They're Not Your Friends/How It Got Like This
I just read a post about Elon Musk being what I have been calling him for over a year now which is a “fraud”. The title of the NY Post article is appropriately titled “Elon Musk Is A Fraud”. So, so, SOOO many people I know in the tech world and in the tech writing world and in the online circle of people I associate with (most are just people I correspond with (not “friends”)) are up Elon Musk's ass about what a great guy he is. His most recent flub was saying he would fix Flint, Michigan's water crisis (which he will not).
But not just Elon Musk, and not just Tim Cook (who plays the buddy-buddy game with everyone), or Larry Page, or Jack Dorsey, or (obvs) Mark Zuckerberg, these people; these capitalist destroyers of American society, are NOT your friends. They make bad (not “low-quality”), insidious products for the world that threaten not just our democratic system, but the welfare of the planet, itself. Nothing about making an iPhone (or millions of them!) is done in an ethical way; from sweatshops, to non-recycled plastic, to built-in software that threatens your life and privacy and dignity as a private citizen. The exact same can be said about any and all smartphones. Twitter and Facebook (combined) have taken the last 200 years of American progress and tossed it back into the gutter where only trolls, haters, racists, and sexists live, and, – between them and mainstream media – got a corrupt billionaire “elected” POTUS.
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All this has built-up over time. The condition of our civilization, the loneliness of Internet addiction, the epidemic of online teen bullying, the constant state of distraction, the “turn the other cheek” complacency of being spied on – all of these things have been put into place to do one thing and one thing only; take our attention away from what is really going wrong in the world. Think of the epidemics, the tragedies, the outcries of years past. Where are they now? School shootings, corruption in D.C., global warming, social media depression, families separated at the border, Puerto Rico without power, Flint, MI. without clean water, the list goes on. You see, if someone is CONSTANTLY distracted from what really matters, if even to just bounce from one tragedy to the next tragedy, that gurantees that nothing will be fixed.
The only “solution” (from where I'm sitting) is to allow the system to collapse upon itself. But, that is simply on the part of the system (namely the gov't.) to do on it's own. The government cannot control a People who do not partake in their #1 source of manipulation. That source being the media, itself. It is up to the individual, however, to not be taken for a ride in this crazy, spinning, backwards society we have been spawned (I mean that term literally, BORN) into. Maintain dignity. Maintain hope. Maintain privacy, safety, security. Stand by your principles. Look at your phone less (or stop using the Internet altogether). Don't watch television. Avoid magazines. Stop listening to the media. Live your life. Be peaceful. Be free.