What’s the old saying, “Edison worked by gaslight while perfecting the lightbulb”?

I think that applies here. To a certain degree we still often have to participate in imperfect systems while we advocate for better ones. The people working on renewables or electric vehicles still used electricity from coal plants and gas guzzling vehicles. Many of us can see how extractive capitalism is hurting us and our communities, yet we’re forced to participate in it to eat.

I’d select one or maybe two services you can tolerate that are the tools best suited for building your tribe. Insulate them the best you can, be conscious of your own usage of those platforms, and talk… A LOT… about why privacy matters and what these platforms are doing.

A lot of people simply don’t know or don’t know there’s a community trying desperately to build alternatives. Perhaps a community also still flawed, but **progress is greater than perfection! **

As far as cameras go, understand your routes best you can. Be a blip instead of a constant feed. Same with online presence. OK. They know John Doe number 1.5 million and twenty-two exists- but you have some control over whether they know which direction you wipe your bunghole. Take the small victories!

Use and hack the systems that exist today to build better ones for tomorrow.

And whatever you do be careful you don’t become like my great uncle— he thought the Soviet’s had microphones under his plates and spies were hiding in his closet (he was a farmer from podunk nowhere.) but he also fed his tractor hay so— that might have just been schizophrenia…

But, seek balance today so you don’t go mad tomorrow! And if you start feeding your tractor hay, seek help.

Clearly, other ideologies are also blocked then correct? Like, you can’t say, “no Christian nationalists” or “no white nationalists” or “no fascists” or “no Neo-Nazis” or “no MAGA”. Right? Right?? You have to accept and expose yourself to all dangerous ideologies equally.

The daughter of a Mossad agent who specializes in trafficking and endangering children for honeypot entrapment blackmail schemes has a bad habit for “dishonest conduct”? Weird. / s

Today it’s immigrants, tomorrow it’s everyone else.

Good ole Donald J. Quixote

Glad I’m not the only one whose mind went straight there

There are 3 Dimensions of Power

1. Decision-Making
2. Agenda Setting
3. Thought Control

Network Television and print media were the old ways. You’d control what people perceive to be important through sitcom values and talk show hosts. AI is just the next generation, making it even more intimate and organic, but the end goal remains the same.

The bot armies in comment sections are here to make you think you’re part of a hive mind; that you’re one with the crowd, but in reality you’re being manipulated into conformity.

Instead of your favorite actor onscreen or talking head telling you what is “normal” to think and believe, a chat bot in your pocket or a comment section on your favorite social media is guiding you towards what’s “normal”, toward what’s the “correct” answer.