There is no more normal

The COVID-19 news is sounding a bit more positive lately, at least in my area. And so there is a lot of conversation about going back to normal, going back to business as usual. I do try to act normal in my daily life, as much as I can. Being normal has always been a “fake it till you make it” effort for me, anyway. I can present an persona that functions as people expect. I can sympathize with the desire for a calm, predictable, dependable world, and even share it.

However I don’t feel anything like normal, if “normal” presumes a certain level of trust in the social structure and authorities around me. There is less I feel I can take for granted every day. I wake up and go to sleep with an inner and outer watchfulness. I watch others. I watch myself, listening to my own words and actions and wondering, How truthful are you?  Other than the general aim for truthfulness, I don’t always know exactly what I am watching for. Patterns in the underbrush I suppose, movement in the shadows. I go to bed exhausted most nights.

This article by Matt Taibbi does a good job of pulling together many of the stories I have been following the past few months with an increasing sense of uneasiness. It’s been 6 months since my break from Face.book and I’m not at all sorry. There are a few groups and people I miss, because they manage to be positive social ecosystems within the larger negative complex. But investing time in local, personal relationships has had far better results for the time and effort put in. When I want to step outside my parochial worldview, carefully choosing where on the internet I put my attention is far better educationally. I have read more books this year than in any of the previous 5 (and quite possibly cumulatively).  I do a pretty good job of keeping up with podcasts too (though there is always more than I have time for). There is of course the risk of getting into an echo chamber, but all the people I listen to are curious and/or educated people and there is my own extremely high openness to experience, which acts as a counterbalance I think.

I am open, but I also like to know where the boundaries are. There is a line in Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series that I really like. She is talking about being a leader, or maybe about being a man, I forget which. (Doesn’t matter anyway; I have a well integrated masculine side.) It goes something like: “What it really means to be a leader is to draw a line in the sand, and to fight anyone that steps over it.”

2021 is about drawing my lines in the sand. I may put them in the wrong place sometimes; I may be ignorant of many things and make mistakes. I am not interested in convincing anyone of how right I am because I am rarely convinced of that myself. But the lines need to be drawn so I have some way of understanding what is going on when information and/or its suppression is used like a weapon. I have to understand clearly what is real and important to me when propaganda and gaslighting is the order of the day. I have to know who I stand with and what I will and won’t tolerate being done to them. 

I wasn’t sure what to call this post. “There is no more normal” is maybe a bit of an extreme statement. I have calm happy days. I continue (I hope and believe) to be a positive influence. I think what I really mean is: “There is no more normal I take for granted.” In so far as normal exists for me now, it is created through my daily actions, reactions, and sense making. So I do hope I have the strength and the skill to continue to make that happen.

A (mostly) sophisticated F-off out of my life to corporate social media

A friend made me this graphic to share on my now mostly inactive face.book feed. I didn’t want to just drop it there without considering what I am doing so I did some reading and thinking.

About this graphic:

I didn’t personally create it, but I did discuss it with the creator and the content is based on observations we both made over time and carefully considered.

Why did I share this statement? Because I find it impossible now to ignore the arbitrary censorship of conversation and accounts on Face.book. (Other big corporate social media is also involved, but I do not have direct personal experience with it.) For example, this happened recently in a discussion group: I made a flippant, but harmless comment about Americans on a thread. A friend of mine responded jokingly by saying “damned Canadians lol.” His comment was removed because it “violated community standards of hate speech.” I could laugh such things off if I hadn’t a) just witnessed an organized and vicious harassment campaign against someone in my life where almost no reported comments were removed and b) it wasn’t part a larger pattern of censorship against groups and individuals, and of accounts being closed without explanation or reason. See for example the cases of Brett Weinstein and Jim Rutt, both of whom were later reinstated because they were able to leverage influence. The fourth paragraph of the graphic is an exact quote of the message they received when their accounts were removed.

If you think this can’t happen to you because it only happens to “those people” and you are any combination of political in the approved way, apolitical, too nice, harmless, expert at the correct signalling, blah blah blah, I’m afraid you are very wrong and you will observe that for yourself before long.** I hope it isn’t too horrifying when it does happen. We are living in an time where capricious malice can be used against anyone for any reason. Ask me how I know if it isn’t obvious to you already.

The argument often follows that Face.book etc are private corporations and allowed as such to make their own rules about who is on them and what they can say. I reject this argument.  Social media are deeply integrated in the lives of millions and are an integral part of how people get their news, run their businesses, and connect with family, friends and associates. The platforms are essential for many in our contemporary world. They should not be ruled arbitrarily and opaquely in the interests of the few. Furthermore, there is evidence that Face.book has deliberately tried to eliminate competition thus removing choice from those who would exercise it. 

John Locke: his second treatise is available in many places online and highly recommended. Basically, it is an argument / exegesis about why sovereignty should be given to all humanity not a select few or one, and why we should be ruled by laws not by the whims of those with power, or those who are convinced they should have it. Feminists should recognize one of their own as he argues for chapters and chapters against The Patriarchy, although it is the first time I have seen an actual source cited for the existence of such a thing. Heh. This is what I want from the internet. I want to meet people, alive, dead, of any background or history,  who expand my knowledge and interests. I do not want to be radicalized by slogans and propaganda, either for or against your pet cause/delusion of the moment. I do not want to become the monster I have seen and can’t unsee.

My reasons for being on social media were to connect with people in a friendly, good faith manner and explore ideas and knowledge I might not otherwise encounter in my life. I can no longer meet this goal on Face.book. I would be the first to argue for the power of the individual, to believe that my choices in how I speak and conduct my affairs can have positive influence. Unfortunately, on Face.book at least, there is now too much evidence against this argument. Too many people who are striving for the best have run a foul of the machine, and the best I can hope for is to be harmless and not yet noticed by our faceless overlords. That is not good enough for me.

Face.book does not meet my community standards.*

* as a corporation. Many individuals and groups on Facebook still engage with each other in good faith. This is not a personal vendetta against anyone with a face and a name.  I remain on social media in a greatly reduced manner for the moment so that I may still follow some people and groups that are positive social ecosystems despite existing in a larger negative system. However, my interaction will be minimal.

** Here is something I would ask you to think about, regardless of the degree to which you agree with me, which is actually not particularly important at all (bring away from social media helps give you perspective on the trivial and shallow nature of most of the opinions and disagreements that go on. Try it for yourself.)

Think about this: With regards to censorship / deplatforming/mobbing, How far is too far, in your view? Perhaps you are ok right now with the level of censorship that big social media companies and trolls are engaging in. Perhaps you think the targets deserved it. Fine. Here is my question: at what point would you say that censorship and deplatforming goes too far? Imagine a public figure or better, a person close to you being attacked/slandered. Would that be too far? Why or why not?

It is important to know where you draw the line because if you don’t, the line will keep moving and you won’t notice it. So think about that. (don’t tell me, I don’t need to know, but know for yourself.)

Update: I think the discussion in this article is relevant to this post, and probably, this whole blog...

https://quillette.com/2021/02/16/the-narrative-and-its-discontents/

Also this

https://areomagazine.com/2021/02/16/why-we-should-all-quit-social-media/