Social Media, where the social ain't social (warning: not nice words here)
This is a little rant, a little social commentary, and it is not completely nice. I am not talking about specific people, or naming names, so if you see yourself in anything I write here, I am probably not writing about you. If I am writing about you, don't worry. No one knows you and even if they do they probably already know about what I am writing about because people, friends and family, are terrible gossips. Me, I just write about things to complete strangers who could not possibly care enough to find out who you are. After they read it they'll more than likely forget about and possibly un-friend me here and on other sites out of disgust or boredom, or both.
*small smile*
I've FB-friended a lot of relatives that I have not seen or heard from for most of my life. I have memories and assumptions about some of those folks, their character and social leanings, but I've been surprised (and shocked) that most of them seem to be Trump Supporters.
Yes, I know that some of my LiveJournal friends are Trump Supporters too. I don't care. I am not one of those who has to have everyone I know in life or on social media be of similar mindset to me. I can be friends with completely incomprehensible people without too much trouble. *grin*
It's really my eldest sister who wanted to connect with estranged family members and extended family members that got my friend-request queue filled. It wasn't me. I am of the belief that if we have not talked in 30 years, there's probably a reason we have not talked or communicated in 30 years - be that a interest reason or feudal reason, or complete disinterest in that person or their family. The thing that really made me start accepting friend requests and trying to connect with these family members was to connect the younger family members with their various unknown relatives;
I've told others, and I am sure they thought that I was being funny, but I was being dead serious, that everyone should know who they are related to by blood and how close or far that blood relationship goes. One needs to know that so that one morning (or a month of mornings after) you won't find out that the person you've slept with (or are sleeping with) is a close cousin or previously unknown sibling.
Anyhoo. So, I've found that most of my long-lost relatives are Trump supporters. Some are closet-minded racists - meaning that they don't know that they are racists, probably because they occasionally talk to a person of another race without calling them niggers or spades or spics or jungle bunnies or hebs or other names that you can read up on at The Racial Slur Database.
Did I offend you with the above statement? I wasn't talking specifically about my new friendly family members, but people in general in modern American Society and people who I've been finding more of in my life than I ever realized possible. I AM sorry if I said a word you don't like hearing (or reading) but I hear words I don't like every single day. Poverty is one. Homeless is another. And terms like "worthless person", "socially unacceptable", and "Obama was scum but George W. Bush was simply misunderstood or misguided", those are a few of the many I hear often enough that set my teeth on edge and my mouth twitching at the side.
I recently had a family member tell me that they've been banned from their nearby Family/Dollar/Lot Store. It seems that they were not feeling well, were sick, so they went to the store and they parked at the curb outside rather than get a parking space. They were feeling rotten, after all! They were just running in and out so would not be there long, because as we all know that excuse is good enough. Inside the store the two young women (one white, one black, both too young to be in charge) who worked there were standing in the aisle in the way and not doing anything, like their job.
Longish story short, the clerks told my family member that they could not park where they parked, family member said they've been doing it for years and the old staff didn't mind, so the clerks said we mind and we are here now so you can't park there anymore, and that started an argument which lead to said family member saying something along the lines of "I'm not standing here listening to your black lip!" (or something similar) and so the girls banned her from the store;
So family member gets home, feels outraged and justified, and called the main Family/Dollar/Lot Store support line to complain about those 2 girls. The family member was honest with them (very) and told them about the "black" comment, but that it was not usual for them to make that kind of comment, but they are sick and not feeling well and was upset, but it wasn't how they really think or feel, and that they spend a lot of money in that store, and so on and so forth. In the end the customer support and the regional manager said that the store ban was not being removed and that was that. Unfair, don't you think?
*sighs*
See, I've got a problem with the kind of people who say Obama instead of Barack Obama, or President Obama, but when they speak about Bush they say George W. Bush or President Bush. "I don't like Obama. Never did. But George W. Bush, he was flawed, but a better President than Obama was from start to end." That's a racist statement from start to end, even if you don't understand that.
I voted in the last election for the Green Party, not because I really wanted to, but I was not and never would and never will Vote for scum like Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump. They are the same person, just one wears a dress and lies a lot better than the other one. The she had a lot more practice than the he, plus she's lawyer. The orange one, well, he's just a fool who got daddy's money and managed not to lose it all and then got himself his own TV show and produced it too.
He's like Paris Hilton, just not as pretty, and probably not as smart. ;P
This is a good post, ain't it! I've probably offended most of my family and most of the people reading this from start to go to this point. That's a banner day, let me tell you!
You know, people say that they want truth in journalism, truth in government, truth in their business dealings and in their personal life. Nah, most of you don't want truth, you want someone to say what you want to hear, how you want to hear it. I've said often in the past that I don't DO politically correct, but that's a complete lie;
This post and similar that I've written are not even CLOSE to how I wanted to say it. I edited, I changed, I softened, I couched, I... politically corrected. I always seem to do that because I really don't want to offended anybody, but I've found that I can't please everyone and someone always reads or takes something the wrong way, or the right way but their thinking process is wrong, so, they're offended. You can't win. If you can win, then you are probably not saying anything and should write a commercial for and about Epsom Salt.
Social Media is media in a society, not social as in nice and friendly and social. It's not and never was. Facebook was created so that some college guys could chat up girls. It was not about connecting to long lost friends and family. It wasn't about posting pictures of your kids, it was about your fit college age daughter posting snaps of herself in a bikini and dorks drooling and later dribbling over those snaps. Those Facebook creator guys figured they could invite the ones they liked (thought were hot) on that social media platform out to a party, get them loaded, then take them home, bang 'em fast, then send them home on a bus. A fantasy, sure, because no sober or drunk hot girl ever wanted to sleep with Mark Zuckerberg, Dustin Moskovitz, Edwuardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, or Chris Hughes - at least not before they got richer and famous. Famous was more important than rich. In fact, Facebook was not Facebook originally, it was Facemash.
On FaceMash they placed two people's profile photos next to each other and asked other users to vote and choose the 'hotter' person. Mark Zuckerberg hacked the "facebooks" site Harvard maintained to help students identify each other and used the images to populate his Facemash website. Hacked. Robbed. Stole. Used without permission of the school or the people whose photos he grabbed.
Long story short, Facebook later came into existence (had to change the name otherwise Zucky would have gotten sued pants-less if he had tried to turn Facemash into a for-profit business after all of his past computer crimes and photo thefts). It became a world changer, Mark Zuckerberg got filthy rich - but he never did manage to get any hotter votes on Facemash than any photo he put up against his own.
Anyone who has seen the partially fictional movie "The Social Network" has seen a politically correct movie. It might not seem like it, but it is. The words, the terms, how the founders of Facebook talked, were more akin to what Donald Trump said in his locker room talks than anything said in this movie. You can't find the truth even in a movie that is supposed to be an unauthorized biography of the truth.
Social Media is not about the truth. It's not about being social, not anymore. In the early days sites like LiveJournal were about unvarnished truth, but even here it has changed to lightly padded (or fully couched) truth. When I talk about truth I am talking about considered, thought of, analyzed, truth, not impulse statements and postings. Uneducated and racist and bigoted people mostly own those kind of comments, but actually so does most of the general public when I come to think about it. It comes in the form of angry support for whatever post got their panties into a twist.
It's like when that grandmother said a few years ago that she and her disfigured granddaughter were asked to Leave KFC because the disfigured face of the kid was disturbing the other patrons. Everyone on Social Media went nuts. People were protesting that KFC online and off and even at other KFC stores around the country. Shocking stuff! That poor grandmother and her poor little granddaughter! Shameless of KFC to do that.
But, err, it turns out that the grandmother made it all up. No one at that KFC had asked her to take the kid out of a store, and in fact they were never at that store, or any KFC on that day. I guess she was looking for money from good hearted givers on the Internet to fund her GoFundMe account, and possibly compassion money from KFC and other companies (which she got, by the way) because they needed it. They needed money for that little girl because they had not been able to sue anyone over the poor little girl being attacked by 3 large dogs.
It turns out the little girl was attacked and disfigured by granddaddy's very own 3 Pit Bulls. Can't sue granddaddy, now could they? Better to get it from a big company with deep pockets and put the onus also onto some 9-5 workers who can find another job somewhere after losing theirs. It's a white lie for a good cause, so no harm, no foul.
In the end they got over $100,000 in donations and free surgeries from some nice fair-minded surgeons. The workers at the KFC stores, well, they got nothing but the bitter and the bile for months online after having done nothing worse than going to work that day.
Social Media is not social, or fair, or righteous, and in fact it is anti-social. Sitting across from somebody, seeing them in real time and real life, that's social. Even writing letters and mailing them is more social than social media. Making the occasional phone call is more social than social media. Thinking about somebody for more than a few minutes is more social than clicking the like button on a shared link that you never actually read in full is more social than social media.
If you've read down this far, I'm impressed. I probably lost most of the readers early on, even before the racist words I used came onto the screen. People can't read much these days without filler pictures, it seems. The others I lost when I posted those nasty words because most people can't think beyond the impulse reaction. The knee-jerk of the mind is something usually only a nice person or a well educated person can get beyond easily. I am a nice person, but not that nice. Thank God I am well educated otherwise I'd probably be banned from every social media site out there. *grin*
I've found that in the last 5-10 years nothing I post or write or comment on is safe from impulse comments, misreading, and just trolling nastiness for no reason by people who have too much time on their hands. The time they spend reading and writing on social media could be better spent reading and expanding knowledge, their notions and outlook, opinion (informed), and studies on reading comprehension. If something you read on social media pisses you off enough to immediately comment on it, chances are 99 times out of 100, you are the kind of person who should not be on social media. You are not social enough. ;P
Perhaps I am not as open to other people's thoughts and opinions as I thought I was. Perhaps I am writing this long and at times potentially offensive to many different person or persons post because I kind of want those who get offended by it to unfriend me from whatever social media places I am on. It could be. Or, perhaps I am doing what I've always done: Writing what I think and feel and am hoping for a good exchange of thoughts, ideas, opinions, dialog, and discussion. If you believe it is more the former of this paragraph, then you might just want to unfriend me. If you believe it to be closer to the latter, then I think we are on the same page. If not on the same page, perhaps looking at the same book, or at least we are at a similar looking library in the same State in the same Country. Give or take.
*smiles*
Opinions are only good if those opinions are based on information, research, details, and truth. Opinions based on emotion or feelings, those are worthless opinions. If something makes you mad, calm down, give it some time, think about it, and then comment on it. If you can't do that then you deserve the social media we now have. You cannot complain about it.
Why did I mention Trump before? Because I don't like him? Yes, but also because so many of the people I am connected with, family and not, who support Trump and say bad things about Liberals (with a capital L) make me steam. They complain about people getting what they can't. They want everyone to get off social aid, now! They hate food stamps, Medicaid and Medicare, hate the affordable care act, and even seem to hate Social Security. Oh, but they really hate Liberals of any kind. Hate 'um!
The thing is, err, Liberal laws are what allows you write those comments on Facebook or other social media. Liberals are also the reason you own your own business, or own your own house, and can buy from any store, not just the company store. It's why you can vote and be just a renter, because before only landowners could vote. Before you start yelling about everything Liberals have done or are doing, you should research first. You put Trump into office and the first thing he wants to do is remove the freedom for you to post what you've been posting on the Internet. That's some dumb thinking, people. Dumb.
As for social aid and Social Security, just shut about it. Shut up about it until you tell your mother, father, sister, or any relative to stop accepting it and then pick up the bill for it yourself, with or without other relatives helping out. Support them fully and I'll listen to anything you have to say. Make them give back the Social Security, disability payments, food stamps, and medical coverage. You pick up those bills and you will have my undivided attention and respect. Otherwise, you're full of shit.
Facebook is not free. You are posting and using it every single day and not paying a penny for it. It's Social Media, but it's also Socialism Media. You are getting it for free but it's costing someone else money. It's charity. You are not reading and clicking on every ad you see on it. You are not. Neither am I. You want social aid and social benefits to end, then lets start by actually charging money to access Social Media Sites.
People who vote and think against their own self-interest, not really realizing they are doing it, seem to be the majority in America these days. A relative of mine (who is for some unfathomable reason a Trump supporter) is on Social Security Disability and SSI, and needs it. That person gets Food Stamps, is on Medicare and Medicaid under the affordable care act which pays for the myriad of prescriptions, doctor appointments, and surgeries, and emergency room visits and ambulances. They also get help with heating and electric bills, both through government programs and charities. Without all that, without that social aid and charitable aid, that person would be dead right now. They'd be dead or their kids and relatives would be broke and financially hurting. They are not hurting and said person is not dead, so those who are not hurting need to shut up or put up.
Hmm! You know, for the most part, the above is me too. And my father. Without Social Security he'd be a homeless, penniless, car-less, 83 year old man. Me, I'd be dead - especially after my heart attack. Without Medicaid and the affordable care act I'd be gone, or homeless, or dead, or trying to turn tricks behind the 7-11 for food and rent money. I don't think I'd make much. Do you? If you do, I have a bridge for sale. ;)
Social Media is open and free to even those who can't seem to understand where their liberty and rights come from, or are, or are not. Social Media is not social, it's just media, and media has become a bad word because of them and their mindless pursuit of... what, I can't say. Neither can they - at least not clearly or coherently.
For the record, I wrote this because I am going to start writing again. One of the reasons I am writing again is because I am tired of being misquoted and paraphrased by friends and family (mostly family). They relate what I said (often right in front of me) but in a completely different way and in a completely different context than I said it or related. I am dead tired of that. When I say something I want it heard, read, and reported, exactly how I said it, why it said it, and even if I said it. My words tend to have substance or humor, or both. Paraphrasing is just talking about something you thought you heard, but didn't really, because you were not paying proper attention. That's not socially acceptable. *wink*
So, I am writing again here in my blog, my diary, and giving it to everyone from the horse's mouth, or another orifice. You choose which one that is. ;)
Mark
*small smile*
I've FB-friended a lot of relatives that I have not seen or heard from for most of my life. I have memories and assumptions about some of those folks, their character and social leanings, but I've been surprised (and shocked) that most of them seem to be Trump Supporters.
Yes, I know that some of my LiveJournal friends are Trump Supporters too. I don't care. I am not one of those who has to have everyone I know in life or on social media be of similar mindset to me. I can be friends with completely incomprehensible people without too much trouble. *grin*
It's really my eldest sister who wanted to connect with estranged family members and extended family members that got my friend-request queue filled. It wasn't me. I am of the belief that if we have not talked in 30 years, there's probably a reason we have not talked or communicated in 30 years - be that a interest reason or feudal reason, or complete disinterest in that person or their family. The thing that really made me start accepting friend requests and trying to connect with these family members was to connect the younger family members with their various unknown relatives;
I've told others, and I am sure they thought that I was being funny, but I was being dead serious, that everyone should know who they are related to by blood and how close or far that blood relationship goes. One needs to know that so that one morning (or a month of mornings after) you won't find out that the person you've slept with (or are sleeping with) is a close cousin or previously unknown sibling.
Anyhoo. So, I've found that most of my long-lost relatives are Trump supporters. Some are closet-minded racists - meaning that they don't know that they are racists, probably because they occasionally talk to a person of another race without calling them niggers or spades or spics or jungle bunnies or hebs or other names that you can read up on at The Racial Slur Database.
Did I offend you with the above statement? I wasn't talking specifically about my new friendly family members, but people in general in modern American Society and people who I've been finding more of in my life than I ever realized possible. I AM sorry if I said a word you don't like hearing (or reading) but I hear words I don't like every single day. Poverty is one. Homeless is another. And terms like "worthless person", "socially unacceptable", and "Obama was scum but George W. Bush was simply misunderstood or misguided", those are a few of the many I hear often enough that set my teeth on edge and my mouth twitching at the side.
I recently had a family member tell me that they've been banned from their nearby Family/Dollar/Lot Store. It seems that they were not feeling well, were sick, so they went to the store and they parked at the curb outside rather than get a parking space. They were feeling rotten, after all! They were just running in and out so would not be there long, because as we all know that excuse is good enough. Inside the store the two young women (one white, one black, both too young to be in charge) who worked there were standing in the aisle in the way and not doing anything, like their job.
Longish story short, the clerks told my family member that they could not park where they parked, family member said they've been doing it for years and the old staff didn't mind, so the clerks said we mind and we are here now so you can't park there anymore, and that started an argument which lead to said family member saying something along the lines of "I'm not standing here listening to your black lip!" (or something similar) and so the girls banned her from the store;
So family member gets home, feels outraged and justified, and called the main Family/Dollar/Lot Store support line to complain about those 2 girls. The family member was honest with them (very) and told them about the "black" comment, but that it was not usual for them to make that kind of comment, but they are sick and not feeling well and was upset, but it wasn't how they really think or feel, and that they spend a lot of money in that store, and so on and so forth. In the end the customer support and the regional manager said that the store ban was not being removed and that was that. Unfair, don't you think?
*sighs*
See, I've got a problem with the kind of people who say Obama instead of Barack Obama, or President Obama, but when they speak about Bush they say George W. Bush or President Bush. "I don't like Obama. Never did. But George W. Bush, he was flawed, but a better President than Obama was from start to end." That's a racist statement from start to end, even if you don't understand that.
I voted in the last election for the Green Party, not because I really wanted to, but I was not and never would and never will Vote for scum like Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump. They are the same person, just one wears a dress and lies a lot better than the other one. The she had a lot more practice than the he, plus she's lawyer. The orange one, well, he's just a fool who got daddy's money and managed not to lose it all and then got himself his own TV show and produced it too.
He's like Paris Hilton, just not as pretty, and probably not as smart. ;P
This is a good post, ain't it! I've probably offended most of my family and most of the people reading this from start to go to this point. That's a banner day, let me tell you!
You know, people say that they want truth in journalism, truth in government, truth in their business dealings and in their personal life. Nah, most of you don't want truth, you want someone to say what you want to hear, how you want to hear it. I've said often in the past that I don't DO politically correct, but that's a complete lie;
This post and similar that I've written are not even CLOSE to how I wanted to say it. I edited, I changed, I softened, I couched, I... politically corrected. I always seem to do that because I really don't want to offended anybody, but I've found that I can't please everyone and someone always reads or takes something the wrong way, or the right way but their thinking process is wrong, so, they're offended. You can't win. If you can win, then you are probably not saying anything and should write a commercial for and about Epsom Salt.
Social Media is media in a society, not social as in nice and friendly and social. It's not and never was. Facebook was created so that some college guys could chat up girls. It was not about connecting to long lost friends and family. It wasn't about posting pictures of your kids, it was about your fit college age daughter posting snaps of herself in a bikini and dorks drooling and later dribbling over those snaps. Those Facebook creator guys figured they could invite the ones they liked (thought were hot) on that social media platform out to a party, get them loaded, then take them home, bang 'em fast, then send them home on a bus. A fantasy, sure, because no sober or drunk hot girl ever wanted to sleep with Mark Zuckerberg, Dustin Moskovitz, Edwuardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, or Chris Hughes - at least not before they got richer and famous. Famous was more important than rich. In fact, Facebook was not Facebook originally, it was Facemash.
On FaceMash they placed two people's profile photos next to each other and asked other users to vote and choose the 'hotter' person. Mark Zuckerberg hacked the "facebooks" site Harvard maintained to help students identify each other and used the images to populate his Facemash website. Hacked. Robbed. Stole. Used without permission of the school or the people whose photos he grabbed.
Long story short, Facebook later came into existence (had to change the name otherwise Zucky would have gotten sued pants-less if he had tried to turn Facemash into a for-profit business after all of his past computer crimes and photo thefts). It became a world changer, Mark Zuckerberg got filthy rich - but he never did manage to get any hotter votes on Facemash than any photo he put up against his own.
Anyone who has seen the partially fictional movie "The Social Network" has seen a politically correct movie. It might not seem like it, but it is. The words, the terms, how the founders of Facebook talked, were more akin to what Donald Trump said in his locker room talks than anything said in this movie. You can't find the truth even in a movie that is supposed to be an unauthorized biography of the truth.
Social Media is not about the truth. It's not about being social, not anymore. In the early days sites like LiveJournal were about unvarnished truth, but even here it has changed to lightly padded (or fully couched) truth. When I talk about truth I am talking about considered, thought of, analyzed, truth, not impulse statements and postings. Uneducated and racist and bigoted people mostly own those kind of comments, but actually so does most of the general public when I come to think about it. It comes in the form of angry support for whatever post got their panties into a twist.
It's like when that grandmother said a few years ago that she and her disfigured granddaughter were asked to Leave KFC because the disfigured face of the kid was disturbing the other patrons. Everyone on Social Media went nuts. People were protesting that KFC online and off and even at other KFC stores around the country. Shocking stuff! That poor grandmother and her poor little granddaughter! Shameless of KFC to do that.
But, err, it turns out that the grandmother made it all up. No one at that KFC had asked her to take the kid out of a store, and in fact they were never at that store, or any KFC on that day. I guess she was looking for money from good hearted givers on the Internet to fund her GoFundMe account, and possibly compassion money from KFC and other companies (which she got, by the way) because they needed it. They needed money for that little girl because they had not been able to sue anyone over the poor little girl being attacked by 3 large dogs.
It turns out the little girl was attacked and disfigured by granddaddy's very own 3 Pit Bulls. Can't sue granddaddy, now could they? Better to get it from a big company with deep pockets and put the onus also onto some 9-5 workers who can find another job somewhere after losing theirs. It's a white lie for a good cause, so no harm, no foul.
In the end they got over $100,000 in donations and free surgeries from some nice fair-minded surgeons. The workers at the KFC stores, well, they got nothing but the bitter and the bile for months online after having done nothing worse than going to work that day.
Social Media is not social, or fair, or righteous, and in fact it is anti-social. Sitting across from somebody, seeing them in real time and real life, that's social. Even writing letters and mailing them is more social than social media. Making the occasional phone call is more social than social media. Thinking about somebody for more than a few minutes is more social than clicking the like button on a shared link that you never actually read in full is more social than social media.
If you've read down this far, I'm impressed. I probably lost most of the readers early on, even before the racist words I used came onto the screen. People can't read much these days without filler pictures, it seems. The others I lost when I posted those nasty words because most people can't think beyond the impulse reaction. The knee-jerk of the mind is something usually only a nice person or a well educated person can get beyond easily. I am a nice person, but not that nice. Thank God I am well educated otherwise I'd probably be banned from every social media site out there. *grin*
I've found that in the last 5-10 years nothing I post or write or comment on is safe from impulse comments, misreading, and just trolling nastiness for no reason by people who have too much time on their hands. The time they spend reading and writing on social media could be better spent reading and expanding knowledge, their notions and outlook, opinion (informed), and studies on reading comprehension. If something you read on social media pisses you off enough to immediately comment on it, chances are 99 times out of 100, you are the kind of person who should not be on social media. You are not social enough. ;P
Perhaps I am not as open to other people's thoughts and opinions as I thought I was. Perhaps I am writing this long and at times potentially offensive to many different person or persons post because I kind of want those who get offended by it to unfriend me from whatever social media places I am on. It could be. Or, perhaps I am doing what I've always done: Writing what I think and feel and am hoping for a good exchange of thoughts, ideas, opinions, dialog, and discussion. If you believe it is more the former of this paragraph, then you might just want to unfriend me. If you believe it to be closer to the latter, then I think we are on the same page. If not on the same page, perhaps looking at the same book, or at least we are at a similar looking library in the same State in the same Country. Give or take.
*smiles*
Opinions are only good if those opinions are based on information, research, details, and truth. Opinions based on emotion or feelings, those are worthless opinions. If something makes you mad, calm down, give it some time, think about it, and then comment on it. If you can't do that then you deserve the social media we now have. You cannot complain about it.
Why did I mention Trump before? Because I don't like him? Yes, but also because so many of the people I am connected with, family and not, who support Trump and say bad things about Liberals (with a capital L) make me steam. They complain about people getting what they can't. They want everyone to get off social aid, now! They hate food stamps, Medicaid and Medicare, hate the affordable care act, and even seem to hate Social Security. Oh, but they really hate Liberals of any kind. Hate 'um!
The thing is, err, Liberal laws are what allows you write those comments on Facebook or other social media. Liberals are also the reason you own your own business, or own your own house, and can buy from any store, not just the company store. It's why you can vote and be just a renter, because before only landowners could vote. Before you start yelling about everything Liberals have done or are doing, you should research first. You put Trump into office and the first thing he wants to do is remove the freedom for you to post what you've been posting on the Internet. That's some dumb thinking, people. Dumb.
As for social aid and Social Security, just shut about it. Shut up about it until you tell your mother, father, sister, or any relative to stop accepting it and then pick up the bill for it yourself, with or without other relatives helping out. Support them fully and I'll listen to anything you have to say. Make them give back the Social Security, disability payments, food stamps, and medical coverage. You pick up those bills and you will have my undivided attention and respect. Otherwise, you're full of shit.
Facebook is not free. You are posting and using it every single day and not paying a penny for it. It's Social Media, but it's also Socialism Media. You are getting it for free but it's costing someone else money. It's charity. You are not reading and clicking on every ad you see on it. You are not. Neither am I. You want social aid and social benefits to end, then lets start by actually charging money to access Social Media Sites.
People who vote and think against their own self-interest, not really realizing they are doing it, seem to be the majority in America these days. A relative of mine (who is for some unfathomable reason a Trump supporter) is on Social Security Disability and SSI, and needs it. That person gets Food Stamps, is on Medicare and Medicaid under the affordable care act which pays for the myriad of prescriptions, doctor appointments, and surgeries, and emergency room visits and ambulances. They also get help with heating and electric bills, both through government programs and charities. Without all that, without that social aid and charitable aid, that person would be dead right now. They'd be dead or their kids and relatives would be broke and financially hurting. They are not hurting and said person is not dead, so those who are not hurting need to shut up or put up.
Hmm! You know, for the most part, the above is me too. And my father. Without Social Security he'd be a homeless, penniless, car-less, 83 year old man. Me, I'd be dead - especially after my heart attack. Without Medicaid and the affordable care act I'd be gone, or homeless, or dead, or trying to turn tricks behind the 7-11 for food and rent money. I don't think I'd make much. Do you? If you do, I have a bridge for sale. ;)
Social Media is open and free to even those who can't seem to understand where their liberty and rights come from, or are, or are not. Social Media is not social, it's just media, and media has become a bad word because of them and their mindless pursuit of... what, I can't say. Neither can they - at least not clearly or coherently.
For the record, I wrote this because I am going to start writing again. One of the reasons I am writing again is because I am tired of being misquoted and paraphrased by friends and family (mostly family). They relate what I said (often right in front of me) but in a completely different way and in a completely different context than I said it or related. I am dead tired of that. When I say something I want it heard, read, and reported, exactly how I said it, why it said it, and even if I said it. My words tend to have substance or humor, or both. Paraphrasing is just talking about something you thought you heard, but didn't really, because you were not paying proper attention. That's not socially acceptable. *wink*
So, I am writing again here in my blog, my diary, and giving it to everyone from the horse's mouth, or another orifice. You choose which one that is. ;)
Mark