Government, that supposedly necessary evil, is very hard to get rid of. You’re allowed to vote for the lesser of two evils. Never allowed to vote for no evil at all.
But it would be very easy to get rid of some unnecessary evils – among them Facebook.
We can’t vote Mark Zuckerberg out of an office he was never elected to – one he is trying very hard to assume – that of Decider of our thoughts… should we dare to express them… by making us afraid to express them.
However, we can decide we don’t “like” him – or his digital authoritarianism – and stop using the mechanism by which he was acquired so much power over us. It’s the most powerful form of voting there is – and at least for now, we have this franchise and would be fools not to use it while there is still time.
We are in a position analogous to the moment which existed before the 16th Amendment – or the passage of the equally odious “Patriot” Act. Better positioned, because this time, our fate is directly in our own hands.
We can get rid of Facebook – or at least, put it in its proper place.
If only we will act . . .
It is hard to avoid dealing with Facebook, certainly.
The thing has weirdly and probably not coincidentally penetrated almost every nook and cranny of our lives. It is interesting to speculate how it came to be that so many modern transactions demand – though they still lack the power to require – “signing up” on Facebook in order to proceed. Even dating apps try to make you “sign in” via Facebook, though they are separate businesses and have no other connection with Facebook.
How did it get to be Mark Zuckerberg’s business whom we are interested in romantically?
The supermarket wants you to “sign up.” My dentists’ office asks that patients “like” his practice on Facebook. The local middle school has a digital billboard encouraging those interested to “look them up” on you-know-where.
It’s as if Facebook is interested in knowing everything about us and profiting from the knowledge, whether financially or – as is becoming increasingly and frighteningly obvious – politically.
Knowledge is, indeed, power. And Facebook is beginning to flex it.
Imagine having to “sign up” on Facebook before you’re allowed to vote for the lesser of two evils – as decided by Mark Zuckerberg.
This is not a postulation to be laughed at.
Zuckerberg is already using Facebook to punish those whose views – not specified, precisely – are, as he styles it, “hateful.” No one knows exactly what this means except that Mark Zuckerberg does not like the views being expressed.
We are to intuit his preferences – or else.
This unelected kid is becoming the arbiter of what we’re allowed to say by making us afraid to say what we’d like to say by making us fear that we might say something “hateful” or “dangerous” . . . that is to say, something Mark Zuckerberg considers “hateful” or “dangerous”… whatever that means.
It will probably soon be decreed “dangerous” and “hateful” to not “like” Facebook!
He is erecting something functionally analogous to the social credit/social shaming scheme that the Chinese communists are using to Thought Police their people – not with bayonets this time, but by crippling their ability to function economically.
This creepy kid wants to do the same here – and is doing it. But with the complicity of the people who continue to freely sanction it by continuing to invite Mark Zuckerberg into their lives. It is like the vampire who cannot drain your blood unless you invite him into your home.
And there’s the key!
We can simply decide to not invite the information vampire Zuckerberg into our homes – and our lives – via the simple expedient of not “signing up,” “liking” or posting anything on Facebook.
Just stop going there. Delete the app. Tell merchants/businesses who ask you to “sign up” that you won’t – and then tell them why.
Then tell your friends you wont be “friending” them anymore, but that they are still very much your friends.
We had friends before we “friended” them on Facebook – and will have them if Facebook ceased to exist tomorrow. There are myriad other ways to “keep in touch” – including modern ways – that do not require Mark Zuckerberg as a middleman or Mark Zuckerberg’s permission.
This kid has somehow become a kind of digital dictator who has no real authority except that which we have given him – and which we still have it in our power to rescind any time we wish.
Which power we’d better exercise soon, before this kid acquires new powers. Before he is in a position to force us to “sign up” – and to “like” Facebook – in order to transact business. Cash or deposit checks. Apply for loans.
Buy groceries. 
Before we’re allowed to do anything – possibly even use the bathroom in our own home (imagine a small touchscreen adjacent to the door, requiring you to “sign up” before it will open).
If you have been deemed “hateful” or “dangerous,” it’s the outhouse for you.
It’s time to unfriend Zuckerberg – and the rest of the digital panopticon being erected with almost unreal effrontery, right in front of our faces.
We can be forgiven for having been suckered – at first.
Facebook – a sophomorically named thing – seemed innocuous, initially; a “cool” way to keep in touch with people, to reconnect wth people and to connect with more people. But that bait has been switched and if we continue to nibble at it, we’ll have no one to blame but ourselves when the trap snaps closed.
…
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Once that you’ve decided on a killing
Une fois que tu t’es décidé à une tuerie
First you make a stone of your heart
D’abord tu fais une pierre de ton coeur
And if you find that your hands are still willing
Et si tu penses que tes mains sont encore prêtes
Then you can turn a murder into art
Tu peux alors transformer un meutre en art
There really isn’t any need for bloodshed
Un carnage n’est vraiment pas nécessaire
You just do it with a little more finesse
Tu le fais avec juste un peu plus de finesse
If you can slip a tablet into someone’s coffee
Si tu peux glisser discrètement un comprimé dans le café de quelqu’un
Then it avoids an awful lot of mess
Dans ce cas ça évite un monstrueux tas d’ennuis
It’s murder by numbers one-two-three
Voici le meutre en nombre * un-deux-trois
It’s as easy to learn as your ABC
C’est aussi facile que d’apprendre un abécédaire
Now if you have a taste for this experience
Maintenant si tu as pris goût pour ce genre d’expérience
And you’re flushed with your very success
Et que tu es excité par ta brillante réussite
Then you must try a twosome or a threesome
Alors tu dois essayer un doublé ou un triplé
And you’ll find your conscience bothers you much less
Et tu trouveras que ta conscience te tourmente beaucoup moins
Because murder is like anything you take to
Parce-que le meutre est tout ce à quoi tu te livres
It’s a habit-forming need for more and more
C’est une habitude qui prend forme et dont tu as de grands besoins d’assouvir
You can bump off every member of your family
Tu peux descendre tous les membres de ta famille
And anybody else you find a bore
Et n’importe qui d’autre que tu trouves rasoir
Because it’s murder by number one-two-three
Parce-que c’est le meutre en nombre un-deux-trois
It’s as easy to learn as your ABC
C’est aussi facile que d’apprendre un abécédaire
Now you can join the ranks of the illustrious
Maintenant tu peux rejoindre les rangs des illustres
In history’s great dark hall of fame
Dans l’immense salle obscure des plus grandes rennomées de l’histoire
All our greatest killers were industrious
Tous nos meilleurs assassins étaient des des bosseurs
At least the ones that we all know by name
Au moins les seuls que nous connaissons tous par leur nom
But you can reach the top of the profession
Mais tu peux atteindre le sommet de la profession
If you become the leader of the land
Si tu deviens le maître du monde
For murder is the sport of the elected
Pour que Tuer soit un sport reconnu
And you don’t need to lift a finger of your hand
Et pour ça tu n’as pas besoin de lever le petit doigt.
: je pense qu’il s’agit de meutre en grand nombre
Wenn du dich einmal entschieden hast, jemanden zu töten
verwandelst zu als erstes dein Herz in einen Stein
Und wenn deine Hände noch dazu in der Lage sind
kannst du einen Mord in Kunst verwandeln
Eigentlich ist es überhaupt nicht nötig Blut zu vergießen
Mach es halt mit etwas mehr Finesse
Wenn man jemandem eine Tablette in den Kaffee werfen kann,
erspart man sich eine ganze Menge Unannehmlichkeiten.
Das ist Mord nach Plan, 1, 2, 3
Es ist so einfach zu erlernen wie das ABC
Wenn du an dieser Erfahrung Geschmack gefunden hast
und dich der erste Erfolg anspornt
dann musst du mal einen Doppel- oder Dreifach-Mord ausprobieren
Und schon wirst du feststellen, dass dein Gewissen dir immer weniger zu schaffen macht
Denn man kann sich das Morden angewöhnen, wie alles andere auch
Man entwickelt ein Bedürfnis nach immer mehr
Du kannst jedes einzelne Familienmitglied aus der Welt schaffen
Und auch jeden anderen, der dich langweilt
Denn das ist Mord nach Plan, 1, 2, 3 …
Jetzt kannst du in die Reihen der Berühmtheiten aufsteigen
in der großen, dunklen Ruhmeshalle der Geschichte
All unsere großartigen Mörder waren fleißig
Zumindest die, deren Namen wir alle kennen
Aber du kannst den Gipfel deines Berufs erreichen
wenn du der Anführer eines Landes wirst
Denn Mord ist der Sport der Gewählten
Und du brauchst dann nicht einmal mehr einen FInger krumm zu machen
Benn das ist Mord nach Plan, 1, 2, 3 …
Una vez que se haya decidido por un asesinato
En primer lugar, hacer una piedra de tu corazón
Y si usted encuentra que sus manos aún están dispuestos
A continuación, usted puede convertir un asesinato en el arte
Realmente no hay necesidad de derramamiento de sangre
Usted acaba de hacerlo con un poco más de finura
Si usted puede deslizar una pastilla en el café de alguien
A continuación, se evita una gran cantidad de desorden
Es un asesinato por los números uno, dos, tres
Es tan fácil de aprender el ABC
Ahora bien, si usted tiene un gusto por esta experiencia
Y que está enrojecida con el éxito de su primera
Entonces usted debe tratar de un dúo o trío un
Y usted encontrará su conciencia le molesta mucho menos
Porque el asesinato es como cualquier cosa que lleve a
Es una necesidad de dependencia a la droga para obtener más y más
Puede cargarse a todos los miembros de su familia
Y cualquier otra persona a encontrar un agujero
Debido a que es el asesinato por los números uno, dos, tres
Es tan fácil de aprender el ABC
Ahora usted puede unirse a las filas de los ilustres
En la gran sala oscura de la historia de la fama
Todos los asesinos de nuestros famosos eran trabajadores
Por lo menos los que todos conocemos por su nombre
Pero puedes llegar a la cima de tu profesión
si te conviertes en el lider de la tierra.
El asesinato es el deporte de los elegidos
y no necesitas levantar el dedo de tu mano.
Uma vez que você tenha decidido entrar numa matança
Primeiro você faz do seu coração uma pedra
E se você conclui que suas mãos estão motivadas
Então você pode transformar o assassinato em uma arte
Realmente não há necessidade de derramamento de sangue
Você apenas precisa fazê-lo com um pouco mais de fineza
Se você pode deslizar um tablete num café de alguém
Então isso evita um bocado de bagunça
Porque isto é um assassinato por números 1, 2, 3
É tão fácil de aprender quanto o ABC (2x)
Agora se você toma gosto por esta experiência
E você está orgulhoso com seu primeiro sucesso
Então você tem que tentar uma dupla ou uma tripla
E você descobrirá que sua consciência te incomodará menos
Pois assassinato é como qualquer coisa que você se apega
É um hábito que cria a necessidade para mais e mais
Você pode limar cada membro da sua família
E qualquer outro que você considera tedioso
Porque isto é um assassinato por números 1, 2, 3
É tão fácil de aprender quanto o ABC (2x)
Agora você pode se juntar ao posto dos ilustres
No grande e sombrio salão da Fama da história
Todos os nossos grandes assassinos eram diligentes
Ao menos aqueles que todos nós conhecemos de nome
Mas você pode alcançar o topo da sua profissão
Se você se tornar o líder da nação
Pois assassinato é o esporte dos eleitos
E você não precisa erguer um dedo da sua mão
Porque isto é um assassinato por números 1, 2, 3
É tão fácil de aprender quanto o ABC (2x)
We are ending where the savages began. We have found again the lost arts of starving non-combatants, burning hovels, and leading away the vanquished into slavery. Barbarian invasions would be superfluous: we are our own Huns. Where will it all end? In the destruction of all other command for the benefit of one alone – that of the state. In each man’s absolute freedom from every family and social authority, a freedom the price of which is complete submission to the state. In the complete equality as between themselves of all citizens, paid for by their equal abasement before the power of their absolute master – the state. In the disappearance of every constraint which does not emanate from the state, and in the denial of every pre-eminence which is not approved by the state. In a word, it ends in the atomization of society, and in the rupture of every private tie linking man and man, whose only bond is now their common bondage to the state. The extremes of individualism and socialism meet: that was their predestined course. These observations bring out the fact that, whenever liberty is regarded merely as the power to do something which it is desired to do, the tyrant need only base himself on the desires of the masses to suppress the liberties cherished by a few. But can anyone fail to see that the very concrete problem here posed is the problem of the sation of satisfactions, and not the problem of liberty at all? How, then, has it come about that we have drifted away from what we were discussing? This is the very definition of liberty which we allowed as our starting-point. Its development makes it clear that the thing discussed does not merit the fair name of liberty.
It is certain that every man desires addition to his power and chafes at the obstacles which stand in his way; it is also certain that the quest for a power which is wider binds him to a growing dependence on other men; it is certain, lastly, that this dependence creates a growing tendency to quarrel about distribution. All that is important, but it is the story not of liberty but of human imperialism. And whoever thinks to see the essence of liberty in the power of man is is utterly lacking in any true feeling for liberty. Ransack the history of revolutions, and it will be found that every fall of a regime has been presaged by a defiance which went unpunished. It is as true today as it was ten thousand years ago that a Power from which the magic virtue has gone out, falls.
I do use facebook myself just to see what others are doing / posting without really putting in much of my own details. But what I think is more scary than facebook (and whats not being talked about) is this kids power over Whats-app, (which officially is supposed to be completely separate from FB). This is being used by everybody. And by that I mean practically everybody. It has around 6 billion monthly active users around the world (much more than FB)…. And well when contacting people particularly overseas, its probably one of the most efficient ways to do so. People tend to openly mention the kind of stuff on whatsapp that they will never mention on FB because its seen as secure and private. Furthermore, from what I know, in Westminster here a prominent members of the government use this and have their own groups to share information about parliamentary matters. Now not that I care much about politicians, but imagine what someone with this type of inside information can do……
Just last week, a friend of mines sisters husband (who I didnt know before) needed some help from me about something. We tired getting in touch and kept missing each other over a couple days. He then sent me a message on whatsapp. A couple days later – Facebook was recommending him as a potential friend for me!! Taking it a step further, if someone knows in advance who is meeting (and even why), particularly if they are prominent people – well just imagine the potential….
Morning, Nasir!
Thank you for calling this to people’s attention. WhatsApp is yet another means by which the net is closing around us. The possibility exists that, soon, it will be essentially not possible to communicate in any modern manner without going through Gesichterbuch or one of its appendages.
The Internet was great while it lasted…
Eric, really think Whatsapp is the scary part of the net. As you say FB is still voluntary, and many people actively avoid it knowing downfalls. And many just dont care to be on social media.
But I see that most people all use WhatsApp without really thinking much about it or any concern… Personally I was one of the last to move over to whatsapp, and have done so only in the last year or so, after it became impossible to keep in touch with people, particularly abroad or co-ordinate with multiple people.
And what I find scary is that they are also discussions about whatsapp discussions being monitored or being used to non-person a person…. seems like the ideal tool for the thought police….
If people want to send a text message, why can’t they simply do it the OLD FASHIONED way? Why can’t they send it-gasp-directly? Why does one need an app to do what my old flip phone can do?
MM, I’m with you. I have communicated with people I met on this site…..today. I didn’t need a new app and wouldn’t need my phone at all. I use this thing, very complicated but effective….called email.
And this goes hand-in-hand with the majority so gleefully giving up their good old landlines. They are now at the mercy of cell carriers and the internet.
1984 was a gross under-estimation.
Ha! I didn’t even know what WhatsApp is [Sounds like something Bugs Bunny might use- WhatsApp Doc?]….but from the context, I can surmise that it is like Skype?
Good old email is as far as I go…..
Scary thing about Facebook- it tracks everything you do on you’re computer- even if you’re logged out. Once you have a FB account, even if you never say a word about yourself, you lose all of your privacy- and they not only build an intimate profile of you…but they have your name to attach to it.
It kills me just hoiw many people just don’t care. “Yeah, but I can keep in touch with that lard-ass from junior high school whom I haven’t talked to in 30 years; the one I used to say hi to in the hall…”
I still have my old land line in case of emergencies. I remember how we had a false alarm at my old apartment. There was a problem with the oil heater, and it set off the fire alarm by accident. Anyway, I tried to call 911 on my cell phone, and it the wrong cell tower; that put me through to the wrong dispatch center; it took some time to figure things out and get me routed to the correct center. Lesson learned, so I kept my land line. Since the land line is hard wired, you’ll automatically get routed to the right dispatch center in case of emergency.
The other major benefit is that the land line is more RELIABLE. Since the phone company has its own power source, you’ll oftentimes be able to use your land line even when the electricity is out. A case in point is Hurricane Sandy, which knocked out our power for a couple of days. Those folks on my street who still HAD phones in their houses were through their cable company; well cable connected phones have battery backup, so when the battery runs out, your phone service goes with it. Cell service will either be knocked out, or it will be so overwhelmed that you’ll have trouble making calls. Finally, cell phones rely on radio signals, which can be susceptible to interference and signal loss; ever had a dropped call, folks? During Hurricane Sandy, I was still able to communicate with the outside world, because my land line was RELIABLE.
Yeah, Mark- nothing beats a landline. I have my landline, with a cordless phone on one extension, and vintage corded AT&T Trimlines on the other two! -So when the ‘lectricity goes out, 2 phones still work in my house.
I’m just the opposite though- I wish it DIDN’T route to the local 911- Easy enough to keep the actual local phone number of the fire dept. or whatever on the little card in the base of the phone.
I had a Magic Jack once (when I needed to make some long long-distance calls years ago- it’s an internet phone)- They want ya to enter your address and zip code so that they could even route THAT to the proper local 911 dispatch. Being someone who would never call 911, I entered the zip and address of a storage yard I used to rent….1000 miles from here! (You could shoose what ever area code you wanted for your phone number…so I also chose the corresponding area code for that location!)
You have to put fb in a box.
I have used private browsing and firefox’s fb container tab add-on.
fb doesn’t get everything. Only sites with fb beacons/share buttons/etc
Never had a Facebook or any kind of social media account…never will. The Orwellian potential of this stuff was obvious right from it’s inception. Even before the revelations of censorship and surveillance and psychological experimentation became common knowledge, why would anyone so disregard their own privacy as to put their real name and details of their activities and personal relationships and pictures etc. online? (And those pictures all become the property of Facebook- which now has become the largest repository of images on earth- dwarfing even the Library Of Congress- and all the pics with identifiable people in them are being used to form a huge AI facial recognition database).
Even without the Orwellian evils, Facebook is stupid; Unlike a forum, things are not categorized, and you can’t go back 6 months or 2 years and find info or see what went on in a particular conversation- it’s just a scatterbrained spur-of-the-moment bunch of chit-chat (mainly chit!)- fit only for vapid adolescents who converse about trivial things and only for the moment and then quickly move on to something else.
So many businesses today have a Facebook page instead of their own website- and why anyone would visit a businesses FB page is beyond me, because they lack any real functionality, and are just like one long commercial… “Spring is here, so come on down to Bob’s Automotive Butchers for an oil change today! Woo-hoo!” “Miss Sofonda Cox likes this post”
We have the power of computers at our fingertips…and yet people are addicted to a platform which reduces communication to a standard somewhat below that of two old washer women on a party line. Instead of this technology fostering the exchange of ideas and the improvement of intellect, and the betterment of humanity, and propagation of liberty…it is instead achieving the very opposite; reducing the quality of communications; stifling the sharing of ideas; eroding privacy and liberty, and altering people’s thoughts and actionsd in a negative way while distracting them from better real-life pursuits.
The masses have defacto elected Fuckerberg as their king by clamoring to be obedient citizens of his online domain; I guess that would make him King Of The Morons!
And while our government spends millions of our dollars looking into some alleged farcical election interference by Russia (LOL)- it ignores this home-grown censor/manipulator of information which the majoirty of the voting citizenry use…..
There is no fixing America/the Western World. There has been too much of this going on for too long….and now it has gotten to an absurd level- and we are living in the midst of a generation who has known nothing but the world the way it currently is- i.e. Facebook, smart phones, TSA thugs, etc.- and thus, thinks that these things are perfectly normal and reasonable.
Hear, hear…..
Nunzio likes this post. 🙂
Likes are no longer good enough in Facebookland. Now they have “emoticons” for the toddler-like narcissists.
I’ll have to add you to my pile of “friends”!
You hit the nail on the head, Handler- that’s exactly what FB is like: A playpen for 3 year-olds!
That makes me feel so speshul, Nunz! I now have 3,151 friends!
It just goes to show you how psychologically vulnerable human beings are. Generations of public school indoctrination will do just that.
[Ignore this text- just avoiding Turdpress bot]
https://img.discogs.com/bSlO2gkE2EpI136vAlEKET39JrI=/fit-in/600×600/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-2796547-1491349519-9301.jpeg.jpg
😀 🙂 😀
Sorry…
Let’s try this again:
https://tinyurl.com/y4m37acf
😀 🙂 😀 [Dammit!]
Not surprised to find out later on he was a closeted communist. Of course, his touchy-feely social engineering program was partially funded by the Ford Foundation.
When I was a kid I was always looking over my shoulder when Mr. Rogers was mentioned. He was creepy beyond belief. I had never seen a man act like that and smelled the rat so to speak.
I used to love watching Mr. Rogers when I was like TEN… Just to make fun of him! A few minutes of seeing him, made 10 year-old me feel like a competent adult.
I used to check under my bed at night though, to make sure Mr. McFeely wasn’t hiding under there, waiting to make a “speedy delivery”!
Once, I was playing with my best friend- Steven Vitale- and my mother comes along and hands me something she had found on the floor near the TV, and says “You must have dropped this when you were watching Mr. Rogers”!
Talk about dying of embarrassment…. If Steven wasn’t dead already, I might have had to kill him to keep that one under wraps! 😉
I really “got it” when Mr. Rogers testified before some Congressional committee on behalf of continued/increased funding for “Public Television”.
Yeah, real nice, Fred! Demand that the parents of all of those kids whom you ‘love’ be extorted to fund your show and all of the other multi-cultural NWO liberal-agenda propaganda, like Sesame Street!
“Likes are no longer good enough in Facebookland. Now they have “emoticons” for the toddler-like narcissists.”
Emoticons (or “emojis” as they’re now called) are nowhere near as bad as those dreaded number-sign/word/phrase combinations (yea, I know what they’re called; I just rather not say it). Ooooh, I literally HATE those things with a passion! I suppose the next “trend” will involve using a language similar to JavaScript to communicate with each other because “why not?”. After all, we have the technology.
“Instead of this technology fostering the exchange of ideas and the improvement of intellect, and the betterment of humanity, and propagation of liberty…it is instead achieving the very opposite; reducing the quality of communications; stifling the sharing of ideas; eroding privacy and liberty, and altering people’s thoughts and actionsd in a negative way while distracting them from better real-life pursuits.”
I was warned 20 years ago about the weaponization of the Internet. Part of me thinks it should have never been created.
It’s not the Internet; but rather, that damned social(ist) media that is making all but a few of us “Luddites” crave husbandry if it means not having any responsibilities whatsoever.
Never used anything but email and the odd text on my phone. No Facebook, Instagram, Twitter…….
Everyone else I know, everyone, has accounts with every major form of social media there is. Asking “Why?” is an insight into the absolute idiocy and lack of any critical thinking that is endemic on this rock. When they flail for an answer it becomes quite obvious that it has never crossed their mind before. Usually followed by some self affirming bullshit while they try to disparage my non-use of the idiot networks they frequent. And by frequent, I mean spend HOURS a day pecking at screens.
The worst part is how it has shaped the thinking (such as it is) of these drones. They are incapable of any form of critical thinking and screech “Cynic!” or “Luddite”(OK not Luddite, they have no clue who Ludd was) at anyone who points out the damage social media is causing society and intellect. Happy thoughts are all they are interested in, unless of course it is THEM condemning their latest SJW approved target (two minutes of hate?). Apparently a team sport now. ANY considered and fact backed feedback is met with some form of irrational and hysterical accusations of “You support evil”, “You are literally Hitler” or such. No actual counter argument, just the rote repeating of whatever soundbite they thought ‘cool’ without ever understanding ANY side of the issue. Feelings drive them, not facts. A lot like high school was, only with much stupider people.
The masses like their Silicon overlords telling them what to think and are extremely resistant to anything that requires thinking on their part. Thinking is hard and the lazy (almost everyone) are happy to let someone else do it for them. They are clueless children, happy to be spoon fed brain pablum.
My greatest wish is that the internet and grid go down for at least a week in the near future. I guarantee that at least half of the social media drones would kill themselves after a couple of days without their hourly social media fix. And good-fucking-riddance.
BTW, Eric, I love the Artwork at the top…..Very Inspiring, isn’t it??
I tried “WasteBook” for about 30 days, nearly 15 years ago, when it first started. It only took me 2 weeks to realise it was going to be a VERY Dangerous re-incarnation of AOHell! I deleted my entire file from their site, which you could actually do at that time. I don’t think “members” actually have the ability to delete their entire “profile” any longer, even if they “opt out”. I live just fine without WasteBook, and apparently, everyone I know who uses it, lives just fine without me……good riddance!
Funny thing is…e-mail still works for everything you want to say, send, or see. And actual human interaction works even better, who would have thought? I think I’m going to open a chain of Brothels. I know at least THAT will still be in demand, even after the end of civilization, lol!
gtc, I have some land you can use for a brothel. Make it a Honky Tonk and restaurant too and I’ll be your biggest fan.
If people want friends, there’s probably someone who is your “friend” right beside you and all you must do is simply say ‘Hello, how are you?’, a very common greeting in west Texas.
I met a friend at the post office last time I was there. A woman ten feet away said something like “woohoo, I got it the first time”. I replied as my box also opened the first try(these are ancient combo boxes dating probably from the turn of the century….no, that previous century)”Wow, I got mine in one try too”. We were both exuberant, ok, pleased, we hadn’t had to do it over and over.
Going out the door while I held it for her we were still talking. I said I was really pleased because I got my CBD oil. She said something along the lines of seeing a show about it on tv recently and asked a few questions I readily supplied the answers to. She asked how it helped and I finally went into depth about nerve pain and how it helped that a lot plus I slept better.
This conversation morphs when I said I had MRSA and Shingles and would have outbreaks of both concurrently. She replied she had just suffered a shingle attack, her first, and was sorta freaked out about it. “But I didn’t think you could have it but once she said”. Naw, it will keep on giving till the day you day” I had to tell her. Then she got really interested. We were both about the same age and I felt I should have known her.
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Turns out she was raised not far from me and I knew her parents but not her and her sister. She told me who she was and I clicked on her maiden name since her parents lived a mile across the way from me. We had quite a long conversation and while doing so, a car drove up with her nearly 90 year old aunt I’d known my whole life and had been friends with her family and raised hell with her children.
This started another conversation that got even more intense since a woman known to all of us had a son who’d recently identified her son as being his father. Yep, it’s a small world. No Faciabook involved. I’ve had conversations like that hundreds of miles from home beginning with total strangers, people I’d never seen before.
I get it that people in other parts of the world don’t simply say “Hi, how are you?” like Texans do to damn near every person they simply meet walking toward each other. It’s easy to knock off non-Texans since they just pass right by.
I’ve made friends, real friends, nearly everywhere. I’ve made friends, good friends I enjoy hanging with on this site.
I have never even seen a Faciabook pic of post other than screenshots. I can’t imagine why I ever would. Of course I know people who make money by promoting their business on FB but they’re braver than me. It always seemed a risky thing to me since they take all your identity for an account.
When FB first started a friend tried to get me to start an account so I went to the FB page and found out they wanted to know everything but the quality of my bowl movement. I passed.
How come ya always here of honky-tonks…never nigger-tonks?
To this day, people who’ve known me for ages, and know damn well that I abhor social media and other forms of [not-so-]personal communication which are not conducive to actual thoughtfull attention-required conversations, STILL ask me: “Do you have Facebook?; Skype; Twitter?; Do you text?etc.”- I tell them I have a good old landline telephone; a mailbox down by the road; email- but for some reason, they don’t seem to be interested in any of those methods of communication- because [I assume] it might require 10 minutes of their time and undivided attention- as opposed to just being something they can broadcast while glancing down for three seconds at their job, or while stopped at a red light; or between the reverberation of fart echoes while on the terlit.
This is good, because it differentiates those who genuinely want to COMMUNICATE vs. those who just want a collection of souls to fill the dead seconds between activities when they might otherwise have to have a quiet moment and actually hear their own inner voice.
Hey Nunz,
You do, they’re just called “juke joints”
Cheers,
Jeremy
Don’t know Nunz, Why should I want to ban or glorify either one, my black friends? WTF does that have to do with an Out of the way brothel, car, restaurant?
Eight; Jeremy,
“Honky” implies honkies…..I was just wondering why there are no aptly corresponding labels for ones where knee-grows go.
“Juke” doesn’t do it, as juke is not a term used to describe knee-grows (At least not to my knowledge).
I guess to be politically correct, and not anger the gods of Google and Facebook, we’d have to have “Caucasian-tonks” and “African-American-tonks”- no wait….they’d say that that was elitist and discriminatory!
“Diversity-tonks”! They could only play music by Charlie Pride…..
Hey Nunzio,
The term honky-tonk predates, significantly, the derogatory term “honky”. It was associated with ragtime, with an emphasis on rhythm. Early pioneers of the style were mostly black. Southern, white country musicians adopted the style and created the distinctive sound recognized today. It has become associated with rough, dance bars frequented by poor, southern whites, but the origin of the term was not a slur against white rednecks, it was a description of places that played honky-tonk music and catered to a rough, working class clientele.
“Honky” as a derogatory term for white people emerged decades after “honky-tonk”, as a style of music and as a description of a type of bar, was common in the vernacular. None of the early white pioneers of the style considered honky-tonk to be a slur, they celebrated it. Jimmie Rodgers, Hank Williams, George Jones, etc… were proud to be “honky-tonkers”. Dwight Yoakum’s career was founded on reviving the honky-tonk style.
“Honky-tonk” is the white counterpart of “juke-joint”. Both are derogatory terms according to elite tastes because they refer to rough, rowdy drinking establishments that cater to “low class” people who value sensual pleasure over “proper” decorum. Neither are demeaning “racist” terms, at least to those who use the terms lovingly.
Cheers,
Jeremy
Thanks, Jeremy.
That was interesting! I was initially just joking around/making a play on words; but so much the better that this has led to my edification!
I really didn’t thinkl that ‘honky’ was the slang term for us Caucasians…as I believe that usage is quite modern (c. last 60 years?).
I didn’t know that Dwight Yoakum is a honky-tonk revivalist- I wouldn’t even know who he is, except that my mother ls a fan (The traitor! She was born and raised in the very heart of NYC! We’re supposed to hate country music! -I do- even though I’m thoroughly redneck ion every other way!) [Reminds self to yell yee-haw!!!! as Satie’s Gymnopede No. 1 begins]
Hey Nunzio,
I love you buddy, but to purge the last vestige of “yankee” from your soul, ya gotta learn to love the ‘twang. Just kidding of course, but you did cite perhaps the most non honky-tonk composition ever, intentionally I assume.
Ol’ Hank was one of us. He railed against self righteous, virtue signaling busy-bodies until his last breath. This, “Mind Your own Business”,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZH2bmbUTl4
is practically the EPAutos theme song. Note the jab at yankee “morality” with the line, “mindin’ other peoples’ business seems to be Hi-tone, I’ve got all that I can do, just to mind my own…”
Or this, “Be Careful of Stones That You Throw”,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6U-H3hPYBmA
from his alter ego, Luke the Drifter. He specifically alludes to John 8 to condemn the hypocrisy of the superficially righteous. Ol’ Hank was a badass, albeit a tortured, drunken soul. He despaired at the venality and hypocrisy of “decent” folk and this informed a quiet rage in much of his music. But, he was also joyous (“Hey Good Lookin'”, “Setting the Woods on Fire”, etc…) and a master of lyrical wordplay. Playful, “my tires and tubes are doing fine, but the air is showing through”, or poignant, “these shabby shoes I’m wearing all the time is full of holes and nails, and brother if I stepped on a worn out dime, I bet a nickel I could tell ya if it were heads or tails”.
Cheers,
Jeremy
Hi Ya, Jeremy!
Oooo! Good stuff there, buddy!
Yes, some of that old stuff- the REAL country music, is quite tolerable (even good!).
Of course, the homogenized, formulaic, dance-beat-added (or worse yet, monotonous ever-repeating walking bass-line) stuff is completely different; as different (and crappy) as modern ‘rock’ is to classic rock; or as ‘[c]rap’ is to real R&B.(Of course, I’m sure you’d agree).
There is one modern-ish song I rather like though- which contains a line that is just so spot-on….
If Heaven Ain’t A Lot Like Dixie by Hank Jr.:
“….Just send me to hell or New York City, it’d be about the same to me.” -Truer words were never spoken.
_____
As in most genres of music today, it seems that the players try to emulate a style or fit into a category by imitating certain themes from the given genre- as opposed to merely making music that sounds good to them, and expressing their own words and letting whoever enjoys it, come. (Which is probably 90% the fault of the record/concert industry’s marketing schemes, which look at the consumer world as though people’s musical tastes are extremely narrow and minutely categorized, like adherence to a religious cult- oy, Murray!)
_____
Homer Simpson [Reading a concert ticket aloud]: ” ‘An Evening With Philip Glass’ – Oooo! Just an evening?!”
Jeremy,
Your mind your own business reminded me of this https://www.abelard.org/e-f-russell.php
Hi Tuan,
Thanks, I’ve not read anything by him. I’m looking forward to reading it tonight.
Cheers,
Jeremy
T, glad you posted that. I used to read this but lost it back when I was on the road all the time. It’s tough to stay up with stuff when you are “construction worker” and you’re grandfathered in and don’t have to log. I used to work godawful hours and just about didn’t do anything on the net. Maybe if I had some time on the week-end I’d try to catch up but mostly i worked 6 day weeks and sometime 7 day weeks which didn’t bother me a bit.
Would I rather be working and adding OT or sitting at the house with a choice of shitty tv or watching a monitor and being tired of eye work from all week?
Wished I’d had a friend of the female persuasion 100 miles from the house but alas, it was always someone who zonked out on Sunday since they worked 6 or 7 days a week.
Wish the old lady would get sorta well so I could go back to it. Spending a week-end going to a pit and loading my truck and hauling it to a site and doing it a few times a day was fine with me. I never had to contact anyone doing that, just fill out paperwork that didn’t take but a couple minutes.
If I had to move big dirt moving equipment during the week-end, that was ok too since I didn’t need any oversight.
Hey Nunz,
Oddly, I developed a love of Country music (yes, the real stuff) through punk rock. As a renegade teen in the early 80’s I was highly attracted to that scene. At the time, ponderous, pretentious prog-rock dominated the airwaves and punk rock was a necessary reaction; a return to the roots of rock and roll; short, fast songs celebrating teenage rebelliousness and freedom.
Many bands were pretty awful, but some were very good. I began to notice that many of the bands I liked the most, fused country into their songs. Members of X and the Blasters teamed up to create the Knitters. A lot of people in the scene considered their album, “Poor Little Critter on the Road” to be an ironic parody. I understood it to be a love letter.
Anyway, there is very good new Country out there, just not the mainstream stuff. One of my oldest friends started, and still owns, Bloodshot Records. Weirdly, this label out of Chicago, is the hub of the best Country music today.
Cheers,
Jeremy
Jeremy, I first latched on to alt-country when I was solid old country but into just about every type of music found including all the rock and roll, rockabilly, hard rock, psychedelic rock and every other rock. I listened to everything from old, old country and gospel to blues, blues rock, and everything out there except popular radio music. I have 30 years or so of just now finding some of the decent radio music. I never appreciated the Bee Gee’s till the last decade when I got to like it due to blues singers doing their music and then realizing that minus the disco bs, they had some good songs such as How Do You Mend a Broken Heart. I liked the Al Green version of that and it led me to appreciate these guys writing heartfelt music that was soul in disco clothing(sorta), since it was young, white soul.
I’d vary music from old country to soul and R&B and those other formats of similar music.
Someone said to me one day I was the most eclectic musical person they knew. I told them it was maybe eclectic but so much of country was nothing but “white” soul music.
Anyone who doesn’t appreciate George Jones wouldn’t know soul if it ran over them.
He said I’ll love you till I die. She told him “You’ll forget in time”. As the years went slowly by, she still preyed upon his mind.
He kept some letters by his bed, dated 1962. He had underlined in red, every single “I love you”. Oh I went to see him just today, but I didn’t see no tears, all dressed up to go away, first time I’d seen him smile in years.
He stopped loving her today. They placed a wreath upon his door. And soon they’ll carry him away……he stopped loving her today…
That’s as good as music gets. And to think it wasn’t written till 1980.
Nunz, from what I can glean, Honk was simply something to rhyme with Tonk or Tonquin, most likely a reference to the sound of native Americans yelling as most honky tonks were in Tx., La. and Ok.
And we’ll go Honk a Tonkin pretty mama, we’ll go Honk a Tonkin pretty baby, We’ll go honk a tonkin round this town.
Tonk was slang for the British “bonk” and “honk” was added to define the place more aptly.
Hey Eight,
Hat tip for the Hank Williams reference, IMHO the greatest singer/songwriter of them all. Hank was deeply influenced by black blues musicians, as were all the early great country musicians. Hank used to skip school and hang out with Rufus “Tee Tot” Payne. His sublime fusing of black and white folk music was probably born in this friendship.
Hank Jr. pays tribute to this legacy here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2T8Vya-Znf0
Cheers,
Jeremy
Jeremy, many thanks. I had never heard that.
On the old TV show “Barney Miller” (which along with “Car 54 Where Are You?” are the only cop shows I like), the character Dietrich is called a honky by a young Negro hoodlum. Dietrich responds along the lines that the etymology of “honky” is that blacks in the 1950s invented it due to the nasal, honking quality of white peoples’ voices.
Hey Jason,
Barney Miller is a great show and only a “cop” show in that it is set in a police station. It doesn’t glorify cops as heroes, like most of them do today.
As for the origin of “honky” as a racial slur, there is no definitive answer. It was used by black power leaders in the late 60’s, and popularized by George Jefferson in the 70’s. What is certain is that “honky-tonk” was not originally a racially derogatory term. Sorry, Nunz.
Cheers,
Jeremy
Yes, Barney Miller is one of the greats and you’re right, it basically shows a bunch of regular guys doing their jobs using a style of police work that has unfortunately long gone out of fashion.
Dietrich was portrayed as the intellectual of the crew and generally his statements seemed to be well-researched by the writers. So while not a definitive source by any measure I give it some credence.
By the way, in my opinion one of the best lines delivered by a character on that show was by an Amish man, Caleb Webber, who was mugged while shopping for farm equipment at an expo.
Hilarity ensues since Caleb has no money and will not use a phone or travel in a car or plane. Another man (Gilbert Lesco) is brought in who turns out to have been a former master criminal who had been subject to a lobotomy by State psychiatrists in order to “rehabilitate” him – he is practically a vegetable, barely able to form a cogent sentence.
In the final scene, Barney loans Caleb $20 for the train and Gilbert goes with him to the farm. I found Caleb’s parting comment on youtube (jewtube didn’t have it 🙂 ):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2VOb6WUPPE&feature=youtu.be&t=24m24s
Hey Jason,
Thanks, I’d forgotten that one. Remember when Dietrich exposed the lie detector test as a fraud?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUn5g_DfCCU
His first jab occurs at 4:57, the next comes at 10:24, the final jab, at 22:31, is priceless.
Cheers,
Jeremy
Yes, I remember that one! Dietrich was really a great character, had some really priceless lines.
Another thing is that far from engaging in cop worship, on Barney Miller there were some (notably Lt. Scanlon who we see in the above episode) who were definitely not depicted as “heroes”.
Jeremy, there’s an ol boy named Mick who lamented about a honky tonk gal. It sold a few copies as I recall.
Hey Eight,
Sometimes I long for a gin-soaked bar-room queen, but then I wake up.
Cheers,
Jeremy
Jeremy, I long for her sometimes too…but then I sober up!!
Hey Eight,
Ha! Cheers.
Jeremy, I don’t want to quit either her or drinking. It just happens.
If I knew where she was i’d be on the way.
Jason,
I remember that Dietrich line about honkies! I always loved the Dietrich character (Of course, in real-life, the pigs won’t hire anyone with an IQ above 103…)
I find it hard to watch any cop show…but ya gotta love a show with Steve Landisberg, Ron Glass, and Jack Soo !!! Damn, there’ll never be casting like that again.
I really have to check-out Car 54- as someone once mentioned to me, since I’d love something that would show cars and street scenes from that time period…and with Al Lewis, how can ya go wrong?!
And speaking of Honky…
From All In The Family:
Actress Charlotte Rae, playing a Tupperware lady, while talking to Louise Jefferson:L “…I was the only honky there. ‘Honky’; that’s black for white…”
Hey Nunzio,
Don’t forget Abe Vigoda! For a jew, he played a pretty good wop.
Cheers,
Jeremy
When I was younger I saw Vigoda’s “Fish” character as annoying. Today as an old fart (older than he is depicted as in the show) I relate to him.
Although he was the oldest member of the cast, Abe Vigoda passed away just a few years ago in 2016.
I could always relate to old people when I was young. Always had friends who were elderly- loved listening to their stories and wisdom. (When I was 16, I had a friend who was in his 40’s- a fishing buddy; a friend in his 60’s; some acquaintances in their 70’s and 80’s. Didn’t have much in common with other 16 year-olds!)
Today, ironically, I have no elderly friends.
As George Carlin was want to say “There are no more old people anymore; somebody took them all away and replaced them with all of these senior citizens….
These old people today are different. They universally seem to lack wisdom; they just parrot the current mainstream nonsense.
Most are radically collectivist, and deem themselves and their peers as entitled all sorts of freebies just for having cluttered this earth for x-number of decades.
Not only don’t they have a problem with the general lack of morality in modern culture, they seem to openly embrace it.
It’s like they’re the complete opposite of the old people I knew as a kid.
Morning, Nunz!
As always, it depends. I’ve got a very good friend who functions as my surrogate mother. She’s a smart, fun old broad and I love talking with her. Ironically, she’s a real-deal ex-Hippie, too!
eric, speaking of old hippies, it seems that the crowd that smoked pot mainly and weren’t alcohol only are most of the ones left.
In months I’ll have 7 decades under my large belt….if I make it. I no longer have many friends. They didn’t quit being my friends, they just quit being. I try not to dwell on it.
I’m the baby of the work family now with both my co-workers being 3 years older. Man, are They old aha.
8, I hired someone last week to haul some junk to the dumps (Stuff accumulated in my storage nook after 18 years of living here- cheaper and faster to hire someone, than to make several trips myself, and have to load it and unload it myself).
The guy turned out to be 73 years old. It took us a few hours on a hot day to load all of crap- some of it quite heavy- on his big trailer. I was the one, halfway through, who suggested that we take a break for a few minutes!
The guy was just about out-working me!
And I know what ya mean- I’m only 57, and alrteady, literally 2/3’s of the kids I grew up with are dead already- and for quite some time already- not even having made it to 50. Boys and girls about equally, too. [Feminists rejoice! The Grim Reaper doesn’t discriminate!]
Hey Jason,
I felt the same way about him. Now, much to my chagrin, his world weary attitude seems sensible to me.
Cheers,
Jeremy
Oh! Jeremy, how did I forget Abe Vigoda?!!!! Loved him! I even liked Hal Linden in that- though I never liked him in anything else.
Wops and Jews are interchangeable- one can play the other. Then again, they say there’s as little Jew in every Eye-talian. (With my luck, I probably got Woody Allen!)
Speaking of Abe Vigoda, back in the 90’s when Dana Plato (actress from Diff’rent Strokes) died, these 2 NY shock-jocks were lamenting the fact that she had just been on another radio show just before her death (possibly Stern?)- The jocks were jealous of the publicity the event generated for theiur competitor’s show, so one of them said “Maybe we can get Abe Vigoda to come on the show- He looks like he could go any minute…”!
“Car 54” is hysterical, and was filmed on the streets of the Bronx. It looks like full episodes are available on youtube.
Like “Barney Miller” it engenders an approach to police work that is long gone; not perfect certainly but more akin to peace officers who were in tune with their community.
There are lots of period street scenes and you gotta love those early 1960s Mopar cop cars! Oooh! Oooh!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5MkCAwupe0
(BTW, the 1990s movie “based on” the series was absolutely miserable and unwatchable.)
Then there is a show I found youtube from the 50s. “Highway Patrol”. It looks like a progenitor of cop worship TV. It’s not terrible but you can see what later shows took from it. Also on radio a show called ‘this is your FBI’.
I remember Highway Patrol, it was an extremely low-budget show starring Broderick Crawford who was a handful on the set due to habitual drinking. (He was stopped multiple times for DUI.)
Definitely a cop-worship type show, but unusual for the time as it was filmed mainly outdoors on location so you get to see a lot of 1950s and earlier cars in the California countryside.
About twenty years later Crawford appeared as himself, pulled over on an episode of “CHiPs”.
Hmmmm….I would have thought ‘tonkin’ might refer to the tonka, or ‘tonquin’ or ‘tonkin’ bean. But such places places probably don’t have any connection to that bean; but if they have any connection to a bean, it would likely be to the pinto or navy bean and it’s after-effects……
Que the lyrics to the Rolling Stones ‘Honky-Tonk Women’ (That was one of my favorite songs when I was a kid!)
Nun, these places began back in the middle 19th century, somewhat with the advent of the player piano. Eventually, a guy named Tonk started writing music for those machines. Honk Tonk was probably a need to make a catchy name that was eventually referred to as Honky Tonk, slides off the tongue easier I guess.
It’s kinda like a cat we named KW. His name got changed to Dubby and then Dummy(of which he wasn’t at all). He didn’t care what you called him as long as you doted on him. He became a real “head” since every time I lit a j he would get on my chest facing me and eyes shut. In a bit he’d be drooling.
8, Now if you could only find Doritos-flavored cat food for poor Dummy!
Cat’s certainly aren’t immune to the munchies.
But KW was always a slim, trim kinda guy. His littermate, Freuhauf, was a bad mofo but died of feluke fairly young….dammit. That was back before there was a vaccine for it.
Facebook is like Walmart: Eventually you’re going to end up there. No one really likes Walmart, but they have pretty much everything, and mostly good prices, so that’s where you end up.
Personal web spaces were a nice to have thing back in the day. But they never really took off because of the horror of the blank page. Microsoft and Apple had solutions, but they didn’t take into account a way to let everyone know there was new content, or how to find “friends,” even though neither task is all that difficult. And not every new post needs an entire web page. Facebook was a generic template with a few “what are you doing today” to get started. Facebook can easily be replicated with RSS and a reader app, but again, that would require facing the blank page. Not only that but you’ll need to get mom and your kindergarten teacher cousin to try something that’s not exactly like what they already know.
I’m on Facebook, but I don’t follow anyone I don’t know in real life. I rarely post anything other than the most milquetoast pablum, and never publicly. A few of my friends put up political stuff and unfortunately FB feels it necessary to suggest a bunch of Republican BS “friends,” so I end up with that crap in my timeline, along with the usual ads for stuff I just bought on Amazon. Ultimately if Facebook went away I’d not miss it. But I know many people who would.
Can’t speak for anyone else but I can guarantee you that I will never wind up at Facebook. I don’t go near it for any reason. (I do buy some things at Walmart though. Some items, like motor oil, are just cheaper there than anyplace else.)
RK,
I have a FB account, though I rarely use it anymore. Years ago, I was on it to reconnect with folks from the old neighborhood, which was nice. Then, I found myself wasting entirely too much TIME on there, so I put a stop to it long before Suckerberg became the boy who would be king. These days, I might go on once or twice a month. If FB were to disappear, I wouldn’t miss it, either.
Facebook…Twitter…Google…..I imagine any meeting at these companies to go something like the Haribo commercial:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAnwmmPFYgU
And thumb sucking. You just know Google employees suck their thumbs as they wear their little propeller beanie hats. Diapers are probably part of the norm, too.
Jesus, I can not stomach these companies.