidence the whistleblower was bringing (it means it's true, of course, nobody is going against a giant like Facebook with lies) and it shut itself down to avoid its own algorithm to be its own biggest enemy. The news that Facebook is abusive would spread with the help of Facebook. Poetic justice. Two, somebody (Anonymous?) brought it down and they don't know what happened, which means your information (your address, your phone number, your mother's maiden name, your affiliations, your credit card number, your high school secrets) is compromised. There may be a third, though. Facebook is threatening its users with a denial of service. Zuckerberg knows he's powerful and he's flexing. Yep. it's your typical abusive relationship: do as I say or this social network gets it. None of those reasons are good.

So, as Dan Savage says, dump the motherfucker already. It's not good for you and it is a tool for authoritarianism. For a change, keep your pictures in storage online, or better, in a photo album.  Text your loved ones or better yet, call them on the phone. Write a letter. Send a postcard. Do Facetime or fucking Google Meet (you're already on Google, if you have an account here). I'm sure there are alternatives. You don't NEED Facebook and its pernicious influence. Let your aunt Doris drown in misinformation and fuckery. It's her choice. But don't enable it.

XOXO

The Victors Write The History

N.C. School Board Adopts Bonkers New Anti-Critical Race Theory Curriculum Standards After Funding Threatened

Evan Brechtel

Oct. 09, 2021

Republicans remain hysterical over the alleged teaching of critical race theory, which posits that current racial inequalities often presented as happenstance are inextricably linked to centuries of overt racist violence and subjugation—is the subject of the Republican party's latest moral panic.

The theory is rarely, if ever, taught outside of college classes and the very Republican legislators who oppose it are often unable to actually define what it means.

Nevertheless, Republican legislatures across a number of states are weighing or have already imposed restrictions on unvarnished teachings of America's racist history.

In states like Tennessee, school districts could be penalized with millions in fines for lessons that violate these restrictions. At the federal and state level, Republicans have supported the adoption of strictly "patriotic" teachings of history, glossing over the moral complexities and even atrocities of America's founders to present them as inherently exceptional instead.

In the final year of his presidency, Donald Trump established the 1776 commission to explore new ways of integrating so-called "patriotic education" to combat more unflinching records of America's past.

Similar efforts are now underway in communities across the nation, including in Johnston County, North Carolina, where the school board was recently forced to adopt new rules forbidding lessons acknowledging that racism is ongoing in the United States. What's more, any historical figures who contributed to American society must be presented as "reformists, innovators and heroes."

The decision came after the county's Board of Commissioners withheld millions in funding from education funding until assurances were made that no lessons on critical race theory or "potentially divisive" topics would be delivered.

Watch below.

Raleigh's CBS 17 News spoke to one teacher, April Lee, about the changes.

She said:

"I just have a really hard time figuring out how to do that with characters in U.S. history like Andrew Jackson and McCarthy and several other people who made some really bad decisions along the way. I think it ties our hands, at least for some teachers who won't feel comfortable because they feel like they're being called into question."

Others agreed that the new rules—and the Board of Supervisors' withholding of funding—had gone too far.

People could only imagine the alternative history the far-right would teach.

Glitch in the Matrix

I spotted this at work when I got back from lunch on Thursday. I couldn't make out exactly what it was, but from the distance it sort of looked like someone wearing sunglasses and a suit and tie looking out the window. I took a photo in hopes of blowing it up and putting the question to rest, but alas, that didn't provide an answer. It was gone completely when I left work, so whatever it was moved or had been moved—as was the sheet draped over the window.

I'm going to write it off as a glitch in the Matrix.

Quote of the Day

I have become more radical in the last 5 years than in all my days at college, law school, and 41 years of practicing law. They say one gets more conservative as they grow older, and I say, not if you're paying attention. ~ Sandra Blue