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- Joined
- Jan 8, 2009
I believe sites like this are important for our future.
Places where you can be reasonably certain you are interacting with a human, that aren't trying to monetize every second of your presence.
It is not my inclination to give up.
To everyone who registered, voted, or helped convince someone to do so - thank you.
To everyone who put up with these messages, also thank you.
I intend to take this more or less as I did eight years ago. If a law or its repeal comes up that requires attention, I will put the site on notice about it.
If it can be accommodated with a reasonable change in rules or procedure, I will go that route.
I may do some things ahead of time to help insulate us.
If something more drastic happens, it will have to be considered according to the nature of the law in question.
Currently, the only 'Day 1' threat is if Brendan Carr gets appointed as FCC chair, and implements his proposed Section 230 plans, per his chapter in Project 2025. This will take the form of new FCC guidelines, and I will have to review and make an announcement accordingly.
That will happen if and when it happens.
It is a headache.
Things I have to think about and stuff I have to do when there are better things think about and better people to do.
I know many are despairing right now.
Despair is a terrible sin to commit against yourself.
If you are feeling this - or even if you are not - I would like to offer advice.
In my opinion, the most deleterious addiction plaguing our civilization is emotionally manipulative media.
By media, I mean everyone who is trying to convince you about some aspect of reality.
Not just broadcasters. Bloggers, vloggers, podcasters...
Forum posters.
This is eating us alive.
From feel-good fake rescue content to that vlogger or news rag who needs to tell you about the latest outrage.
These emotional rushes are literally chemicals in your brain. They can be as addictive as any drug.
Your attention is being sold on nearly every website, nearly every platform. To some advertiser, or towards some political or other proselytizing end.
Their loyalty is not to you or to the truth. They can give you horribly warped perceptions.
Of reality.
Of what other people think of reality.
Like any addiction, it is misleading to think of it as a problem.
Addictions are solutions. Bad ones. They make our problems worse, but we feel better, so we return to them.
Each time you return to view this sort of content - if it is being expressed as something to do with reality - you are rewarding the involved authors for lying to you.
This is not going to get simpler.
This is not going to get less insidious.
This is not going to stop at politics.
You are going to be dealing with more and more 'people' who are not. Whose only interest in you is what they are programmed to get from you.
And they are trained on the persuasive power of nearly every voice ever broadcast, and nearly every word ever published.
Including mine.
For the above, I have two requests of everyone.
First, learn to apply media literacy and/or critical thinking as needed, and reflect on things you hear or read before assuming the truth of them.
This gets easier the more often you do it. Certain phrases themselves become an instant warning sign someone is trying to manipulate you.
People make mistakes, but if someone continues to be misleading, you can only improve yourself by replacing them as a source of information.
Second, if you are finding it to be addictive, and it ends up reinforcing some false alternate reality you find yourself emotionally vested in, masquerading as the real one...
...might I suggest fiction instead.
You might find someone here to write it with you.
Thank you for reading, everyone.
Places where you can be reasonably certain you are interacting with a human, that aren't trying to monetize every second of your presence.
It is not my inclination to give up.
To everyone who registered, voted, or helped convince someone to do so - thank you.
To everyone who put up with these messages, also thank you.
I intend to take this more or less as I did eight years ago. If a law or its repeal comes up that requires attention, I will put the site on notice about it.
If it can be accommodated with a reasonable change in rules or procedure, I will go that route.
I may do some things ahead of time to help insulate us.
If something more drastic happens, it will have to be considered according to the nature of the law in question.
Currently, the only 'Day 1' threat is if Brendan Carr gets appointed as FCC chair, and implements his proposed Section 230 plans, per his chapter in Project 2025. This will take the form of new FCC guidelines, and I will have to review and make an announcement accordingly.
That will happen if and when it happens.
It is a headache.
Things I have to think about and stuff I have to do when there are better things think about and better people to do.
I know many are despairing right now.
Despair is a terrible sin to commit against yourself.
If you are feeling this - or even if you are not - I would like to offer advice.
In my opinion, the most deleterious addiction plaguing our civilization is emotionally manipulative media.
By media, I mean everyone who is trying to convince you about some aspect of reality.
Not just broadcasters. Bloggers, vloggers, podcasters...
Forum posters.
This is eating us alive.
From feel-good fake rescue content to that vlogger or news rag who needs to tell you about the latest outrage.
These emotional rushes are literally chemicals in your brain. They can be as addictive as any drug.
Your attention is being sold on nearly every website, nearly every platform. To some advertiser, or towards some political or other proselytizing end.
Their loyalty is not to you or to the truth. They can give you horribly warped perceptions.
Of reality.
Of what other people think of reality.
Like any addiction, it is misleading to think of it as a problem.
Addictions are solutions. Bad ones. They make our problems worse, but we feel better, so we return to them.
Each time you return to view this sort of content - if it is being expressed as something to do with reality - you are rewarding the involved authors for lying to you.
This is not going to get simpler.
This is not going to get less insidious.
This is not going to stop at politics.
You are going to be dealing with more and more 'people' who are not. Whose only interest in you is what they are programmed to get from you.
And they are trained on the persuasive power of nearly every voice ever broadcast, and nearly every word ever published.
Including mine.
For the above, I have two requests of everyone.
First, learn to apply media literacy and/or critical thinking as needed, and reflect on things you hear or read before assuming the truth of them.
This gets easier the more often you do it. Certain phrases themselves become an instant warning sign someone is trying to manipulate you.
People make mistakes, but if someone continues to be misleading, you can only improve yourself by replacing them as a source of information.
Second, if you are finding it to be addictive, and it ends up reinforcing some false alternate reality you find yourself emotionally vested in, masquerading as the real one...
...might I suggest fiction instead.
You might find someone here to write it with you.
Thank you for reading, everyone.