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Why I refuse to support Facebook and you should, too

5/15/2016

1 Comment

 
 

by Willow

I'm not really a big fan of social media websites; never have been. Probably one reason is because I don't have the time [or, more accurately, don't want to take the time] to deal with them. I only want to be on the computer so much. Doing this website is a stretch for me, in a way, because I already spend a lot of time on my computer for my work. [And, one reason why there aren't more regular blog posts.]

Thus, I've never gotten involved with, or even had the desire to register with, Twitter, FB, Pinterest, or whatever other media sites are out there. Just not my thing.

However, recently, I was interested in learning about the Big Island Fruit Festival schedule and activities that are going on from May 14 to May 28. And, I found out to my dismay, that they are using FB for all of their connections, scheduling, etc. I also recently found out that the Big Island Fruitlucks group [their name!] is going to switch from MeetUp to FB. How disappointing.

There are MANY reasons why I refuse to support FB, besides the fact that I don't want to take the time to deal with social media in general. There have been many news articles reporting their cooperation with various governmental agencies in releasing private citizen information, the recent news exposure on their censorship activities of 'conservative' groups/posts, and that they decided to remove any gun-related groups or posts on FB. Those are just some of their activities that I've become aware of; there are a great deal more. I'm sure that most of you are not into censorship. Most of us are aware of the quote by "Anonymous" [although the attribution has since been give to Pastor Niemoller] regarding the Nazi actions; I found a great revised version on this website that relates to internet security [or insecurity, as it truly now is]: "First They Came for the Jews". [Now please don't get all riled up about me comparing internet security and privacy concerns with the Nazis and the Holocaust as that is not what I'm doing; as I was thinking about what FB does and the ethical issues concerned with their activities, especially turning over private citizen information to the government, those things reminded me of that quote. Then, I saw that others were connecting those dots, as well. The moral tale is similar; the wholesale and unspeakable things that Nazis did to Jews, and many other groups, is not.]

You don't have to take my word for criticisms of FBs actions and activities; here are just two of MANY websites available to review some of their egregious actions:

Facebook Wall of Shame
Facebook Detox

There are options to FB if one is so inclined to be on a social media site like that. I found out about one that is supported by Tim Berners-Lee, and founded by civil libertarians. As folks who are part of what some consider to be a cult [raw foodists, or even vegans!], I believe we ought to also carefully consider the backers of the internet sites that we choose to support, even if it is only by signing up. By registering for a site, we are giving our tacit approval of things they do. And, of course, while we can't know everything about who is behind an internet site, we can and do know some things by the history of FB and their actions; thus, we can take action. We get all upset about whether or not our foods are organic or truly raw, we 'ought' to get upset, and then take action, about how our private information is being given away.

If I were going to be active on a social media website, I would probably choose MeWe. While I don't like the name [it just doesn't have a good ring to it!], I do very much appreciate the founders' values, privacy bill of rights, and other information they have posted on their website. I encourage you to check it out, as well, and let's create a 'fast' from FB! Millions are choosing to delete their accounts from FB - you can, too!

1 Comment

Clinton Lies & Other Political Statements

4/16/2016

0 Comments

 

By Willow

I don’t often like to post about politics; it’s such a mess and mired in so much that it’s often ridiculous to even address the topic - sort of like trying to unravel a giant ball of string.

BUT, recently I was reading “Clinton Cash” about all the money going into the Clinton family coffers. I was also reading “Trickle Up Poverty” which I already wrote about in a previous blog.

However, “Clinton Cash” and the current political primaries and other presidential race gobbledy-gook [which I pay little attention to, but unless one is dead, one hears about stuff anyway], along with the fact that too many people surrounding me are actually VOTING for Bernie Sanders. What?

As a feminist, I am pleased, on one hand, that a woman is running for president of the U.S. It’s about time. I think women can do many of the same things men can do; I detest the conversation about ‘women vs. men’ that continues to this day. It is well known that the overlap between what women and men can do is large; except for producing sperm, giving birth, having different genitals, and a few other minor things, women and men are very similar. We can both engage in critical thinking and reasoning, we can handle small and large problems and issues. We can both do many things, although it seems that the divisions of ‘housework’ and outside work still occur to a large degree with women in heterosexual couplings still doing the majority of ‘housework’ detail.

Anyway, the point is, this divisiveness of women vs. men has gone on far too long; the facts are in and they are that both sexes are capable of many of the same things. The conversation ought to switch from the differences between the sexes to the similarities; yet that doesn’t seem to be part of the U.S. conversation just yet. We’re still mostly mired in the ‘us vs. them’ mentality. So, I say ‘yay!’ that a woman is running for president of the United States. Women are running other countries; I don’t know how well, but they are. So, it’s about time.

However, while I think it’s great a woman is running for president, I DO NOT in any way shape or form endorse Hilary Clinton. She is as good as the boys when it comes to lying, cheating, stealing, political maneuvering, furthering her own personal and political agendas, etc. etc. Thus, she IS just as ‘good’ at the political game as any guy in power. And, that’s my point. I think it is a real shame that feminists are backing Hilary JUST BECAUSE she is a woman, and don’t consider her history, all of the investigations into her and her husband’s shenanigans, the likelihood that she has done MANY illegal activities, and all the rest make her such a poor candidate. I think it is so unfortunate that some people, especially feminists and some women (and maybe even some men; I don’t really know since I’m not paying THAT close attention to the media pundits) are telling people to vote for Hilary BECAUSE she is a woman (note the recent backtracking of Gloria Steinem, who was advocating for Bernie and then had to eat her words later...sigh...what an idiotic 'conversation').

We need to get away from this single issue, single focus on ‘gender’ or ‘skin color’ or whatever and look at the holistic picture of what a person’s livelihood has shown them to be: in this case Hilary ranks right up there with the good ol’ boys in the power, authority, and furthering her own political games. Do NOT make the mistake of voting for Hilary just because she is a woman. That is a fallacy of the highest order, that someone’s sex is the most important factor in a political race!

On a slightly different note, I wholeheartedly agree with Richard Maybury who said something to the effect that ‘anyone who runs for president or wants to be president has some form of pathology’ (or, is crazy, to the rest of us). Who in their right mind could be the ‘head of state’ in this crazy, messed up version of the United States? The number of governmental agencies alone has increased exponentially since 9/11. The decisions and minions surrounding the president are just unbelievable. I don’t think anyone is in their ‘right mind’ who supposes they can run a country like the U.S. [and, of course, that concept could be debated, I know] or is someone who can be counted on to run a country. I have seen over and over again the speeches that promise this and that, only to see the person take office and switch their positions 180 degrees. It seems to me that most people who run for political office are doing it for personal reasons: power, authority, promoting their own personal or political agendas, money mongering, etc. The idea of representation of the people is pretty much a null and void aspect of legislators. I can’t recall a legislator in my area in the past 30+ years who represented me... Can you think of someone who has? And, forget even upholding the constitution of the United States, which they swore to do when they took office.

Bernie Sanders - what? I don’t get why people are voting for him. We know that socialism doesn’t work; we have plenty of evidence from other countries and historical evidence that has shown time and again that socialism doesn’t work and isn’t beneficial to the majority of the populace. For whatever reason, people seem to be drawn to Sanders; I don’t devote enough of my time or energy to the political debates [formal and informal] to understand the draw to Bernie, but I fully and wholeheartedly believe that Bernie, nor just about anyone else who is running for president, will be our savior.

I urge you: rather than listening and being swayed by the verbiage, look at what people have actually done in their political or professional history. Look behind the veiled curtain, which is veiled for a reason! Far too often, people vote for a candidate for emotional reasons, or because their friend did. Don’t be the lemming who falls over the cliff because your friend did! Take some time to dig a little and really get behind the scenes of the political theater to see what happened in a person’s past. What is Bernie’s agenda? Look at his history and you’ll get a little sense of it... Don’t be fooled by the political swaggering (“When I’m president, I’ll make sure there’s a chicken in every pot!”).

Or... Don’t vote at all; that’s another option. There could well be moral and ethical reasons not to vote; you could take that into consideration, as well...

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    I'm an idealist vegan, doing my part to make this world a better place, one grain of sand at a time!

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