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I know, the world is going to hell in a hand basket and what do I chose to lament about? Pseudo censorship, the uneven playing field of the blogging world, the bias of algorithms.
I got so fed up with Facebook kicking me out for doing nothing wrong, I finally just kicked them out first. Some of the censorship is deliberate, as in a real live person, a fact checker decided they don’t like your content because you remind them of their abusive mother and they haven’t been getting enough fiber in their diet. Than there are the automatic algorithms that are equally as mindless and roam about looking for key words to lock down on. I won’t even go into the deliberate, political, suppression of free speech, but that is also well documented. So I often wind up shadow banned in some way, restricted, or even suspended for 3 days while everything is put on my permanent record, the one I allegedly started in Jr High.
These things all reduce your ability to share content and interact with other people.
So what really gets my gall, is that I sometimes have to take a break from Twitter because I am absolutely sick and tired of seeing the same perverse picture repeated all across my timeline. There is no “click to view this content” or “sensitive content warning” when you got two transgendered guys in a lip lock. Also not censored, many post surgical photos of sex change surgery. Yeah, that one is just depressing but also a powerful appetite suppressant. That is the kind of thing one should use “sensitive content warnings” for. Doesn’t matter what the politics are, I don’t want to celebrate your hemorrhoid surgery either, not with a full photo journal.
What are sensitive content warnings actually for? Sleeping kitty cats. An encouraging, “Jesus loves you.” An occasional, “God bless America.” A fully clothed girl lying in a field of sunflowers. Ironically, if she hadn’t been wearing any clothes she probably would have got past the censors.
So here is an actual screenshot from my Twitter yesterday:
Yep, be kind to one another, “don’t bite and devour” got me a sensitivity warning. And what terrifying photo lies beneath the blocked link? This one:
Seriously. And so my blogging content is now restricted, labeled dangerous, “potentially sensitive” and will not be fully curated to people’s time lines. This is really easy to document if you have any friends. I do have a handful of friends who will send me a message, “hey, I noticed you haven’t blogged for two weeks, are you okay?” Actually I have written several posts, it is just that our alien lizard overlords seem to believe I am potentially dangerous misinformation factory that for the good of public health should not be seen anywhere. Which may well be true, but in the grand scheme of things, it’s all very relative and subjective, isn’t it?
It is not. Sometimes a sleeping kitty is just a sleeping kitty and as such, so objectively benign as to be downright ridiculous. Actually, it’s also so benign as to be downright embarrassing. I mean, what you in for? Posting cat pictures. Calling someone a stinky head poo poo butt.
I am quite serious about all this, but also a bit tongue in cheek, as in I am exceedingly grateful that the Lord has seen fit to give me a somewhat lighthearted and comical thing to complain about. It is a big deal in the grand scheme of things, bottle necking and misinformation authoritarianism is a boil on the butt of humanity, but in my own tiny little blogging world, it’s just dumb and slightly amusing.
See, there's this thing called biology... 
All I gotta say is Isaiah 5.20 and 21. When they demand you not only tolerate but celebrate their perversions and demand you “Keep your religious feelings and morals to yourself”, then “censor” you when you dont… you know the “time draweth nigh”. Let it drive you closer to jesus.
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The moral of the story is stay off social media. It is an addiction for young and old alike. I left Facebook 15 years ago when I realized I was always communicating with the same 5 old ladies (shadow banning). When all my students started raving about Twitter 15 years ago, I knew to head in the opposite direction.
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Whatever happened to freedom of speech? I was wondering why I had not seen much of you lately. This is just so wrong. I suppose we’ll all have to submit to that “higher power” eventually. We need someone to stand up for the morals that most Americans share. Instead, we’re bombarded with all this other crap, which is definitely demeaning, disgusting, disturbing and inappropriate for any of us to view.
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Right? You probably also remember the days of, “I don’t agree with you but I would lay down my life defending your right to say it.” I still hold those values, I believe they are important, but apparently they are no longer very fashionable.
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Those values are held by more than we know. They have just been silenced temporarily by the bullies who are so offended about everything except decency!
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So I am a bit curious… who’s “rights” are more important… the business who posts the sign “We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone.”, or the person seeking such service? In other words… is Facebook, a business, reserving their “right” to provide their service with restrictions to any and all customers, based on algorithms designed to limit certain “expressions” from those same customers? Or are your “rights” being challenged by Facebook?
Now.. I just copied/pasted that above paragraph into ChatGPT and here is the official AI answer…
“As an AI language model, I don’t have personal opinions or beliefs, but I can provide some information that may help you think about this question.
In general, businesses do have the right to refuse service to anyone, but there are limitations to that right. For example, they cannot refuse service based on someone’s race, gender, religion, or other protected characteristics. Additionally, businesses may have to comply with certain laws and regulations that limit their ability to refuse service.
Regarding Facebook, as a private company, they have the right to set their own policies and guidelines for the use of their platform. However, they also have to comply with laws and regulations that govern their operations, such as privacy laws and laws related to online content. It is up to each individual to decide whether they agree with Facebook’s policies and guidelines and whether they choose to use the platform or not.”
So, to answer your question, it’s not a matter of whose rights are more important, but rather a matter of balancing the rights of both parties and complying with laws and regulations.”
Wouldn’t it be nice if we could do a Ctrl-Alt-Del to reboot life?
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When Fakebook, Tweep, and Groogle consort with government officials to control what information voters see and thereby change the results of an election, that violates our First Amendments rights. It is blatantly illegal. You say that is not happening? Well, you may be in chains before you are convinced otherwise.
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I’ve never alleged it has never happened, never been attempted, or even attempted as it may or may not have related to a specific mission in support of some intel/military action vs. some blanket “let’s get ’em” conspiratorial political agenda. I would always defer to a full investigation rather than the usual Conservative blog blather as somehow being a “truth”, much less the liars and disinformation whores at FOX.
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Toward the end of the Clinton Administration, there was an attempt to enforce antitrust laws against some of the Tech giants. It was Trent Lott (Republican Majority Leader then: now a high-paid lobbyist) blocked those initiatives. When Bush Jr. came in, a few months after 9/11 he more or less ordered the Tech companies to develop algorithms and data harvest users. At first they refused, but: “You’re either with us, or with the enemy,” and they were given to understand that the antitrust laws would come back if they didn’t comply. To sweeten the deal, the Tech companies got fat government contracts, and it’s been going downhill ever since.
Over the last two decades, it’s gone to this point. The Tech companies do the Deep State’s bidding, they dump millions of lobbying dollars on politicians to keep up their contracts capture regulatory agencies. Then they hide behind the ‘private company’ label to enforce the Deep State’s unconstitutional agendas. After the Snowden revelations came out, Obama and the ‘Red Wave’ Congress greased the skids even more in 2012 by repealing the Smith-Mundt Act. Now the Deep State feeds into the system what is and isn’t ‘acceptable’ news.
The Tech companies also get huge tax breaks because they set up phony philanthropies (actually NGOs in all but name) through which they launder Black Budget money and push causes favorable to the Deep State.
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Well, meaning no disrespect (and I do seem to recall similar “discussions” in the media back then) what’s your source for all this? Also… who exactly comprises the “deep state”, and again, how do you know such an entity exist as a fact?
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I have Fakebook and Tweep accounts, but I have never found them enjoyable. Mostly I just send content from a blog to them and ignore them. Fakebook and Tweep are so busy trying to collect information and advertise at that they can’t be trusted. Neither are user friendly.
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In our current reality, such attentions are an unwilling compliment, given your subject. The early Christians had a more severe version of our modern government reactions. But the trend appears headed in that direction … Vaya con Dios!
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I’m sort of a social media lurker, but that’s about it any more. They punted me off FB last December (supposedly I’ve been reinstated, but not active anymore. I just read it to keep up with community events). What got me kicked out was opposing a Drag Queen Event scheduled for the first time in our mostly rural county. Even here we have a contingent of Left-Wing Whackos and they were celebrating how much we’d ‘evolved’. I exposed that the venue hosting it was in financial difficulty and that they were paid off by out-of-area interests: even though it was being promoted as a charity event.
Then came the Christian-bashing even though I said nothing relating to the Church (a common tactic of theirs to try and frame the debate as religious bigotry). They started sneering about ‘conspiracy theories about ‘grooming’, then I pointed to statements by the promoters’ own leaders admitting that they were targeting children. Of course, one thing Liberals can’t take is being confronted with facts, and that was that.
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Yes, I hear you! I also got tossed off of FB for not showing enough compliance and submission to the transagenda.
Something I have learned about accusations of religious bigotry, there can be hundreds of thousands of people doing faith gently and beautifully, but the one extremist within 1000 miles who has a horrible theology and a poor understanding of doctrine will get all the promoted posts, the podcasts, the publicity. In fact, they clearly want those extreme voices to be promoted and shared far and wide. That lends some validity to their religious bigotry narratives. Those people will never be censored.
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A man goes to the doctor.
doctor: Hello, how can I help you?
man: Doctor, I have sexual delusions.
doctor: Sexual delusions? Hm, please, take a seat at this chair here. I’m going to draw something on the blackboard and you tell me what you see, ok?
man: ok
doctor draws a rectangle and asks: What dou you see?
man: A room. In it lies a naked woman.
doctor makes some notes, draws a rectangle and asks: What do you see now?
man: A tent. In it lies a naked woman.
doctor makes some notes, draws a single horizontal line and asks: And what do you see now?
man: A bed. A naked woman is lying on it.
doctor scratches his beard, thinks for a moment, and says: You know what? You have no delusions. You are just a dirty pig.
man: But doctor, who started the dirty pictures? You or me?
You never know what some pervert sees in a cute little cat.
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Second one was a triangle. 😉
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Beholding is in the mind of the beholder.
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I almost cited the good doctor’s last words.
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On a serious note, here is Matt Taibbi’s satement to Congress.
It doesn’t apply to your case but still, it shows how US goverment agencies blatandly violated the law. If goverment uses a private entity to do what itself is not allowed to do, it is still illegal.
As for AI algorithms. They are as biased as humans.
If a lefty feeds and trains the AI, it will have a leftist bias.
If a conservative feeds and trains the AI, it will have a conservative bias.
If a pervert feeds and trains the AI, well, you get my point.
https://www.racket.news/p/my-statement-to-congress
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I didn’t know where you were on Twitter, now I was able to follow you. 🙂 I’m sorry to hear you’re being censored, that’s terrible.
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I always suspected your contents were sensitive. 😉
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This was pretty edgy.
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Jesus said, “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” It appears that you are accumulating a large amount of blessings and will eventually receive a large reward.
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Thank you for your kindness, Clyde. The Lord has been so good to me right here and now, that I don’t feel persecuted at all, just blessed and well cared for.
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Reblogged this on clydeherrin.
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