I, for one, am grateful they “protected” the conversation from you, bad kitty, or I never would’ve discovered you and your fellow renegade truth-tellers at Substack!
Same. When I think of the things, people, and ideas I wouldn't know if I hadn't been introduced to substack by way of el gato, I'm glad Twitter was useless enough to boot him.
I used FecesBook for about ten years (I was a part-time university student, so it was a good way to communicate.) I briefly tried NextDoor but quit when it was obvious they censored thought (not even mine, in that case). I've similarly quit a few other platforms for Thought Police reasons. To be fair, I tried Twitter a couple times, but gave up, not because of censorship, but simply it was too chaotic, too "stream of consciousness." I too am glad of SubStack (via Berenson). I'm a Gato Malo fan would be a paying one if he would (ahem!) enable that feature.
I used NextDoor during 2020 into early 2021 after the jabs came out. I was put in time out for a week because I was responding to comments about the "safety" of the jab. I used links to actual NIH and other published papers and so truthful information got me suspended. Once I could get back on I deleted my account. I was pretty surprised at the depth and width of stupidity of the people who comment there, in general.
Also, without going into the long examples (and there are a few), I'm convinced NextDoor is being used as a place to broadcast the propaganda and outright lies. I know all "social media" is doing that, but because of what NextDoor is and how it's being used, I think it gets a little more nitty-gritty and personal (I believe "granular" is how some would describe it).
The same thing happened to me with Reddit. The authoritarian moderators there forced me to find other sources so now I gladly visit communities.win, saidit.net, gab.com, and bastyon.com plus of course sources like substack. Will never visit Twitter again, and if we get some good repair videos on Rumble or odysee I'll never go back to Youtube either. I certainly don't get my "political" or news videos from youtube.
Pretty soon, they’re going to wake up and realize all the people they shunned, ostracized, fired, excluded, banished, and stomped beneath their jackboot are the only ones who were talented, ethical, skilled, and intelligent enough to keep their bridges from collapsing underneath their feet. In the meantime, we are going to have built an alternative underground society of the sharpest, kindest, most badass critical thinkers, and the insiders-now-outsiders will be peering in, wishing they could join us.
Vaclav Havel was making that very point in the 1970s(?) that a twin economy had to be created. He was a Czech dissident under Soviet occupation. His fellow dissidents credited The Power of the Powerless as a key inspirational work that helped bring down the USSR and their satellite states.
Most likely this will occur to them at about the same time they realize they have been played, and are discarded as yesterday's useful idiots, by whomever is the 'king of the (dung)hill' at that point.
I’m a white, conservative-leaning, gun owning, free speech advocate. Think Betty Draper with a copy of the constitution. Never in my life would I have expected to become so wildly rebellious and such a threat to others. Damn I love it.
I’m digging it too! Never was a follower…finding like minded folks over the events of the past couple of years has restored my faith (in some). But definitely made me look more skeptically at others who I formerly respected.
I read some "dissident right" boards. In the words of someone else, the 1960s radicals wanted to fight the Establishment and "the man"; the irony of history is that for the most part, they and their actual or intellectual heirs now ARE the Establishment and "the man." Based upon the pronouncements from government and their sycophants in corporation and media, I say say that hypothesis has more than a little credibility. 😅
so funny... when i was growing up .. the left were rebellious against the government., for free speech..against government overreach.. now they are happy that DOJ has set up the FBI to track concerned parents as terrorist because the raise their voices at a school board meeting.. i truly wonder what happened to them
The unvaxxed have literally become the most unprotected class. The Leftist claim to fame is to protect the unprotected. That is what their entire ideology claims to be based on. The Rights claim to fame is to allow personal autonomy. That is what their entire ideology is based on. Both sides of the political spectrum are staunchly against the uncured in Canada. We have become political aliens. In normal times, this would not necessarily be a bad thing but we are precariously close to the edge
I'm wondering if the unvaxxed will become the ones who will have taken the mithridate. Also, those who are put through a trial will be strengthened by it; mentally and physically. The survivers will be tough mother fuckers.
Matt - I'm glad you brought up the issue of Canada firing the unvaxxed and stopping Unemployment from them. I was going to post that issue today and am so pleased you did. How can this be legal when you pay into this fund? What's the point? Oh right. They were fired! I wonder if other countries have done the same thing.
I'm astonished to see what's happened to Canada and many of the people in there that I used to consider friends. We got into heated discussions about lockdowns, the unvaxxed and health passports, and haven't heard from them since. In contrast, Canadian family who are outside Canada did not see the logic of health passports on the go. Scary world we're living in.
Living here in central Florida, that is an uncomfortable metaphor, hopefully one that won't "hit too close to home." 🙂 Yes, it's possible to be lying in one's bed and be swallowed by and buried alive in a sinkhole, but I don't lose sleep over it. Pity to say it, but my government is a far greater danger to my life and the lives of most other citizens.
"protecting the conversation" by self appointed authoritarians who want to maintain their market share and power. It is among the heights of arrogance and delusion.
"don't interrupt your opponent when they are making a mistake..." - this reminds me of the Trump/Biden debate where Trump was all amped up and interrupting constantly. If he only would have let Biden talk talk talk and reveal how "off" he was. A missed opportunity with consequences that seem to have no end.
I'm not a writer or journalist by any means. But a lifelong friend turned me on to Substack a couple months ago and my life has changed for the better by meeting (sorta) all of you wonderful people who write, read and comment on these posts. My writing pales in comparison to some of the amazing stuff I see on here. But this gives me the platform to say a few things if I want to, without fear. The real haters and supposedly "open-minded" weirdos in the "real" media don't know what they are missing out on. And I'm at the point now that I don't care. These cultists of fear, propaganda and God-knows what can stay in their increasingly small and pathetic groups and keep parroting their garbage back and forth to one another in perpetuity for all I care. Good riddance to them. (And thank you to all of you fine people who have welcomed me into the fold here)
When I began writing seriously for submission, I found free-to-read-and-submit-to webzines and had exactly the same experience and joy in finding sort of mini-communities within the larger commenting community. The human hunger to connect can be used for good and ill. Now that most people aren't lifelong residents of their original neighborhoods, and so many neighborhoods experience frequent turnover, it's terribly hard to find that real community.
I too appreciate these specialized fora. At least until invaded by too many spam bots (Paula the porn star) or overrun by shills, they actually are quite stimulating. In fact, there is simply no way to read more than a couple a day. I'm retired with nearly all my time free, spend hours doing this daily, and am lucky to follow four or five fora like this one. So far at least, I am quite satisfied with the quality of most replies on the three SubStack I follow (here, Gato Malo and Eugyppius). In a real sense, we all are writers contributing our share.
I often wonder what is the origin of these slogans or memes. But that matters not. For now, let's play deconstruct the slogan. "Build back" = "Rebuild." This implies that what existed before has failed, is obsolete, or perhaps needs to be destroyed first. "Back" implies that it is not a new creation, rather that it is extant. Also, it currently exists, but it's somehow unsatisfactory. Since in most cases, there hasn't in fact been any large natural disaster or war that might have destroyed anything, other interpretations must be allowed. At best, perhaps we are to rebuild something that has suffered long neglect. That's often a positive, but it begs the question: "Why wasn't it maintained before it reached its current state of decrepitude?" More ominously is the connotation that what exists must be obliterated and then, they promise, rebuilt. This latter is the revolutionary ideal.
Don't trust anyone who isn't censored. Censorship is free advertising as far as I can tell. I'm so old half my prostate is missing, so not sure why being censored has not turned in to a "brand?" of some kind.
World War III is a guerrilla information war with no division between military and civilian participation.
I know you said you hate Fakebook, but they are just as bad or worse.
I use the platform to keep in touch with extended family. Fakebook put labels on the Fauci audio and the Gates interview in which they admitted the jabs aren't stopping infection or transmission.
But this is exactly the problem. Remember those highly-mocked annual Christmas-or Chanukah greetings with the typed roundup of family news that used to go out to one's mailing list? Those worked just fine and kept to a minimum what is now a torrent of "look at the great lunch I just made!" updates. When one had to pay for all that postage the unnecessary was well-pruned.
I indulge in a fiber craft and am always looking for nice free patterns, and many designers only make them available in their Facebook groups, and I have manfully (no, I won't say womanfully) resisted the temptation to join just for the goodie. Gotta just say no to the drug...
If you knit or crochet, check out the weekly free patterns (released on Fridays and free for a week) from Expression Fiber Arts. She sends out a weekly email announcement, no social media needed (though she does announce them there too). https://www.expressionfiberarts.com
Appreciate your kindness--I'm able to see her stuff via Ravelry which has been a great resource for finding wonderful blogs which then lead to other wonderful blogs...and I'm always humbled by the extraordinary generosity of so many gifted designers whose stuff would be well-worth anything they'd want to charge for it. I do make as much as I can for donation (using thrift-shop yarn) and couldn't afford to fairly recompense artists for their work. As you have just demonstrated--the crafting world is a very giving one.
"Ravelry" is a great pun, for people who want to "tie one on." The name was probably thought up by a knit-wit, however. I so affirm with every fiber of my being. 😅
Thanks for sharing that link! I haven't knit in a few years, but lately I've been thinking how my time would be much better spent on knitting than on the internet. Just signed up for her email list :)
I refused all social media until my children went away to college.
I joined Twitter in May after years of refusing and calling it stupid because looney tune Leana Wen said something so stupid and so wrong that I had to respond. I'm glad that I did, though. I've learned far more about what is actually going on with the virus than I would have otherwise. One of the first posts I saw was about the Public Health England reports.
I freely admit that I read publicly-available Twitter feeds (and I assume that's how I found El Gato Malo, second- or third-hand). I guess the Bad Bird figured out many of us may do that because they've now eliminated the ability to click on and read threads without an account. And I was tempted, too, in a brief weak moment to join just to reply to something, and then I realized my own golden words (this is NOT a snarky reflection on your comment) weren't so essential to the continued existence of the cosmos that I should betray my vow, so I regirded up my loins and didn't. So I'm an unrepentant freeloader.
Same. I saw Berenson on TCT early in the pandemic and then checked out his public Twitter account. That's where I learned about the bad cat, Gummibear, the Ethical Skeptic, and many others. I did feel a little guilty for reading Twitter because of my "stance", but it was a very good source of real information and data that I couldn't find anywhere else. And, I admit, it was a moment of weakness in May. I think Leanna Wen is crazy, but she's also dangerous. In any of my battles with people on Fakebook or Twitter, my target is never the person I'm "tweeting" to...it's the open-minded people who might be reading. Don't know if I've made a difference or wasted my time. I've learned a lot. I've improved my writing chops (if not my typing chops). But, yes, I miss the pre-social media days sometimes. :)
I saw her on CNN early on (don't watch them anymore) and it's just remarkable to me how the vast majority of people in and on the usual media I thought were sensible and nice, in the Before Times, have proven themselves vile beyond imagining. I think what you say above holds entirely true for me also. Publicly-viewable Twitter has been the starting point from which I try to track down original sources so I can confirm or dismiss as a useful voice. And thereby discovering the extent and depth of the lies, misdirection and blithely-inflicted harm on the global populace has been horrifying. How to build genocides, real and virtual, in a few easy lessons.
I grew up in a conservative family. Even so we watched network news and took the Washington Post because other alternatives didn't exist. I recall reading that (from a study, I suppose), that TV news was the poorest information source. I suppose radio news would be not far behind. And that was over 40 years ago!
Agree with you that FB is a useful tool, even though it is also a runaway train. My hubby wants me to quit as he did, but I've made some amazing friends and learned so much I never would have done otherwise. In all honesty, I might have been more suicidal without it than with it at one point. I really wish we would let people determine its use for themselves instead of painting it as all bad. And all of this will evolve naturally as the cat suggests. I spend more time here now!
Just don't forget that They are learning much about you! As the saying goes, if you think you are getting service for free (Google, etc.) it is YOU who are the product! That is even ethically acceptable, as long as one is aware of the relationships.
I think (I hope!) the stunning success of Substack (hence the hysterical attacks on some of its bigger-name bloggers) will encourage more unprogressive billionaires to fund similar rebellions.
It really is just the Catholic Church trying to maintain control of the flow information after Guttenberg invented a printing press. They're censoring content inside of a fish bowl.
Last Monday, I was tossed off twitter for 24 hours because I said a mean thing.
I did not miss it. What a waste of time.
I have been thrown off FB two months ago, even though I have not been on FB or used that account since 2016, because I did not follow some rule or "disregarded" something.
I did not miss that either, but it made me a little bit upset bc sadly, I enjoyed my instagram account which somehow was connected to my FB account. ... all of my sewing friends.
But, it was a waste of time, so two months later, I am kind of happier not being on instagram, wasting time looking at others sewing projects and NOT finishing my own massive creations.
Since the toss, I have started and completed three huge quilts.
Thank you. While I rarely "do" MSM news, Yahoo and Google are two of my spot-check sources. That such an article even appears is itself curious. I speculate that means its a big regional (UK, in this case) issue. The article does mention one plausible cause, delayed or unavailable care earlier which presumably led to an uptick in the current case load. I couldn't help but noticing there is another massive medical intervention that began worldwide, just under a year ago, that is already widely suspected of causing deaths and severe side effects. Now if I could only recall what it is...I know we often discuss it here. Now, just what could it be? Surely they'd mention it in a mainstream article? 😆
It's not only Twitter 'protecting the open internet'. The Truth Ministry is covering the globe. People are parroting. Whether it's covid, climate change, gender or whatever.
I remember years ago not understanding why women had 2 options to tick Mrs or Ms, whereas men only had one option - Mr - and this info being displayed on all official documentation. I really felt this was super unfair, as this showed women's marital status, but not me n's! This was a real problem, being a single woman by choice and now being an object of sick prepositions. This has stopped, but has been replaced with more preposterous ideological stupidity. I'm terrified.
Orwell & Huxley definitely make a point. Have just finished Waiting by Ha Jin and Who is the Priso er by Ben Okri
My cats are not Impressed with these lies, neither am I.
I live in Cape Town.
The absurdity of all of these lies is unbelievable!
Single women have always had to contend with proposition, and now prepositions! (Actually, the correct grammar term is "title.")
To be fair, the internet is still -- relatively -- uncensored at least in the West. Yes, of course there is massive censorship on social media. But what I'm talking about is when government does a "take down" of a domain name. This is rare, but happens. One example I know of was an Iran news service in (I think 2020). So the time to worry will be when SubStack or some or all of your favorite alternative sites give you a 404 or some other error.
Pity that Usenet requires skill. The Usenet groups cannot be censored, by design. There once were moderated groups but I think none now. Sadly you must use extensive filtering to avoid spam and other nasty things. Usenet was once twitter for the world now it's only for specialists.
when you're the new kid seeking relevance, you favor speaking truth to power.
once you becomes the power, who better to know how dangerous it is to let anyone speak truth to you than the guy who unseated the last sovereign by doing just that?
Correct in principle. But no, Twitter didn't all-of-a-sudden "succeed" in 2016. They pivoted so abruptly because their big backers called in some favors.
I like a variation, from a Crosby, Stills, Nash song (I think; approximately): "You've got to believe in something, otherwise you'll fall for anything."
This is probably the most important message I could ever post to clarify what's happening in the world. Anti-God narcissist liberals lack self-awareness-the ability to recognize their stupidity (as others see them) thus they're unable to recognize the same stupidity in others. Lacking wisdom-emotional intelligence they believe feelings are facts and become brainwashed by their own confirmation bias https://youtu.be/HcQgQEXvHEI via @YouTube
I hate what has transpired over the past two years, but we have such a clear understanding of a disease most of us did not know we had. Not covid, but crazy ass people trying to destroy us. Like cancer, better to know earlier than later. Side benefit, sharing the fight with allies I didn’t even know existed. We will prevail.
The lack of political diversity in key social structures is a very dangerous problem.
If all key social structures are controlled by a single political force then you got a totalitarian society.
If racial quotas are being used to force racial diversity in hirings/education then political quotas should be used to force political diversity in public institutions and government agencies.
Protecting political diversity is protecting Democracy as there is no Democracy without political diversity.
kind of a dumb aside, but I used to be active on a site called "Television Without Pity" - it was fun. a lot of snark etc. happier days! but the site was shut down - it was cancelled. early days of "cancel culture"! by the media companies. they killed TWOP! because I guess people having fun sometimes being critical of TV shows was beyond the pale, needed to be censored.
Well, I herewith invite you to my recent piece on what Germany's "Mr Covid-19", Christian Drosten (i.e., Germany's Fauci equivalent) said about this in June 2021.
Highlights incl. statements such as these:
"Now we have something else that reduces transmission much better than contact measures: vaccination. Both together and the warmer temperatures, which reduce transmissions by around 20 percent, mean that the numbers are going down."
"All those who do not get vaccinated will become infected with Sars-2."
"Antibodies that protect us from infection wear off quickly and can only recognise the virus in a few places. So, we can get infected again relatively soon, especially if the virus has mutated in those very places."
"The difference between the virus variants that have appeared on different continents is not that big. From a virological point of view, there are good reasons to assume that Sars-2 does not have that much more in store than what it has been able to show us so far. Coronaviruses generally mutate more slowly and less strongly than, for example, influenza viruses, which actually have a much greater pandemic potential. So, a mutant variant that suddenly causes another severe illness in the majority of vaccinated people, I can’t imagine that."
You need to move on from your abusive and cheatin' bird. There are other birds in the bush. The seekers know where you are now. (You are very inactive on Gab.) Plus, Bostom and others post your stacks occasionally.
I haven't been able to dissect the article after one pass. It reminds me of CDC's "The Kentucky Study," which was used to critique a comment I had made on "NextBigFuture."
Some weeks later I read a piece which revealed the scam stats in the Kentucky propaganda, but I wouldn't have been able to uncover that myself.
Consider, however: Watch Kentucky Senator Rand Paul in action against A. Fauci and HHS Sec. Becerra -you will have to search "Rumble.com", he has been purged from YouTube; note that Texas has been somewhat resistant to Covid Coercion. I would not be surprised to find that these "studies" have been constructed to discredit the resistance.
yes, I agree with the struggling to dissect that but suspect that may be on purpose. Yes, I also enjoy watching Rand grill Fauci each time he has the opportunity, for the fraud that he truly is. I'm in the midst of trying to get an exemption for my son and studies like this aren't helpful when school leadership can point at them blindly without asking questions about the underlying data. smh
The key question would be what is their definition of vaxxed versus unvaxxed. IN the UK, when they defined "unvaxxed" as anyone who wasn't two weeks beyond their second dose of vaccine, it looked great for the vaccine. But if you measure the only really important variable (all cause mortality) and you include anyone who has had a needle from day one as vaccinated--it's a whole different story, as many of you know. That seems to be because there's a big spike in deaths immediately after vax--which were getting included in unvaxxed. Do you know how they defined things for this study?
I, for one, am grateful they “protected” the conversation from you, bad kitty, or I never would’ve discovered you and your fellow renegade truth-tellers at Substack!
Same. When I think of the things, people, and ideas I wouldn't know if I hadn't been introduced to substack by way of el gato, I'm glad Twitter was useless enough to boot him.
Yes, because now non-birdies are blocked from following their faves.
I used FecesBook for about ten years (I was a part-time university student, so it was a good way to communicate.) I briefly tried NextDoor but quit when it was obvious they censored thought (not even mine, in that case). I've similarly quit a few other platforms for Thought Police reasons. To be fair, I tried Twitter a couple times, but gave up, not because of censorship, but simply it was too chaotic, too "stream of consciousness." I too am glad of SubStack (via Berenson). I'm a Gato Malo fan would be a paying one if he would (ahem!) enable that feature.
I used NextDoor during 2020 into early 2021 after the jabs came out. I was put in time out for a week because I was responding to comments about the "safety" of the jab. I used links to actual NIH and other published papers and so truthful information got me suspended. Once I could get back on I deleted my account. I was pretty surprised at the depth and width of stupidity of the people who comment there, in general.
Also, without going into the long examples (and there are a few), I'm convinced NextDoor is being used as a place to broadcast the propaganda and outright lies. I know all "social media" is doing that, but because of what NextDoor is and how it's being used, I think it gets a little more nitty-gritty and personal (I believe "granular" is how some would describe it).
Excellent point!!!!!
The same thing happened to me with Reddit. The authoritarian moderators there forced me to find other sources so now I gladly visit communities.win, saidit.net, gab.com, and bastyon.com plus of course sources like substack. Will never visit Twitter again, and if we get some good repair videos on Rumble or odysee I'll never go back to Youtube either. I certainly don't get my "political" or news videos from youtube.
Pretty soon, they’re going to wake up and realize all the people they shunned, ostracized, fired, excluded, banished, and stomped beneath their jackboot are the only ones who were talented, ethical, skilled, and intelligent enough to keep their bridges from collapsing underneath their feet. In the meantime, we are going to have built an alternative underground society of the sharpest, kindest, most badass critical thinkers, and the insiders-now-outsiders will be peering in, wishing they could join us.
Vaclav Havel was making that very point in the 1970s(?) that a twin economy had to be created. He was a Czech dissident under Soviet occupation. His fellow dissidents credited The Power of the Powerless as a key inspirational work that helped bring down the USSR and their satellite states.
Beautiful example, and I love “The Power of the Powerless”!
At that point, we would do well to not be too eager letting them in, either.
One thing I can say for these soul-trying times, they leave us well-stocked with shibboleths. Forgive only the forgivable, and never forget.
Reading it like this, I remember reading the same about Mao 'cleaning up' China.
Most likely this will occur to them at about the same time they realize they have been played, and are discarded as yesterday's useful idiots, by whomever is the 'king of the (dung)hill' at that point.
Booyah!!!!!
I love watching lefties in their own competitive virtue signalling contests and echo chambers
😂
“I'll tell you what’s wrong with society these days: no one drinks from the skulls of their enemies anymore.”
werd.
fantastic...
You only drink from them after you parade them around the town square on a pike. Then we celebrate!
I’m a white, conservative-leaning, gun owning, free speech advocate. Think Betty Draper with a copy of the constitution. Never in my life would I have expected to become so wildly rebellious and such a threat to others. Damn I love it.
yeah, it's kind of great to be back on the side of the rebellion and get to have a second go round of "sticking it to the man."
i was worried i was starting to settle in to being "the establishment."
I’m digging it too! Never was a follower…finding like minded folks over the events of the past couple of years has restored my faith (in some). But definitely made me look more skeptically at others who I formerly respected.
yes, you find out a person's real character when times like this appear.
And in some cases it’s a wonderful surprise, in others it can be really disappointing.
amen to that.
I've always lived by the rule: If "everybody thinks" something, it's probably wrong.
Corollary: If it's in the newspapers (and other media), it's probably wrong.
ooh interesting! this is new for me and I find it disorienting. it's nice to hear this perspective.
I read some "dissident right" boards. In the words of someone else, the 1960s radicals wanted to fight the Establishment and "the man"; the irony of history is that for the most part, they and their actual or intellectual heirs now ARE the Establishment and "the man." Based upon the pronouncements from government and their sycophants in corporation and media, I say say that hypothesis has more than a little credibility. 😅
really? yeah, nah!!!
OMG Rose, you must be a racist.....run for the hills everyone, Rose is a racist(so says the woke crowd). LOL. God bless you Rose!
Oh yes of course! I am definitely a racist by their definition. Funny I hired an entire office full of non whites. I suck at being a racist.
Idiot racists can't even racism right!
LOL!!!
so funny... when i was growing up .. the left were rebellious against the government., for free speech..against government overreach.. now they are happy that DOJ has set up the FBI to track concerned parents as terrorist because the raise their voices at a school board meeting.. i truly wonder what happened to them
I’ve been booted off Twitter as well.
For the crime pointing out the harm of Canada’s government firing the unvaxxed, then stopping any Unemployment Insurance from them.
The unvaxxed have literally become the most unprotected class. The Leftist claim to fame is to protect the unprotected. That is what their entire ideology claims to be based on. The Rights claim to fame is to allow personal autonomy. That is what their entire ideology is based on. Both sides of the political spectrum are staunchly against the uncured in Canada. We have become political aliens. In normal times, this would not necessarily be a bad thing but we are precariously close to the edge
I'm wondering if the unvaxxed will become the ones who will have taken the mithridate. Also, those who are put through a trial will be strengthened by it; mentally and physically. The survivers will be tough mother fuckers.
we already are. most of us have had real life struggles so we are prepared.
THIS. I could not fight this fight if I hadn't already been through some battles.
We're going to be the ones giving birth to the next generation.
Great point. Even sooner than that, we're going to be the ones tending their hospital beds.
I am not excited about this, but that's what it's looking like....
Matt - I'm glad you brought up the issue of Canada firing the unvaxxed and stopping Unemployment from them. I was going to post that issue today and am so pleased you did. How can this be legal when you pay into this fund? What's the point? Oh right. They were fired! I wonder if other countries have done the same thing.
It’s all so criminal.
Destroying lives to “save lives”.
It is, how they say, “unsustainable”.
The point is "obey". Worse that some applaud the loss of liberty.
and we answer obey with kiss my ass
Italy and Lithuania are some terrible examples. But Italy is reaping what they've sown at the moment. Belgium and France will likely follow soon.
I'm astonished to see what's happened to Canada and many of the people in there that I used to consider friends. We got into heated discussions about lockdowns, the unvaxxed and health passports, and haven't heard from them since. In contrast, Canadian family who are outside Canada did not see the logic of health passports on the go. Scary world we're living in.
the democrats are building a potemkin village, nothing has any foundation, their liberality is cover for dictatorship.......
what is best in life? "crush your enemies, see them driven before you,...."
that was biden not conan.
lets hope they fall into the sinkhole upon which they build the so called foundation!
Living here in central Florida, that is an uncomfortable metaphor, hopefully one that won't "hit too close to home." 🙂 Yes, it's possible to be lying in one's bed and be swallowed by and buried alive in a sinkhole, but I don't lose sleep over it. Pity to say it, but my government is a far greater danger to my life and the lives of most other citizens.
Indeed...
good riddens to them, they did you a favor.
"protecting the conversation" by self appointed authoritarians who want to maintain their market share and power. It is among the heights of arrogance and delusion.
"don't interrupt your opponent when they are making a mistake..." - this reminds me of the Trump/Biden debate where Trump was all amped up and interrupting constantly. If he only would have let Biden talk talk talk and reveal how "off" he was. A missed opportunity with consequences that seem to have no end.
Yes! Exactly what I and my spouse were saying. I was yelling at the TV !
If you think Biden "won" on the strength of his TV debates... well, not sure how to put this gently... you might want to consider some other factors.
Shy Boy, neither person really "won" but because Trump kept interrupting Biden, Biden was able to hide his dementia and illogical thinking.
I'm not a writer or journalist by any means. But a lifelong friend turned me on to Substack a couple months ago and my life has changed for the better by meeting (sorta) all of you wonderful people who write, read and comment on these posts. My writing pales in comparison to some of the amazing stuff I see on here. But this gives me the platform to say a few things if I want to, without fear. The real haters and supposedly "open-minded" weirdos in the "real" media don't know what they are missing out on. And I'm at the point now that I don't care. These cultists of fear, propaganda and God-knows what can stay in their increasingly small and pathetic groups and keep parroting their garbage back and forth to one another in perpetuity for all I care. Good riddance to them. (And thank you to all of you fine people who have welcomed me into the fold here)
When I began writing seriously for submission, I found free-to-read-and-submit-to webzines and had exactly the same experience and joy in finding sort of mini-communities within the larger commenting community. The human hunger to connect can be used for good and ill. Now that most people aren't lifelong residents of their original neighborhoods, and so many neighborhoods experience frequent turnover, it's terribly hard to find that real community.
I too appreciate these specialized fora. At least until invaded by too many spam bots (Paula the porn star) or overrun by shills, they actually are quite stimulating. In fact, there is simply no way to read more than a couple a day. I'm retired with nearly all my time free, spend hours doing this daily, and am lucky to follow four or five fora like this one. So far at least, I am quite satisfied with the quality of most replies on the three SubStack I follow (here, Gato Malo and Eugyppius). In a real sense, we all are writers contributing our share.
"Build Back Better" than them. The ultimate own.
I often wonder what is the origin of these slogans or memes. But that matters not. For now, let's play deconstruct the slogan. "Build back" = "Rebuild." This implies that what existed before has failed, is obsolete, or perhaps needs to be destroyed first. "Back" implies that it is not a new creation, rather that it is extant. Also, it currently exists, but it's somehow unsatisfactory. Since in most cases, there hasn't in fact been any large natural disaster or war that might have destroyed anything, other interpretations must be allowed. At best, perhaps we are to rebuild something that has suffered long neglect. That's often a positive, but it begs the question: "Why wasn't it maintained before it reached its current state of decrepitude?" More ominously is the connotation that what exists must be obliterated and then, they promise, rebuilt. This latter is the revolutionary ideal.
Note that I don't even need to parse "Better."
Don't trust anyone who isn't censored. Censorship is free advertising as far as I can tell. I'm so old half my prostate is missing, so not sure why being censored has not turned in to a "brand?" of some kind.
World War III is a guerrilla information war with no division between military and civilian participation.
Marshall McLuhan
How deep does the grave have to get before Big Tech falls into the necropolis of their own making??
In the case of reddit, the necropolis might already be filled:
https://www.thefocus.news/tech/dead-internet-theory/
I stopped using that site a few years ago after realizing I had wasted twenty minutes arguing with bots.
No doubt the conversations were more erudite than those with Covidians 😆
I know you said you hate Fakebook, but they are just as bad or worse.
I use the platform to keep in touch with extended family. Fakebook put labels on the Fauci audio and the Gates interview in which they admitted the jabs aren't stopping infection or transmission.
But this is exactly the problem. Remember those highly-mocked annual Christmas-or Chanukah greetings with the typed roundup of family news that used to go out to one's mailing list? Those worked just fine and kept to a minimum what is now a torrent of "look at the great lunch I just made!" updates. When one had to pay for all that postage the unnecessary was well-pruned.
I indulge in a fiber craft and am always looking for nice free patterns, and many designers only make them available in their Facebook groups, and I have manfully (no, I won't say womanfully) resisted the temptation to join just for the goodie. Gotta just say no to the drug...
If you knit or crochet, check out the weekly free patterns (released on Fridays and free for a week) from Expression Fiber Arts. She sends out a weekly email announcement, no social media needed (though she does announce them there too). https://www.expressionfiberarts.com
Appreciate your kindness--I'm able to see her stuff via Ravelry which has been a great resource for finding wonderful blogs which then lead to other wonderful blogs...and I'm always humbled by the extraordinary generosity of so many gifted designers whose stuff would be well-worth anything they'd want to charge for it. I do make as much as I can for donation (using thrift-shop yarn) and couldn't afford to fairly recompense artists for their work. As you have just demonstrated--the crafting world is a very giving one.
"Ravelry" is a great pun, for people who want to "tie one on." The name was probably thought up by a knit-wit, however. I so affirm with every fiber of my being. 😅
Thanks for sharing that link! I haven't knit in a few years, but lately I've been thinking how my time would be much better spent on knitting than on the internet. Just signed up for her email list :)
I refused all social media until my children went away to college.
I joined Twitter in May after years of refusing and calling it stupid because looney tune Leana Wen said something so stupid and so wrong that I had to respond. I'm glad that I did, though. I've learned far more about what is actually going on with the virus than I would have otherwise. One of the first posts I saw was about the Public Health England reports.
I freely admit that I read publicly-available Twitter feeds (and I assume that's how I found El Gato Malo, second- or third-hand). I guess the Bad Bird figured out many of us may do that because they've now eliminated the ability to click on and read threads without an account. And I was tempted, too, in a brief weak moment to join just to reply to something, and then I realized my own golden words (this is NOT a snarky reflection on your comment) weren't so essential to the continued existence of the cosmos that I should betray my vow, so I regirded up my loins and didn't. So I'm an unrepentant freeloader.
Same. I saw Berenson on TCT early in the pandemic and then checked out his public Twitter account. That's where I learned about the bad cat, Gummibear, the Ethical Skeptic, and many others. I did feel a little guilty for reading Twitter because of my "stance", but it was a very good source of real information and data that I couldn't find anywhere else. And, I admit, it was a moment of weakness in May. I think Leanna Wen is crazy, but she's also dangerous. In any of my battles with people on Fakebook or Twitter, my target is never the person I'm "tweeting" to...it's the open-minded people who might be reading. Don't know if I've made a difference or wasted my time. I've learned a lot. I've improved my writing chops (if not my typing chops). But, yes, I miss the pre-social media days sometimes. :)
I saw her on CNN early on (don't watch them anymore) and it's just remarkable to me how the vast majority of people in and on the usual media I thought were sensible and nice, in the Before Times, have proven themselves vile beyond imagining. I think what you say above holds entirely true for me also. Publicly-viewable Twitter has been the starting point from which I try to track down original sources so I can confirm or dismiss as a useful voice. And thereby discovering the extent and depth of the lies, misdirection and blithely-inflicted harm on the global populace has been horrifying. How to build genocides, real and virtual, in a few easy lessons.
I grew up in a conservative family. Even so we watched network news and took the Washington Post because other alternatives didn't exist. I recall reading that (from a study, I suppose), that TV news was the poorest information source. I suppose radio news would be not far behind. And that was over 40 years ago!
Agree with you that FB is a useful tool, even though it is also a runaway train. My hubby wants me to quit as he did, but I've made some amazing friends and learned so much I never would have done otherwise. In all honesty, I might have been more suicidal without it than with it at one point. I really wish we would let people determine its use for themselves instead of painting it as all bad. And all of this will evolve naturally as the cat suggests. I spend more time here now!
Just don't forget that They are learning much about you! As the saying goes, if you think you are getting service for free (Google, etc.) it is YOU who are the product! That is even ethically acceptable, as long as one is aware of the relationships.
OMG they have gone nuts totally. But it also a great joke! They censor their censors LOL
I think (I hope!) the stunning success of Substack (hence the hysterical attacks on some of its bigger-name bloggers) will encourage more unprogressive billionaires to fund similar rebellions.
PUT TWITTER IN THE SHITTER.....PERMANENTLY...
It is good to be on a site with intelligent people.
It really is just the Catholic Church trying to maintain control of the flow information after Guttenberg invented a printing press. They're censoring content inside of a fish bowl.
indeed. Read a few books in the public library on the Reformation and the patterns are clear. There is nothing new under the sun.
I'm always so thankful for these big little insights! It keeps the spirits up.
Last Monday, I was tossed off twitter for 24 hours because I said a mean thing.
I did not miss it. What a waste of time.
I have been thrown off FB two months ago, even though I have not been on FB or used that account since 2016, because I did not follow some rule or "disregarded" something.
I did not miss that either, but it made me a little bit upset bc sadly, I enjoyed my instagram account which somehow was connected to my FB account. ... all of my sewing friends.
But, it was a waste of time, so two months later, I am kind of happier not being on instagram, wasting time looking at others sewing projects and NOT finishing my own massive creations.
Since the toss, I have started and completed three huge quilts.
I absolutely do enjoy reading your blog.
Just saw this about higher than normal number of deaths... https://news.yahoo.com/nhs-delays-height-pandemic-linked-184014656.html
Thank you. While I rarely "do" MSM news, Yahoo and Google are two of my spot-check sources. That such an article even appears is itself curious. I speculate that means its a big regional (UK, in this case) issue. The article does mention one plausible cause, delayed or unavailable care earlier which presumably led to an uptick in the current case load. I couldn't help but noticing there is another massive medical intervention that began worldwide, just under a year ago, that is already widely suspected of causing deaths and severe side effects. Now if I could only recall what it is...I know we often discuss it here. Now, just what could it be? Surely they'd mention it in a mainstream article? 😆
‘Fact checking’ censoring media gave rise to substack, and mainstream media’s eventual irrelevance
They suspended el gato? To quote the genius Andrew Breitbart, "WAR!"
a while ago I believe. but I've never been on twitter so if they didn't ban him, I would never have gotten here. it's a blessing for me!
It's not only Twitter 'protecting the open internet'. The Truth Ministry is covering the globe. People are parroting. Whether it's covid, climate change, gender or whatever.
I remember years ago not understanding why women had 2 options to tick Mrs or Ms, whereas men only had one option - Mr - and this info being displayed on all official documentation. I really felt this was super unfair, as this showed women's marital status, but not me n's! This was a real problem, being a single woman by choice and now being an object of sick prepositions. This has stopped, but has been replaced with more preposterous ideological stupidity. I'm terrified.
Orwell & Huxley definitely make a point. Have just finished Waiting by Ha Jin and Who is the Priso er by Ben Okri
My cats are not Impressed with these lies, neither am I.
I live in Cape Town.
The absurdity of all of these lies is unbelievable!
Single women have always had to contend with proposition, and now prepositions! (Actually, the correct grammar term is "title.")
To be fair, the internet is still -- relatively -- uncensored at least in the West. Yes, of course there is massive censorship on social media. But what I'm talking about is when government does a "take down" of a domain name. This is rare, but happens. One example I know of was an Iran news service in (I think 2020). So the time to worry will be when SubStack or some or all of your favorite alternative sites give you a 404 or some other error.
Pity that Usenet requires skill. The Usenet groups cannot be censored, by design. There once were moderated groups but I think none now. Sadly you must use extensive filtering to avoid spam and other nasty things. Usenet was once twitter for the world now it's only for specialists.
A cautionary tale told to the wind. https://www.academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php/Eternal_September
Twitter has a core mission? That's pretty funny. All that was ever meant to be was a new style bulletin board service. They failed.
what's funny is that it used to be (and i quote):
"twitter stands for freedom of expression. we stand for speaking the truth to power. and we stand for empowering dialogue."
screenshot of @jack's tweet here:
https://cdn.substack.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F74bdbc93-ff9c-4d1c-986b-0fdaa1e5a311_975x325.png
that was 2015.
amazing how one in power, they sure don't want any truth spoken to them, huh?
@ jack becomes @jackboots and morphs into the very king he used to hate.
i guess where you stand really does depend on where you sit, huh?
LOL I wonder what happened in 2016 that started to change how Jack felt?
success.
when you're the new kid seeking relevance, you favor speaking truth to power.
once you becomes the power, who better to know how dangerous it is to let anyone speak truth to you than the guy who unseated the last sovereign by doing just that?
Correct in principle. But no, Twitter didn't all-of-a-sudden "succeed" in 2016. They pivoted so abruptly because their big backers called in some favors.
Jack went nuts during lockdown because the spirit of Rasputin took over him.
I did learn that the twitter bots can't understand sarcasm. Did my mea culpas, await suspension day.
I like a variation, from a Crosby, Stills, Nash song (I think; approximately): "You've got to believe in something, otherwise you'll fall for anything."
This is probably the most important message I could ever post to clarify what's happening in the world. Anti-God narcissist liberals lack self-awareness-the ability to recognize their stupidity (as others see them) thus they're unable to recognize the same stupidity in others. Lacking wisdom-emotional intelligence they believe feelings are facts and become brainwashed by their own confirmation bias https://youtu.be/HcQgQEXvHEI via @YouTube
I hate what has transpired over the past two years, but we have such a clear understanding of a disease most of us did not know we had. Not covid, but crazy ass people trying to destroy us. Like cancer, better to know earlier than later. Side benefit, sharing the fight with allies I didn’t even know existed. We will prevail.
Whenever people/institutions say "mis-information" that translates to me as "mis-leading information" which in turn suggests I am meant to be "led".
The lack of political diversity in key social structures is a very dangerous problem.
If all key social structures are controlled by a single political force then you got a totalitarian society.
If racial quotas are being used to force racial diversity in hirings/education then political quotas should be used to force political diversity in public institutions and government agencies.
Protecting political diversity is protecting Democracy as there is no Democracy without political diversity.
kind of a dumb aside, but I used to be active on a site called "Television Without Pity" - it was fun. a lot of snark etc. happier days! but the site was shut down - it was cancelled. early days of "cancel culture"! by the media companies. they killed TWOP! because I guess people having fun sometimes being critical of TV shows was beyond the pale, needed to be censored.
TWoP was SO FUN! I was active on the board for Smallville. Oh man....that takes me back! Good times, good times...
The best is yet to come! I needed that reminder.
get your own blog go back to bookmarks and rss feeds feedly.com HostingMatters.com
Is nice whitepill. tyvm
truth tellers have always been punished. Thank you for not catterwalling about it. I hate that. Wear like a badge of courage.
Well, I herewith invite you to my recent piece on what Germany's "Mr Covid-19", Christian Drosten (i.e., Germany's Fauci equivalent) said about this in June 2021.
Highlights incl. statements such as these:
"Now we have something else that reduces transmission much better than contact measures: vaccination. Both together and the warmer temperatures, which reduce transmissions by around 20 percent, mean that the numbers are going down."
"All those who do not get vaccinated will become infected with Sars-2."
"Antibodies that protect us from infection wear off quickly and can only recognise the virus in a few places. So, we can get infected again relatively soon, especially if the virus has mutated in those very places."
"The difference between the virus variants that have appeared on different continents is not that big. From a virological point of view, there are good reasons to assume that Sars-2 does not have that much more in store than what it has been able to show us so far. Coronaviruses generally mutate more slowly and less strongly than, for example, influenza viruses, which actually have a much greater pandemic potential. So, a mutant variant that suddenly causes another severe illness in the majority of vaccinated people, I can’t imagine that."
See here: https://fackel.substack.com/p/drosten-speaks-part-1
Puss,
You need to move on from your abusive and cheatin' bird. There are other birds in the bush. The seekers know where you are now. (You are very inactive on Gab.) Plus, Bostom and others post your stacks occasionally.
Love the message and the memes, spot on.
I'm not sure if this was covered yet, but any thoughts on the study released from the Texas HHS related to vaccinated vs unvaxxed? https://dshs.texas.gov/immunize/covid19/data/Cases-and-Deaths-by-Vaccination-Status-11082021.pdf
I haven't been able to dissect the article after one pass. It reminds me of CDC's "The Kentucky Study," which was used to critique a comment I had made on "NextBigFuture."
Some weeks later I read a piece which revealed the scam stats in the Kentucky propaganda, but I wouldn't have been able to uncover that myself.
Consider, however: Watch Kentucky Senator Rand Paul in action against A. Fauci and HHS Sec. Becerra -you will have to search "Rumble.com", he has been purged from YouTube; note that Texas has been somewhat resistant to Covid Coercion. I would not be surprised to find that these "studies" have been constructed to discredit the resistance.
yes, I agree with the struggling to dissect that but suspect that may be on purpose. Yes, I also enjoy watching Rand grill Fauci each time he has the opportunity, for the fraud that he truly is. I'm in the midst of trying to get an exemption for my son and studies like this aren't helpful when school leadership can point at them blindly without asking questions about the underlying data. smh
The key question would be what is their definition of vaxxed versus unvaxxed. IN the UK, when they defined "unvaxxed" as anyone who wasn't two weeks beyond their second dose of vaccine, it looked great for the vaccine. But if you measure the only really important variable (all cause mortality) and you include anyone who has had a needle from day one as vaccinated--it's a whole different story, as many of you know. That seems to be because there's a big spike in deaths immediately after vax--which were getting included in unvaxxed. Do you know how they defined things for this study?