Facebook Litter [Social Media]

        The other day a friend expressed their exasperation over all the litter that’s posted on facebook. I think I know what they mean. Here lately I’ll scroll through a dozen posts before seeing a post where a person is actually communicating. There’s also an endless stream of memes with false information being shared. I’ll see a post “informing” me about something and know immediately that it’s false and has usually been debunked countless times before because I’ve already checked up on it. Usually the veracity of a post can be checked in less than a minute. A lot of the time it doesn’t even take 30 seconds. I could spend most of my time on facebook pointing out false or useless information and false equivalencies that people are sharing. Then there’s the never ending stream of Click Bait.

       What do I mean by litter? I’ve already provided some examples above but here are some more. EXAMPLES: News feeds are full of them. See this sad-eyed child. Click to show that you love them. This horribly scarred veteran needs to know that you care. Click and share this post. If you love Jesus you’ll share this post. If you don’t you’re with the devil. Picture of a sad puppy. I’ll bet that I won’t even get one share. I support our nation! Click and share! They’re coming for your guns! Click and share! Are you old enough to remember this? Click and share! Do you know what this is? It’s a can opener! Click and share! What’s the answer to this riddle? If you know—click and share! And with each click and share we give the data cruncher’s vacuum a little more information about ourselves and our personal lives.

        What do I mean by useless information? I’ll see a post telling me to watch out for a particular individual in regards to a child abduction. A quick Less Than 30 second (LT30) check shows me that the missing child is in Australia. Since I’m in the United States there really isn’t a whole lot that my sharing this point will accomplish. The exception of course would be if I had a lot of friends living in Australia.

        What are false equivalencies? These things are posted all day long; usually they’re about hot button items like LGBT rights, gun control, religion, etc. Here’s an example: saying that a baker refusing to make a cake for a gay couple’s wedding is the same thing as a Muslim-owned restaurant refusing to serve bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches. This is a false equivalence because the bakery offers the service of baking wedding cakes to the public. The Muslim-owned restaurant has no duty to have bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches on their menu. Another example of false equivalence comes from Trump’s Twitter feed, in which he accuses Hillary Clinton of colluding with the Democratic Party to beat Bernie Sanders for the nomination (as opposed to his collusion with the Russians). Oh, and guns: “cars kill more people per year than guns, so let’s ban cars.”

        Then there’s click bait. OMG so much click bait.  Click Bait is often a LT30 check. It’s possible to just hover the cursor over the originator of a post to see who is sending it. For instance there’ll be a picture of a sad puppy with a caption like “I’ll bet I won’t even get one share”. I’ll move the cursor over the originator of the post and see that it’s a radio station. What they’re trying to do is boost their traffic stats. The ones that really tighten my jaw is when they use pictures of veterans, children, cancer patients, etc. to boost traffic to their home page. In other words there isn’t any information going to the person portrayed. One LT30 click can tell you if it’s legit.

        How about boycotts? A post went through about a hotel chain awhile back telling people to avoid doing business with them because of a policy they had. The information was years old, had already been addressed by the business and all the parties were satisfied. But the meme keeps circulating. This one is also an LT30 check. The ones that are more difficult to check are toxic posts about someone being, or some small business doing, something despicable or things of this nature. Often they’re just people with grudges trying to hurt someone. I will read someone saying that they shared something because “better safe than sorry”. Okay let’s say someone accuses you of being a thief and starts posting that people should watch their stuff around you. Would you want that spread around or would you want people to check? This kind of junk is just harmful gossip. (BTW Christians aren’t supposed to gossip.)

        Political memes and news is a little more difficult to check. It takes effort. Sometimes a lot of effort. The main problem on this front is that people want to believe bad things about the opposition even if reality doesn’t support their position. People will share falsehoods simply because they don’t like something or someone. I’ll use Hillary Clinton as the best example of a person who has endured decades of falsehoods. One conspiracy theory and false accusation after another were hurled her way. I spent years tracking all the stuff down. Nothing to them. I would point out to people that what they shared as gospel simply wasn’t true and then provide the source showing that it was a lie. The answer that I would get back was well it’s kinda’ true and they would share it anyway. In other words they shared a lie because that confirmed their belief that she was a “bad person” and since she is a bad person it is okay to lie about her. I don’t like President Trump but I won’t knowingly share incorrect information about him.

        People say they want unbiased news but they won’t accept the reality of what is being reported by what I’m going to call mainstream media. For instance I don’t like what is being reported about President Trump’s sex life any more than I liked what was reported about President Clintons. But there you are. Their sex lives may have absolutely nothing to do what how they conduct their business as President. But here we are again. Unfortunately it is news whether we like it or not. It’s going to be reported. When you go to a story and the site claims they’re news media, at least check their posts and see if they do anything besides post memes! A lot of these “people” are just troll factories.

        So if you’re unsure what to believe come back to normal. Check the major media outlets. They do get stuff wrong occasionally but they usually correct their mistakes when they’re pointed out. Yes, they have bias from left to right but what they’re reporting is true. The actual event is there. How they report it may differ. The hyperbole of words around the event or item is what’s different. In other words the Trump Administration has had an unprecedented turnover in Presidential appointments. The last I checked he’s had like a 40% turnover in staff. How is it portrayed? The AP would be more likely to give you just the straight facts and leave it at that. MSNBC in all probability will additionally tell you that that’s the highest of any President, whereas Fox News might not cover it at all.

        Who do I use?  In not any particular order I use these news outlets:  AP, Reuters, Axois, ABC, BBC, CBS, NBC (Not to be confused with MSNBC), Time, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, NPR, New York Times, Bloomberg, Politico, CNN. There are a couple that I get a kick out of like MSNBC and The Economist. They’re still fair in their reporting.

        Politifact, Snopes and Factcheck are all good sources to check. If they don’t have the answer then you can go to Mediabias. They will only check something out if the others don’t have it. You can also go to Mediabias to find out how your news source is ranked from left to right or anywhere in between. Keep in mind that extremist groups along with the Russians will pump out information saying that these fact-checking sites are biased and false. If you choose to go along with that assessment then you are indeed lost. Seriously, if Infowars is any source of news for you, you will absolutely believe anything.

        I have biases. I tend to lean certain ways about various topics. I believe that if one recognizes their biases they’re better able to maintain objectivity. If you’re passing stuff without thinking critically, you need to at least understand that’s what you’re being manipulated to do. Our prejudices should not get in the way of the truth. Just because it resonates with you and reinforces your opinions, doesn’t mean it’s true. If things are going to get better in our nation we all need to be more honest about our actions.

        Facebook is starting to go the way of email. 90% of email traffic on the internet is spam. At this point we don’t see most of the junk. It’s filtered out. Only all the junk on facebook isn’t being filtered out and it’s increasing. It is like writing graffiti on walls. This is why we can’t have anything nice. Too many people are willing to corrupt it for too many reasons.

        So, if you believe in the First Amendment, click and share this (copy and paste the url) with all of your friends!

       

Constitutional Slaughter [GUN CONTROL]

More Guns!

        The NRA has mutated a long way from its 1871 origins to now serving as a surrogate for weapons manufacturers under the guise of protecting a second amendment that was never under attack any more than praying in school has been. They created a threat that didn’t exist and then built a base to support the agenda of militarizing a civilian population to protect us from immigrants, criminals, terrorists, crazy people, gangs, media and last but certainly not least our own government. Without fail whenever guns are in the news negatively their argument is that what is needed is more guns.

        Yes, government is in the above list. Why? Because a fear often expressed in defense of having military weapons in the hands of civilians is that we will lose our Constitutional Second Amendment rights and that our guns will be taken away! Who would do that exactly? Who would come for our weapons? Ah yes, the Government! More specifically our soldiers or federal police. The NRA and pro-police Neo-Republicans champion having arms for us to use against our own soldiers (Government) and police. This is their ultimate fear and their rallying cry. The government, a.k.a. our friends, neighbors, police, fellow citizens and family members that are serving will be coming for our guns. 

Be ready to shoot them when they do.

 

        Up front. I am not going to take up arms so that I can shoot at our own soldiers and police. They aren’t a threat. They aren’t coming for my guns and I choose not to live in the weird paranoid ultra-conservative neo/Nazi/Confederate/White Supremacist world where they are.

 

Save the guns!

        Whenever there is a slaughter of children there follows a national demand for action even though such deaths are a small percentage of gun deaths overall. The NRA immediately hits the streets with propaganda explaining how any laws limiting weapons are wrong and advocating fixing everything BUT weapons. Weapons are innocent bystanders! The arguments are usually kicked off with “they’re after our second amendment rights!” Followed by misdirection and deflection. Our culture of violence is blamed. Video games are blamed. Parents are blamed. Our educational system is blamed. The authorities are blamed. The kids themselves are blamed. Not enforcing the laws we have is blamed. (That last one is truly ridiculous given the NRA has worked on a national scale to eliminate laws pertaining to weapons and advocates getting weapons in the hands of as many people as possible.) They’re a large part of the reason why we have citizens walking the streets with long guns.

        One of the most effective memes that I have seen circulated had a phrase that truly encapsulates the entire argument. “Let us take a moment to honor the sacrifice of our brave schoolchildren who lay down their lives to protect our right to bear arms.” There is NO constitutional right to slaughter and/or endanger our fellow citizens. The Constitution provides for the rule of law. Regulating fire arms is a part of that law.

Body Count

        I’m not going to waste a lot of time here with statistics. Here’s what I believe is most relevant to the ongoing problem of how do we dig ourselves out of the mess that we’ve created. Between 1984 and 1994 there were 19 incidents involving 6 or more people dying resulting in 155 deaths. Military style weapons were banned from 1994 until 2004. During this time there were 12 incidents resulting in 89 deaths. In 2004 the assault weapons ban was allowed to expire. Between 2004 and 2014 there were 34 incidents resulting in 302 deaths.

        Now in the scheme of things the above number of deaths isn’t really that big a number when separated out from all the other gun deaths. Mass shootings grab our attention though and make us acutely aware of the problem that we as a nation face—the proliferation of arms. So the NRA makes dead children an irrelevant statistic in the grand scheme of how many people die annually. Well, they aren’t irrelevant. They shouldn’t be marginalized because enough of them aren’t dying yet. 

 

Hardened America

        When we have actual firefights taking place in the streets, movie theaters, night clubs, schools and churches, the NRA will have succeeded in attaining their goal of market saturation. Some might say that we’re there already. Not quite. In a firefight all sides will be throwing lead. Then when maximum carnage is taking place the NRA can declare a victory and will be the quintessential arms dealer lobbyist for having supplied all the combatants.

        Our Republic as envisioned by the NRA and Neo-Republicans will be an armed camp with a militarized civilian population, militarized police force, militarized educational system, militarized government with hardened schools, theaters and just really anyplace that provides for a concentration of people. We’ll be going through metal detectors everywhere. Those that can afford it will live in hardened homes or protected enclaves; armed guards everywhere. Corporations and the ultra-rich will be like warlords and have mini armies protecting them. What a beautiful paranoid world they envision for us to live in.

 

Gun's rights

        OR we could as a nation begin taking things in another direction and start electing people who aren’t opposed to passing legislation to commence de-militarizing the nation. It’s going to take decades to build a peaceful society but it can be done and is worth pursuing.

        We need to stop passing legislation to protect the rights of guns as if they are somehow innocent bystander victims in all of this and put people first. There’s nothing wrong with regulating inanimate objects. Realistically it’s going to take years of concentrated efforts in multiple areas to turn things around. In the meantime we’ll wait for the next body count to make the news.

 

Hunting people

        We need to elect people that believe fully automatic weapons in general aren’t necessary to our civilian population. Military styled weapons need to go. High capacity magazines need to go. Open carry needs to go. Permitted conceal carry that requires training should be encouraged. People may want AR15s to hunt but they really don’t need AR15s to hunt. If people are afraid of their government then elect people to office that aren’t fanatics. The above are just a few suggestions and not in the least nor meant to be comprehensive. As a nation we need to stop electing dithering politicians and elect those that will be serious about arms control and willing to do something.

        I think that it’s only appropriate to finish this with words from a survivor of a school shooting. The link below is to an essay from Emma González in Teen Vogue. Her closing words in a video presentation at the same link. “Why are we doing this? 

Because it’s about damn time someone did.”

 

 https://www.teenvogue.com/story/emma-gonzalez-parkland-gun-control-cover

Self-analysis [Sexual Coercion]

        The “Me too” movement just opened up the floodgates of the sexual harassment that has been taking place in this country. Decades of pain and rage boiled over. As a generalization too many men have gotten away with things for far too long in regards to how women are treated. It’s an issue that isn’t going away and we’ll be addressing it for the foreseeable future. Women have been emboldened to speak out. Women are calling out our culture; a culture that objectifies women. The backlash was way overdue. The pervasive cultural acceptance of subjugating women to verbal and physical harassment is coming to a close not with a whimper but a thunderous crash.

        The news is full of these stories. Each new day seems to bring us another or several names to be added to the list of offenders. There have been some surprises. There will be more. Finally we’ll get down to talking about the everyday harassment that occurs across the board. There will be false claims made. There always are. But the majority of complaints of sexual harassment will be truthful.

        This made me think, though, that we have quite a few issues going on at the same time that have all got wrapped up in the “Me Too” movement including cause and effect. I must admit up front that writing this from my perspective as a man this topic is intimidating. Women are understandably ready to pounce upon anyone questioning any part of the movement. But if we’re to start a dialog there’s going to have to be some back and forth and men are going to have to be involved in the conversation. The initial fallback position to the possible validity of a question or statement is that the remarks were insensitive. In other words someone, be it man or woman, raises or makes a good point but gets castigated anyway for being insensitive.

        What I mean by the above is that in order to show the prevalence of sexual harassment all the different types of harassment and crimes like sexual assault were rolled up together as being qualifiers for saying “Me Too.” Getting pinched on the butt, being catcalled, groped, along with rape were justification for saying “Me too!”  What some of us are saying is that sexual catcalls are not equivalent to being raped or men victimizing underage females. There are huge differences between sexual harassment and sexual assault.

        I overheard a conversation the other day where a man complimented a woman and then hoped that wasn’t sexual harassment. There was laughter. It was, after all, just a compliment. I said to another guy perhaps all the men in the country should just apologize now and get it over with. (It wasn’t funny then either.) The guy said “not me.” (As in he had nothing to apologize for because he had never done anything wrong in his interactions with the opposite sex.) I quipped “that you know of.” I said that because how we perceive our actions is not necessarily how others perceive them. For instance, I often think that I’m a lot funnier than other people think I am. 

        Once a friend got really angry with me for answering a question with a story. But our history is what makes us—us! Our history is all the little stories of our life. We learn from our history. Sometimes we apply what we learn in a good way but we can also apply our life lessons in a bad way. Men with power learn what they can get away with as do women. It’s more often men because our nation is top heavy with male leadership.

         One of the questions that I had early on in regards to the entertainment industry is why so many women who were in positions of power and wealth didn’t say and do something about the rampant sexual harassment and assault that was going on. We’re talking well respected multimillionaire women also powerful in their own right doing nothing for decades. I heard these industry stories when I was a kid. Is Ivanka the only one that’s complicit? I believe that it needs to be acknowledged at least that men weren’t the only ones enabling and looking the other way. I’ve heard women say the same things that men say about someone getting a part or promotion by getting on their back. Not once in my life have I ever heard a story of a man getting ahead by being on his back or on top.

         Now I understand that women get real testy about this issue. The argument is that if women step forward they can lose their job and future or worse. It has also been pointed out that a confessed assaulter of women got elected President is an example of how bad things are. If that’s true then does it stand to reason that if the “Me Too” movement had started earlier he might not have been elected President given the number of resignations and firings that are currently taking place? Or is it just as arguable that his history and getting elected helped trigger the “Me Too” movement?

         What I do know is that it’s important to deal with where we are and where we go from here. Otherwise all that will take place is that the guilty will ride the storm out and all this will become yesterdays’ news. President Trump will just keep waiting for it to blow over and continue to support men like himself. His wife and daughter know what he is. He’s a man that told another man on a nationally syndicated show that it was okay to refer to his daughter as a “piece of ass”. His daughter Ivanka laughs about his sexual comments to her, about her and in front of her. What kind of man says things like that about his own daughter? Well, in this country the kind of man that gets elected President by a whole lot of conservative women voting for him.

        Our society often rewards men who victimize women. Roman Polanski is a pedophile. He kept making movies and people kept going to them. Woody Allen married his daughter. He kept making movies. People kept being in them. One young woman came forward with a story that she was made to stand naked for pictures by another WOMAN in order to teach her a lesson. Several previous Presidents were womanizers and are still venerated. As mentioned above one just got elected President. This after confessing to a history of sexual assault. Roy Moore lost but it was razor thin. The fact that it was a close election alone is an indictment of our culture and all the women that voted for him knowing that he was (probably) guilty. Misogyny REWARDED.

        So where do we start? Seriously. Where? We now have a culture in such a state that actions are being taken against people based upon accusations. The accusation alone even if unfounded is enough to finish off a career.

        Rape is a crime of violence. I want to say right here that I believe no means no. Period. If a prostitute has already taken the money and then says no, no means no. If a wife says no, no means no. That’s simple, or at least it should be. But a woman being raped isn’t equivalent to a woman being verbally abused by a catcall. (Although there are degrees of verbal and emotional abuse.) As I write this I know that there are people that would disagree as in “He raped me with his eyes!”

        Children are a no. Adults can’t give a yes (permission) on their behalf either. Far too many adults have a grey area here. No applies to kids, period. There is no grey area. There is no discussion. There are no religious grounds. Children are ALWAYS a NO. Those adults that believe otherwise should immediately register as sex offender wanna-bes.

        Before I retired I worked in an aerospace factory. Let’s just say that my language was a lot more coarse back then. One day I had walked over to another area to talk with a support person who happened to be a woman about a technical problem that we were having. It was a very short conversation. I was walking back to my area when that little personal alert warning system we have went off. It’s that little system that we have that tells us something yet undefined is amiss; just not right.

        In my mind I went over the conversation that I had just had. I realized that there was a comment because of the language I used that I made that could be taken two ways. One was about work. The other way was, let’s say suggestive. I thought “nah” but you know what I’m going to go back and make sure. I walked back to her and said, “You know I just realized that I said something to you that could have been taken the wrong way. Here’s what I meant.” I explained in better detail using better language what I meant. Then, and this is a key point, I apologized. Guess what? Yep, she had indeed taken it the wrong way and was getting ready to call personnel. She accepted my assurance of benign intention and apology. I had worked with this woman for years and never been out of line. At least that was my thinking at the time. I had considered us to be friends or at least friendly. Based on her reaction, I might have been wrong about that.

        Once I had a woman turn me in to management for saying “good morning” to her. I wish I were making that one up. I know what some of you might be thinking but that was all. Just good morning. I said good morning to a lot of people back then. She was evidently not a morning person. Life may not have been kind to her.

        Women did in fact have to put up with a lot in the factory. Probably still do. The times improved a lot even during my decades working in factories. Holidays were horrible. Drinking was a lot more pervasive during the early days and after lunch. Especially before Christmas holiday, some managers would descend to the shop floor and hit on the women. That went away. People learned to be more discreet with their behavior.

        I would like to think that the image I have of myself and actions are accurate but as I reflect back on my life I realize that others probably didn’t have the same opinion. Some may have been predisposed or inclined to think of me otherwise. Just the vulgar language that I used then in their presence would have been enough in their minds to qualify some women for the “Me Too” movement.

        I tend to hug people. Usually I think that I have a good enough read of people to know if it’s okay. Mind you I don’t usually hug strangers. But I can remember saying to my wife that you know so and so got pretty stiff when I hugged her. I think it made her uncomfortable. Then I would try and remember not to hug that person any more. (BTW I hug guys too and call either sex hon. I know.) Now I wonder, did I just make them uncomfortable or would they now claim that I had sexually harassed them in the past. As in “He forcefully grabbed me and pulled me against him unwillingly. I was helpless against his strength. He had my arms against my sides. MY breasts were pressed against his chest. He did this in front of people. I was so humiliated and too embarrassed to say anything. It seemed like it went on forever.” A hug doesn’t sound too good written like that does it?

        Probably not a good time to mention that I’ll kiss women on the cheek as well. Generally that’s an easier one to spot because a woman will offer her cheek. Now, I have actually told women friends to offer me their cheek a time or two especially when it was obvious that our paths weren’t likely to cross again. “Offer me your cheek, hon. I’m outta’ here.” I can practically guarantee that there are those that popped a cork at the “Now I have actually TOLD (emphasis added) women…” because I didn’t offer them a choice.  In other words I could have said, “Would you mind if I kissed you on the cheek since we aren’t likely to see each other again and you have been a good friend.”

        It used to be okay to call women ma’am and open doors for them too. If a woman was younger Miss was okay. For a while there Ms was real popular. Using Miss and their first name was also okay. I think that was more regional though. I have been chastised in all instances of using the aforementioned salutations. Once I had a waitress tell me off for calling her ma’am. I think that these things are more along the line of being called sexist though. I just bring it up because we often find ourselves in awkward situations because of our upbringing.  

        As men I think that we have to do a better job of policing ourselves. I obviously have to be more aware of who I’m hugging and kissing. These are dangerous times. I am very thankful that I am not dating. That brings up a whole other host of issues when it comes to the dance and conquest of the sexes. I just added “conquest” to see who made it this far. If you stuck it out until here you are a hardy soul.

        One thing that I do know is that the conversation needs to continue and that the struggle will be ongoing even after it drifts out of the news cycle. There are just so many things that need to be fixed. The weight on our culture is holding us back and we need to start lightening the load. It would be nice if we could break the cycle of taking a step back after taking a couple forward.

        The reality is that women were and are being victimized to a level that became intolerable. Change is being called for on a national scale. Social change is not without risk and comes at a cost. There have been and will be more casualties. There will be innocent people hurt. Regardless, men need to speak out in our everyday lives. We need to acknowledge what has taken place for far too long. We need stand behind, beside, with and when necessary in front of our wives, daughters, nieces, mothers and really just anyone that is being victimized because of their color, sex or gender. We also need to stop rewarding the behavior of those who diminish humanity. That’s the way forward.