Overcoming the Addiction To Toxic "Social Media"
Fight censorship, not freedom of speech - and for heaven's sake, unplug!
Frankly, I would say that the biggest obstacles we face to positive social change, or the healing of our world, aside from blind habit and elite vested interests (as pointed out by Tainter et. al), are gross and systemic misinformation - which was called propaganda in more honest times, meaning, deception - along with division, demoralization, distraction, and delusion - particularly, and above all, the delusion of powerlessness. And by far the biggest purveyors of all of these five pandemic poisons, are the same elite vested interests - the billionaire class and the corporations they control - who are blocking all roads to the changes that are needed, by their control of government, the media, and “social media”. In short, there has never been a greater urgency to unplug, decouple and disconnect, so that we can begin to reconnect with one another, with nature, with our deeper selves, and with the real world.
Let’s look at some of the things we could have, if we defunded war, empire, the police state, and the multi-trillion dollar welfare state for the rich - things that would benefit the 99%, the overwhelming majority of the people, and the Earth, but which are things the ruling elite don’t want, and therefore, we don’t have.
Universal public health care
Universal public education, kindergarten to post-grad
Pensions you can live on
Wages and salaries you can live on
An economic stimulus program that actually works, and creates good jobs,
and doesn’t simply line the pockets of the Wall Street elite
Public child care
Pharmacare
Health freedom
A preventative health care program
Full funding for health care, including the health care of your choice, particularly
natural health care
A universal basic income - that is not tied to the forfeiting of our freedom or our rights
Walkable neighbourhoods, with walking and bicycling paths, so that owning a car
becomes unnecessary and obsolete
Community car sharing co-ops
A train system that would befit the 20th century, much less the 21st century
Lower taxes on the middle class and small business, and zero tax for the poor, and
for new farm or business start-ups
A national program to shift rapidly from petrochemical industrial agriculture
to clean and healthy, regenerative, local organic agriculture
A locally collected pollution tax, to empower and support local communities,
while healing the Earth
Community gardens and food for all
Affordable green housing for all who need it
A break-up of the media empires in particular, along with the banking cartels, to
reawaken democracy, public debate and discourse, and the spirit of freedom
The banning of private “donations” to elections, with publicly funded elections
A re-instatement of the constitution, democracy, freedom, and universal human rights
A higher tax rate on the richest 1%, and the large, profitable corporations, combined with the mass defunding of war, empire, the police state, and the multi-trillion dollar subsidies and bailouts to the corporate elite, to pay for all of these programs and more.
As I say, the primary obstacles to achieving any of these things, or to achieving any sizable, or significant, positive social change, are elite vested interests, and the five poisons of deception, division, demoralization, distraction and delusion - all of which, are principally dispensed via the mainstream corporate and state media, and by Big Tech’s, so-called, “social media”. We are drinking the kool-aid by the gallon, and we keep coming back for more. The cult must be abandoned and escaped. It’s time to unplug, break the mental chains, and get free.
What’s the best that we get from the mainstream media, or social media? Typically, there is no serious analysis, no vision, and no strategy. And this is the best of the drivel. It’s all, “He said… she said… they said… we said….” It’s political theatre. At best, it’s a useless distraction. Turn it off!
And by the way, “public broadcasting”, along with most of the “alternative media”, are functionally no better. They are all now, effectively, controlled opposition, whether they realize it or not. PBS, NPR, TVO, the BBC and CBC, The Guardian, Democracy Now, AlterNet, TruthOut, TruthDig, Common Dreams, the Nation, the Intercept, CounterPunch, the New Internationalist, Canadian Dimension, the Huffington Post, Rolling Stone, The Real News Network, even Z Magazine, now function as controlled opposition. There is no serious analysis that deals with the reality of a currently unfolding global corporate fascist coup, and therefore, zero real analysis - and zero connection with the real world. By moving from mainstream media to “public broadcasting” or “alternative media” you have effectively moved from a one centimeter cube box, to a two centimeter cube box. You’re thinking is still tightly curtailed. And your vision, imagination, and ability to think critically, or even rationally, are therefore tightly curtailed, as well. Turn it off. You’re wasting your time. And worse - you’re muddying your mind, sapping your energy, and dimming your wits.
Turn it off.
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It is very rare that I make reference to personal anecdotes, but I will make an exception here, because I think it makes the case perfectly clear.
When I posted the following thought to farcebook the other day, and pinned it to the top of my farcebook page, most people remained silent, of course, having been conditioned to be silent about nearly everything, that doesn’t involve photos of cats or food. One friend expressed concern, however, as if it indicated a possible mental illness to question the validity of farcebook, or to express disgust or revulsion for it.
Here is the post that I pinned to the top of my farcebook page, and my response to a concerned, highly thoughtful and intelligent friend.
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It's almost never that I check farcebook, or its Messenger. I feel poisoned with toxic sludge anytime I go near it.
Send mail by postal service to J. Todd Ring, Cobourg, ON, Canada - it will find me, if anyone wants to reach me. That, or DM me on Twitlandia. I check that occasionally, though it's toxic soup, too.
Farcebook is just too toxic to stand. And its name change won't resolve its horrible reputation or overcome its PR problem either.
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That is the post that I pinned to the top of my farcebook page.
The following are my responses to concerns about my well-being, after posting it. I’ll share the entire conversation, not because my personal life is important, but because the dialogue sheds light on the subject at hand.
A friend commented, “I trust you’re well?” (Big hug emoticon)
To which I replied,
I'm great! A near complete avoidance of, and detox from, "social media", and of course from mainstream "news" and tv, helps tremendously. I hope things are good for you too, my friend.
To which my thoughtful friend replied,
“That’s good to hear Todd. I too think it's time for me to step away from social media. It robs us of precious time and personal connections and is in many ways, nothing more than an exercise in self-harm.”
I responded by saying:
Part of the toxicity of Big Tech "social media" is that it has adopted a rabidly pro-censorship stance. Censorship always leads inevitably to authoritarianism, and it is an essential prerequisite to fascism, or any other form of authoritarianism. "Cancel culture" & censorship are McCarthyist. Worse, they are cultish, Inquisitorial, neo-Jacobin, neo-Maoist, and deeply authoritarian. Freedom of speech is not the problem. Freedom of speech is fundamental. How is it that this must be explained to people?! I know that you and some 30% of the people understand this, but it is deeply ominous that roughly 70% do not.
When honest and courageous investigative journalists, such as Glenn Greenwald and Matt Taibbi, are fired for simply speaking the truth, then you know we have entered an extremely dangerous, authoritarian era. Big Tech “social media” are the bludgeon to bash people into submission to that new authoritarian “normal”. It is not normal. It is a profoundly abnormal and pathological norm.
There are better alternatives in terms of social media and social networking. Minds, Gab, Librty, Bitchute, Odysee, Substack.... all of them are infinitely better than the pro-censorship, literally neo-fascist, Big Tech corporate platforms.
First of all, most people are spending four hours a day watching tv, plus four hours a day on the internet, mainly on so-called social media. That is over fifty hours a week - devoted to what is almost exclusively trivia, when it is not positively toxic, misinformation, or propaganda. Even if it was fifty hours a week watching Shakespearean plays on a screen, it would be terrible for physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health, and for our relationships with other people and with nature. But it is far worse than simply spending far too much time staring into a screen. It is fifty hours a week, spent mainly on trivia, group-think, propaganda and indoctrination. It is a virtual lobotomy. No wonder the greater majority of people are alienated and atomized, disconnected and dissociated from reality, easily manipulated and deceived, and mental illness and degenerative diseases are pandemic. They are immersed in a dissociative bubble of trivia and distraction, an echo chamber of group-think, propaganda and indoctrination, fifty hours a week! It’s a testimony to the human spirit that they have any trace of remaining sanity left at all.
Unplug, I say. Then, when we have restored some semblance of balance to our lives, let us choose our fora, networks and platforms, and choose what we ingest mentally, with a good deal more thoughtfulness.
J. Todd Ring,
November 1, 2021
One of the most important books ever written, is presented in audiobook here. It is one of the five books I would urge everyone to read, and to read immediately. It shoukd be considered essential, required reading, for every thinking person. Turn off the drivel - and 99.999% of what's out there is drivel, by comparison - and listen carefully to this.
The Ecology Of Freedom Chapter One
via @YouTube
And here is the full book, in a free, digital PDF version: