Now we’re trying to figure out what we built.
That’s the story of globalization, it helped business, but too many of the rank and file were left behind, and they’re rebelling around the world.
That’s the story of tech. It was all about entrepreneurs and apps and go, go, go, but now that it’s all solidified, we’re wondering how to run it.
And it turns out Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg are clueless. Did you see in today’s WSJ Facebook wants banks to share data? Oh, there’s exculpatory language, saying it won’t be used for advertising, but if you trust the rich schmoes at Facebook you’re a nitwit. That’s how far we’ve come, we don’t trust tech, oh, we want it to work, but we know there’s a price, we’re the product, we’re sacrificing, nothing is truly free.
And while Jeff Bezos may have revolutionized the “Washington Post” and Tim Cook is concerned about privacy, Facebook and Google are hoovering up information and it seems every week some site is hacked and your info is in the wild. What’s a poor boy to do?
Certainly not play in a rock and roll band, that’s not how you get rich these days, and performers have always had a voice and influence, but they’ve sacrificed that at the altar of bucks, they’re selling pure hedonism to the brain dead, it’s an aspirational lifestyle no different from “To Serve Man” from “The Twilight Zone.” And speaking of the “Twilight Zone,” remember that global warming episode, don’t you feel like you’re living it right now?
So Jonathan Prince at Spotify says he wants to remove bad actors from playlists. He doesn’t say he wants to eliminate them from the service, he just doesn’t want to promote them. And what does the industry say to him?
GO TO HELL!
That’s kind of fascinating, the morally bankrupt in service to cash telling the techies they’re wrong.
But that’s the world we live in, one of no morality, if you can make a buck you’re top-notch and no one wants to sacrifice any income.
But the truth is it’s about message.
And those who’ve truly utilized the new technologies have profited, maybe not in cash, but in influence, and it’s always about influence, if you don’t think so you’re just a drone, a worker bee, you’re abdicating your power. Every time you say we’d better not talk politics, you’re perpetuating the system, which doesn’t seem to be working for anybody but the rich, and isn’t that interesting.
So is it a matter of free speech?
I don’t want to go all legal on you, but there are cases saying you’re able to protest and do other things at the mall because that’s the town square of today, at least yesterday. Are YouTube and Spotify and Instagram and Snapchat and Twitter the town square of now?
That’s a question that has to be decided, and it hasn’t been yet. That’s why who is on the Supreme Court is so damn important.
But one side says these entities, the social media titans, the distributors, are private companies and they get to set the rules. And they just kicked Alex Jones off their systems. Proving that Jonathan Prince and Spotify were innovators, but they were just too early. That’s how it works in tech, timing is everything.
Another thing we’ve learned is no one is bigger than the system, take away their platform and their influence wanes. Bill O’Reilly? Heard from him recently? How about Charlie Rose and the rest of the #MeToo offenders? We’ve decided we don’t want sexual abusers running our public companies and we’ve now decided we don’t want conspiracy theory hate groups spreading their word.
Oh, don’t debate me on this. If you believe in what Alex Jones says, fine. But the truth is, your ability to amplify his fallacious message just got hampered. And sure, it’s a slippery slope, but you don’t know how slippery until you start sliding down it.
And the problem with the news industry is there’s little opinion, other than on TV, which is not really news. The old print giants believe if they just state the facts, they’ll filter through. But these outlets have been demonized and you’re supposed to trust the hoi polloi before the intelligent and educated and therefore there’s a vacuum in leaders, and those who rise to the challenge…
Anybody can have a platform. Anybody can appeal to a niche. But even more amazing, you can spew falsehoods, after all our President, the leader of the supposed free world, does it every damn day, more than once a day.
We live in the era of doublespeak. Automobiles with higher mileage kill drivers. The fires are raging in California because there’s not enough water. When the blowhard in chief is an unreliable narrator is it any wonder that others follow in his wake?
That’s how we got here, it’s been a long plan, coming to fruition for the right right now. The Koch Brothers, the Federalist Society, they’re getting what they wanted, whereas the left wing is full of crybabies pissed their cheese has been moved.
Until the distributors stopped Alex Jones in his tracks.
This is the beginning of the pushback, this is the beginning of the debate. In a county where the populace is so uneducated it cannot hold two opposing thoughts in its brain at the same time.
Life is a conundrum, it’s not linear, there are many choices to be made, and you win or lose and are happy or sad based on the choices you make. But most people are not equipped to make those choices, they’ve got no power of analysis.
Therefore the tech titans have run amok.
But no longer, they’re being watched.
Forget about the stock price, Wall Street is detached from America and many investors are stupid. The FANG companies run our world. But we forgot that they serve us, without customers they’re impotent and broke.
There’s no game without rules.
And we just got some new ones.
Maybe we need a few more.
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