Facebook M.I.B.?

Written years ago.

THERE's been a number of posts that I read in the last few days saying their FB accounts have been “locked out” or demobilized, some posts deleted. If this is really happening, so be it. This is essentially a free media venue or an “open” public/universal forum. We should realize that someone is in-charge of “keeping the house” via standards that they are trying to instill, probably. It's their house. Meantime, I do recognize the good things that Facebook and social media offer. One huge advantage/benefit of FB (Twitter etc) is the presence of a flowing exchange of thoughts and publication of work and info-sharing that were not as easy and accessible before. 

       Old school media was a specialized profession--which means, a byline is earned by way of a news story that was gathered out there and was deliberated by a board of editors before publication. An eagle-eyed scrutiny of articles. Once a faulty report comes out, the newspaper runs the risk of a libel case and/or the ruin of a journalist's career. It'd be hard to find another writing job again if a report was proven to be fabricated, distorted or made up. 

       The major disadvantage of social media-fed news is—there is no way to edit or filter all these infos and “facts.” One survey says this, the other study debunks it. Videos are staged, visuals are photoshopped. Anyone can blog as a so-called sexologist, psychologist, or some “expert.” In fact, “legit” news on Yahoo are actually based on click frequency and “trending” behavior and not because it is news, per se. 

       One needs to figure things out if a news item is a sponsored advertisement, a political campaign fodder, an opinionated take on some issue, or actually the traditional/conventional 4 Ws and 1 H of journalism. Worse, the freewheeling and nonchalant way how people converse or argue in social media equals the way drunks and stoned individuals banter. There seems to be no way to put a break on these—especially on this season of election/s. An obvious derogatory meme or an apparent bogus data come out so fast and shared quickly globally that there's no way to control it. 📱💻📲

LET’s go back to our eWonderment. Are some FB accounts really been “locked out” or demobilized, and some posts deleted? Could be or maybe it's true. Yet I don't see it as “censorship.” I struggled with that at the height of my long journalism career back home. Yet I don't think this is censorship—it is a simple case of “Let's put some breaks a bit.” There's been a lot of obvious false and misleading/destructive infos pertaining to elections (here in the US and in the Philippines) and the people involved as candidates that I read in the past few months. And the way how people talk? Damn, it's like a damned nasty relationship fight or bar-room brawl. Cuss words, curses of all kinds. 

       Thing is, we always howl about the right to free speech. I get that loud and clear. But free speech doesn't say mouths and language running berserk. The words “rude” and “abusive” and “judgmental” that we so love to accuse or caution people about are splattered all over Facebook like that's actually how humans talk? 

       I don't want to overthink the “lock out” or demobilized accounts and deleted posts. Facebook is still a free venue to one and all. Yes, it isn't actually free because we pay for internet connects, but you know what I'm saying. I try my best to post what I deem as alright—within and around the boundary of rational chat and light fun—for my kids and schoolchildren, Christians and Pagans and Muslims, Republicans and Democrats and Communists, and Americans and Filipinos and Koreans and Kenyans to enjoy. When you think about it without overthinking, it's a no brainer. 📱💻📲

Religion and Stuff.

Response/s to Facebook discussion.

I AM not a religious person but I have always been in/around religious people. My family, my culture (Catholic). The American white family that I live with pray a Christian prayer before each meal. I worked with mostly religious people (Christians, Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, Shinto) as volunteer in calamity areas in Asia for many years in my past. 

       I am an Ananda Marga initiate, apprenticed for a Theravada Buddhist monk, my political ideology could be communism/socialism based on Confucianism as "religious" paradigm, dated a (Gardnerian) Wiccan for years, the lead singer in my rock band was Muslim who wore the burqa and prayed before shows, in high school I kind of preached The Bible (or “The Way,” a 1939 book on Catholic spirituality by Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer, and so on and so forth. 

       In essence, my point: I don't see the sense in so many anti religion (mostly anti Christian) jokes, insult, heckles etc in social media in America, which is majority Christian. America, being the world's self-anointed model of anything good, peaceful, sweet, correct and cool. Humanity is never immaculate/pure and that imperfection is (also) brought up by religious diversity and cultural differences. But there are ways to unite people given these divergences and "unparallel" ways. 

       We pursue the good in human interfaces because it is fun to do so. I experience/d those in real life long before the internet or social media was born. In fact, many pagans and animists and atheists and indigenous tribes melded beliefs with traditional faiths like Christianity, Islam, Taoism etc. They coexist.    

       I try to laugh when a joke that objectifies, appropriates or shames religion Christianity is told. But I couldn't because that'd mean demeaning the other person although he/she isn't there. 

       But I laugh a lot over silly stuff. I laugh like I am old, grownup, and a "child" by heart. I was raised not to make fun of the man in a turban, the woman dressed in a robe and veil, and the dude reading a Bible or praying on a mat on sundown. But I laughed a lot when The Three Stooges and Dolphy (Filipino comic) came on TV then. Primal cool. Easy and effortless to do so. ✝️☯️☮️

Photo credit: Learn Religions.

Political Ramblings from Years Ago.

SOME post-2016 election posts (or notes). Copy-pasted from my Facebook Page. I didn't update or edit these entries from the original posts. My apologies. I (re)post my past words so I could also restudy my progression per how I view life and living from then to now. I cannot say how I formulated my insight years ago, or even last year, is totally the same as how I think right now. No. We evolve.   

DID presidential candidates “play” the voting public? I believe the word isn't “played.” Maybe as Jeff Beck (the guitarist, not the other Beck) said, politicians “lie.” They lied because they knew it'd be easier to lie than to sell facts—facts that will be against them. Elections are about winning—whatever it takes. And in American elections, always a very few percentage show up. Lowest was the 46 percent in the Clinton/Dole race in 1996. This last one was the second-lowest. So candidates are actually talking to a “few” captured audience—that is why catchphrases and sloganeering worked. Like rahrah in a ball game. Trump promised these, Sanders promised these—cakes from polar extremes. 

       Yet the story behind it all is—OIL. 

       Saudi Arabia is slowly but surely losing clout with America and West. SA-led OPEC countries have been threatening to cut oil output as Russia and non-OPEC members battle them for pricing. Two weeks ago, OPEC agreed to reduce its own production by 1.2 million barrels a day. This developed following Russia's previous announcement that it had already announced plans to cut output by 300,000 barrels a day next year, down from a 30-year high last month of 11.2 million barrels a day. Mexico also pledged to cut 100,000 barrels, Azerbaijan by 35,000 barrels and Oman by 40,000 barrels. The US' main oil imports come from Canada, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. 

       Russia and SA are the world's top #2 crude oil producing countries; the US accounts for nearly 20 percent of the world's total oil consumption per day. 

       There is no such thing as making America great again. It is just a matter of handing over the baton to the next leader who can negotiate better with oil giants. All the Mexico talk is bull. Mexico is still the US' #3 trade partner and it's a next-door neighbor plus a huge population that is an economic force than illegal nuisances. Russia could be the #2 exporter of oil to the US which will make the Kochs happier since they could deregulate pricing et al by virtue of Russia's entry to WTO in 2012. And China despite Trump's anti-China rhetoric is still the China whose crap clogs US retail and has been lending money to all corners of the world, especially to giants like Brazil and Venezuela and yes, Russia. 

       Trade balance, military spending (while Pyongyang continues to bait Washington to keep on spending on military hardware), pharmaceutical 1 percent's machinations in Afghanistan and Myanmar/Indonesia (Asean) via George Soros etc. The Assange leaks were obvious—yet it could sway elections. But don't people know that it's all Russia while the dude lives in an Ecuadorian embassy? Ecuador and China have lotsa investment deals. Trump is dealing cards, not running a country based on new policies that should go beyond stone age protectionism. 

       What has been done so far—Carrier and the Mexico transfer and appointment of environmental czars who make folly of climate change. Is that making America great again? It's the same scribblings on the white board. But well, these win elections especially that candidates are talking to only half of the populace. ✍🙃😉

ONE very effective campaign game changer that worked for Trump was the WikiLeaks Hillary email fiasco. Julian Assange is a genius—a genius hacking xxxxxxx harlequin. Right on time, right on target. He knew that a huge throng of Democrats (mostly Sanders believers) will easily bite his candy—they did. I know of a number of Democrats who switched to either Trump or Johnson or decided not to vote at all after the email leaks came out on crunch time. 

       I believe that jacked up Trump votes easily. After the fact, I am more interested to observe how Washington deals with Kremlin/Russia than question or protest Trump's victory. He won, period. ✍🙃😉

WHEN it comes down to it, it is fine that followers of two political polar extremes stay glued to their belief—as long as the crack isn't so wide so that compromise and negotiation are still possible. I believe that it is much better than when people are seemingly bunched on just one side. That'd eventually allow dictatorship or autocracy—even if at the get go one-person governance commands majority allegiance.   

       Those who will oppose him/her become rebels whether we define them as Right or Left. Yet as in the nature of humankind, I don't believe all of us will agree as one—although universal good and evil seem to tread a parallel balance like black and white. We are not like that. We are either half-weirdo or a bit saintly. Many times the insane becomes cool and mutate into a rock star--and the sane turns out boring and never get a date. Humans are that unpredictable and contradictory. So Trump voters and Hillary believers, it's okay to argue—as long as somewhere somehow you'd all line-dance to the Bee Gees' “Night Fever” on syncopated cadence. ✍🙃😉