Posts Tagged ‘Social Media’

Conspiracy Theorist is a colorful euphemism for someone who sees through all of the progressive bovine excrement

Posted: June 3, 2021 by Jon Fournier in Uncategorized
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One of the most pervasive hallmarks of the political left is their chronic distortion of language.  George Orwell highlighted this in great detail when he wrote 1984.  The term he created for this type of behavior is Newspeak. 

Progressives and other leftists have been warping language for well more than a century.  It is the only way they have any hope st winning arguments or convincing those that are uninformed or unknowledgeable.

One of the most common tactics used by leftists is to take a term that has a negative connotation and apply it to those who absolutely do not deserved to be tagged with that label.  The most current example of this is the all too casual way leftists on social media throw around the accusations of someone being a conspiracy theorist. 

All an individual has to do to be tagged on social media as a conspiracy theorist is to make a statement that conflicts with standard leftist orthodoxy.  Liberals and other leftists live in a universe that is divorced from reality, a universe that is ruled by feeling and emotions rather than the truth, facts, science, or other forms of absolute truth.   

Social media giants such as FaceBook and Twitter employ an army of so called fact checkers who all too often label factual posts as false or containing misinformation.  If you share posts that are flagged by these phony fact checkers too often you risk being banned or having the audience your posts reach severely restricted.   I have been banned from Twitter for spreading conspiracies and I am pretty sure FaceBook has severely throttled back my account.

To be labeled a conspiracy theorist by a leftist on social media all you have to do is tell the truth about the 2020 presidential election being stolen from President Trump, mask mandates being ineffectual, lockdowns doing tremendous harm and no good,  the possibility of the Wuhan Virus escaping from a lab, global warming and man caused climate change being a bunch of bunk, and so much more.

It is amazing how frequently us so called conspiracy theorist are later proved to be purveyors of the truth when all of the facts and evidence are carefully examined and weighed.

The Post Office again shows why you should not be on Facebook

Posted: April 24, 2021 by ng36b in crime
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Well, no surprise, instead of actually delivering mail, the Postal Inspection Service is now worried about scanning for “inflammatory” content. Not actual crimes mind you, but people trying to protest or organize rallies. And not just any protests, like the “peaceful” protests last summer, but any that would be considered “right wing.”

I predict that not only will the USPIS (yup, that’s an acronym only the government can get behind) not find a whole lot, but it will simply drive people underground. It’s too easy to simply not use social media to organize, and if you’re really smart, you’ll organize using something like Signal, which actively makes fun of government organizations trying to break its code and encryption. Anyone using Facebook to organize is a fool and won’t last long.

I’m not a fan of government abusing authority to monitor for non-crimes, so here are a ton of resources you should use to keep the Postal Service’s “elite” force from spying on your non-COVID friendly BBQ:

  • Identity and Privacy Guide. Yup, its a government site. For SEALs. Because lots of foreign governments want to use social media to identify and influence Special Operators. So you can use the same guide they do for keeping their information safe.
  • NCIS Social Media Handbook. Not as cool as the TV show, but this guide helps you secure most of the privacy settings on popular social media.
  • Identity Force Blog. A good read for actual outlines of how bad things happen online.

Ironically, none of these cover Parler or Gab, both of which are considered bad places to be, or so Wikipedia told me, and I would trust Wikipedia to never, ever lie to me.

Here’s the reality. While stupid people will use social media to organize and commit crimes, those are easy to find. I’m more worried about the people with real skills organizing off social media. Those people could plot high end crimes that we’ll never see coming. Those are people like the Unabomber, who unlike the fools on Facebook actually killed people and was difficult to track down. These people will require actual focus, time and effort to track down and stop, and that’s exactly what we aren’t doing when we waste time scanning social media.

This post represents the views of the author and not those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, or any other government agency.

Don’t worry, Facebook will cancel you next

Posted: February 20, 2021 by ng36b in business, News/opinion, Uncomfortable Truths
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Facebook is everywhere. Our kids dance studio uses it to communicate with us. The Submarine Base in Groton uses it to let you know when the base is closed due to snow. The military’s Airlift Command uses it to notify people of upcoming flights. Facebook’s ease of use caused many places to use Facebook in place of email, website and texting notifications and updates.

All that dependency comes with a price, because Facebook is too big to care. Instead of being a neutral platform, Facebook took sides on issues. At first, it was non-controversial, like when Facebook would remove suicide videos or obviously pornographic images. But it became too much of a temptation, and it wasn’t long before Facebook was manipulating news feeds and canceling whomever it willed.

President Trump was an obvious canceling choice. But Law Enforcement Today? That’s a bit weird. Or plenty of other folks like Ron Paul. The latest one is Australia, which tried to cash in on Facebook sharing its content. Instead of sharing, Facebook banned all Australian news sources from being shared on its platform. If your news revenue relied on social media sharing, a move like this is devastating to your business.

BTW, the EU assures us it “can’t happen to them.” Don’t hold your breath.

If your small business or club relies on Facebook for communication, you’re vulnerable. Whenever the military invades an area, the first thing they destroy is enemy communication platforms. If you can’t communicate, you can’t organize, and you certainly can’t get anything useful done.

To illustrate this point, I once spoke with firefighters that rescued people in the aftermath of the Twin Towers attack on 9/11. One of the things not discussed is that there are a lot of cell and radio towers on the Twin Towers. When they came down, it crippled cellular communications in the area. Firefighters and police resorted to runners to pass messages while pulling people out of rubble.

You are much better off, and much safer, with a good email system, blog and website, plus a social media platform that respects you, like MeWe. Because if Facebook can cancel Australia, what stops them from canceling you?

This post represents the views of the author and not those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, or any other government agency.

The Short Guide to Using MeWe, for formerly Facebook conservatives

Posted: January 30, 2021 by ng36b in blogs, tips, Uncomfortable Truths
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Let’s say you’re a conservative, and after watching Big Tech attempt to single-handedly destroy Parler, blame Trump for inciting riots in the Capitol, and try to shutdown legitimate stock trading on Robinhood, you’re now really worried about social media censorship. You probably saw my previous posts on MeWe and NextDoor, and think there might just be no options.

Don’t lose hope! Since I couldn’t get Parler to test out, I double-downed and worked through the MeWe interface. If you need help building an account, there are hundreds of “How to get started on MeWe” videos to watch. After you create an account, do the following:

  1. If you liked memes, find a memes group. I would regularly browse Facebook and Reddit for memes. It brightened my days up and made me laugh. Reddit has become disappointingly hostile to conservatives, and Facebook is just part of the evil FAANG empire. MeWe has a pretty burgeoning list of meme groups. To find a meme group, on your home page click on “Browse Groups.” Simply type in Memes, and plenty pop up. I recommend “Meme’s From Everywhere” and “Funny memes and humor” as a start. There are plenty of darker and lighter groups, so experiment a bit and find what suits your tastes.
  2. Start a family group. A big reason for Facebook’s success is sharing pictures with your friends. My wife and I still want to share our family’s adventures with our friends, without the creepiness of Facebook sharing our pictures with others. To do that, we created a Family group and invited our friends to it. Now we can share photos and let our friends download and comment. We can even chat our upcoming plans to them. With your own group, its easy to get back to enjoying your friends as friends instead of focusing on where their politics don’t align with you.
  3. Replicate your interest groups. I never got into the groups on Facebook all that much, but on MeWe it really helps you link up with like minded people. I’m on a chainsaw group and I found a few home solutions for creosote buildup in my fireplace. The gardening group I’m part of helped me design a better fence for keeping the deer out of my garden. Its really easy to search the MeWe groups, find interests, and join groups.
  4. Tell the businesses your frequent. The ballet studio my girls attend uses Facebook to push out updates. That’s pretty common across businesses, and if you don’t have Facebook you miss out. We’re encouraging the studio to dump Facebook and switch to MeWe, since privacy for a ballet studio is pretty important, and the studio has a Christian background. Many businesses don’t even know there are other options, so helping them make the switch is key to breaking Facebook’s grip.
  5. Advocate for the missing features. I still need a livestream option, and neither MeWe nor Rumble have that yet. I also wish I could sell stuff on MeWe easily, but the privacy standards are pretty high, so NextDoor will have to suffice for now. You can communicate this to the developers, and with the explosion in growth they have, they are looking to keep their users. They are likely open to adding features, especially if its something their competitors don’t have.

I wish you the best on MeWe, maybe Peter will start a DaTechGuy group on MeWe so we can share thoughts about our favorite blog!

This post represents the views of the author and not those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, or any other government agency.

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