Talking pewp is where I draw the line
Published: Wed, 12/11/19
I already was 3/4 out the door due to Facebook whoring out private info.
And, also, because of its hivemind, "borg-like" nature infecting even otherwise intelligent people.
Not to mention it being a time-suck, even for those like me not on there very often.
But when I saw the Facebook hive mind in all its glorious action to such a silly degree with the Kermit meme, I figured it was high time to move on, lest I become like one of them.
In this case?
Merely questioning that sacred Kermit the frog meme — and in jest at that - set a bunch of people off, including a couple of my other cousins, one of who was particularly worked up over it, with some kind of bizarre hangup on the subject to the point I expect to see him in a hazmat suit at the next family reunion.
Getting some of these blokes worked up was mildly amusing and fun.
Especially since I was sitting in an airport bored on a long layover, anyway.
But, what was not amusing was seeing otherwise intelligent people — my own kin! — not being able to communicate without parroting the hive mind so precisely. It was like they were all reading from the same script word-for-word. Complete with the usual social media intellectually dishonest butchering of logic, showing an embarrassing inability to follow a subject and an object, and constantly moving the goal posts & getting off point to try to make another point to cover up the fact they really had no point in the first place. Not to mention resorting to having to make arguments with irrelevant hive mind generated memes, all topped off with a chest-pounding magnificent lecture about how “correlation doesn’t equal causation!” while linking to a newspaper article that didn’t even have a single source cited, and that was pure, not-even-trying-to-hide-the-fact, propaganda.
And those were just the more amusing highlights I remember.
Frankly, I didn’t even care enough about the subject to have an opinion. I simply asked a question about a Kermit meme.
The result:
You’d think I burned an effigy to their deity.
Actually, in some ways, I think I did…
Anyway, that's when I had a Cartman (from South Park) moment when he saw the absurdity of the existence of Mr. Hanky the talking turd, and threw in the towel:
“Alright that does it.
Screw you guys, I’m going home.
Talking poo is where I draw the line.”
And so it is with Facebook especially.
Because at the end of the day, with all the virtue signaling, hive mind parroting, speech & thought policing, incessant de-platforming, privacy plundering, and news manipulating… not to mention the way it is designed (which it’s co-creator fully admitted) to have all kinds of negative effects on peoples’ brains & hormones… Facebook is nothing if not the digital equivalent of talking poo…
“But Ben! I only use it for business! This doesn’t apply to me!”
Doesn’t it, Pookie?
Maybe it doesn’t for you.
At least, not yet.
But, here’s a real life example from “Email Players” subscriber Jonathan Twombly of why relying on Facebook — or any social media platform — is a recipe for frustration at best, and outright going out of business at worst:
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Your emails have been a great encouragement. I am very dependent on FB for leads and warming up people who won’t join my email list. But you’ve planted the seed in my mind.
And it’s not just about de-platforming. FB is so effed up for normal business people like us.
They recently shut down a ton of ads manager accounts, to “review” them, including that of the guy who runs my ads. That means that all his clients are shut down.
They worked around it by opening a new account. But they had to recreate everyone’s ads. That means started all the tweaking from zero. And all the hundreds of positive social proof comments accumulated on my ads - all gone.
It really sucks. I hate FB and am looking for ways to get off it. I’m working on some options…Working on getting the ads and the groups off FB as well. But that will take more time.
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I daresay it will be time well spent, too.
Especially since there are far more reliable ways to build lists than with social media.
All of which were used by people way before social media.
Whatever the case, whether you stubbornly SPURN your King & Taskmaster elBenbo on this or not, if you want to sell with email and not rely on social media, check out my “Email Players” newsletter here:
http://www.EmailPlayers.com
Ben Settle