Big Tech, Elon Musk to the Rescue? - 12/26/2022

As I gain a greater understanding of all the down side to big tech: data collection, censorship, content manipulation, government propaganda, promotion and demotion of ideas, people, and outlets favorable and unfavorable to whoever at the platform which did amount to election interference, I look for and struggle to find alternatives.

Google is the worst, hands down.

The Google search engine is relatively easy to replace. I use Duck Duck Go a lot. I haven't weaned off Google for searches totally. Maybe for 2023 I'll make a real, concerted effort. It's funny, with all the attention on Twitter lately, Google is the worst offender at both opinion manipulation and data tracking, by a country mile. It's bad. I heard a discussion with e left of center analyst who explained all the ways Google manipulated content and targeted various audiences leading up to the 2020 and 2022 elections. It's a lot worse than I thought. An example: based on their search and browsing history, Google reminded some people to vote. Other people, it did not. So in key locations, people of like-minded political opinion were reminded to vote. If you differ? Nope. Another: look up politician A, a Democrat: all kinds of positive results come to the top. Candidate B, the conservative? Results about scandals, etc. top the lists. You have to scroll and dig to find positive. How effective was all that? I don't know. But it is being done intentionally and with some outcome intended, not just for "funsies". Replace Google today. It's a start.

As bad as and a part of Google.

Videos is a little harder. I use YouTube, which is of course a Google company, for entertainment every day. I don't, however, use it very much for anything remotely political. I watch music reaction videos, how to stuff, and things surrounding my interests in wildlife and the outdoors. Rumble as an alternative sucks, as it is almost exclusively political. When there is a less politically based alternative that has more general content than Rumble, I'll try it, but till then I think I'm stuck with YouTube. I also subscribe to YouTube TV instead of cable. Maybe I shouldn't be giving the evil bastards my money, but I am. It's on my list for 2023 to explore alternatives.

There is no viable alternative to Facebook. Unfortunately.

As for Facebook, I have and sometimes use the MeWe alternative. Functionally it is similar to Facebook, but like Rumble it lacks interesting non-political content. It's become a haven for Facebook refugees: people either banned from or who departed Facebook voluntarily for nearly exclusively reasons of political ideology. The result is an echo chamber without a wide circle of friends, and without content for the enjoyment of a wide set of interests. It seems nearly exclusively right wing politics. It's boring over there. Very.

Elon Musk is saving Twitter. Too bad he can't buy Google, YouTube, and Facebook, too!

Twitter is an interesting one. Since Elon Musk took over, he has tried to make it more fair and balanced. It is much improved. This is welcome as Trump's Truth Social sucks so bad it's unbearable. Parler sucks. Gettr sucks, too. Truth, Parler, and Gettr are echo chambers without enough non-political posting to hold my interest. And forget about Gab. Gab had so much overtly racist, offensive content that I only lasted about 15 minutes. What do I want from Twitter or platforms like it? News and info across a wide spectrum of topics and ideologies. General interest stuff like sports, music, travel, military stuff, etc. It's all there on Twitter. Gab, Parler, and Gettr? Hardly. Elon came to Twitter and in my opinion saved it for many of us. I don't know a thing about Mastodon, but I'm willing to bet it's a lefty Parler or Gettr. No thanks.

One last word on this topic: I don't care if the FBI and CIA use these platforms. It seems to me there's a good chance they can find some real bad guys on them and do some real good in doing do. But they need to be ousted from their roles as inside content moderators, censors, and internal propagandist. Get them the f*** out of Twitter, Google, and Facebook's headquarters. Make them use them from home and from their own offices like everybody else!

Elephants in the Room, or Why Hershel Walker Lost in GA - 12/7/2023

How about I just make this quick hitters today.

There's elephants in the room.

1. Georgia ain't near as red as you keep telling yourselves. It's purple. Period. It is. If you don't appeal at all to moderate Dems and independents in purple states, your chances go down. Considerably.

2. I don't give a shit how much you love Trump and how mad you are he got screwed in 2020. Too many people don't like him. It hurts "his candidates" in purple states especially. That's reality. Learn to live with it. Find a new MAGA brand ambassador. In purple and blue states, Trump is a huge liability.

3.  Ronna McDaniel as GOP Chair has got to go. Period. End of debate. Related to Mitt Romney.

4. Mitch McConnell has got to go, too. He sucks and the GOP he leads is an establishment elite GOP that doesn't care much about constituency, just dollars and the good old boys. He is quite happy in the minority.

5. The GOP needs more Black voter outreach. They're willing to accept the support of Black voters,. Yippee. How about some open mindedness to understand black issues and some flexibility with the platform to actually show Black voters you're listening and representing them. Right now seems like "long as you go along with us and our shit, we're happy to represent you. Your shit? Nah. We know what's best for you."

6. Embrace mail in and early voting like it or not. Do your best to BEAT them at their own game. Pissing and moaning about it? Not as much. Losing strategy.

7. All things considered, Hershel Walker was a shitty candidate.

7. If you don't care about 1-7 above because to you it's all about Dems cheating and that's all that matters, YOU are part of the problem