Google, Facebook, Medium, Humanity?

......And so the mask falls off.

When the Cambridge Analytica used a software API to mine for a potential of 50 million accounts from Facebook which was later sold off to various political parties. The public relations bombshell on the social platform may have shocked some.

However, our reaction was not of disgust or shock. But instead of complete indifference. It only confirms what we knew already. That Facebook manipulates its user base in a horrific psychological manner in order to attain a profit. Now you’re getting Ex-CEO’s coming out stating that what they did is horrible trying to apologize to the public. To which the only thing we say to their comments is:

Apology denied!

All that's left is the crying.

After the alligator tears dry up on whatever national news broadcast room you put on a show for. The studio lights turn off and they leave in sports cars. These people are still going to live a comfortable life on the money generated during a glorious "Horrible"  time at Facebook.

We in fact wouldn't even be surprised if the majority of those Ex-CEO’s going on this apology tour still have significant stock in Facebook. Apologies of this magnitude hold no weight on word alone. If these people donated to some organizations who are fighting this or even started up their own social network learning from these terrible mistakes. We would consider the apology as valid. But screw you Ex-CEO's. Denied.

Psychopathy

These CEO's knew exactly what they were doing. That they were exploiting the human desire to feel important. To take the average of the inner narcissist to show people it’s "Their Facebook!" A world of their own internet where all they had to do is press a few mouse-clicks and BLAMMO! Their page is born! The consequence? If you make one single mistake and you are completely ruined! You minus well kill yourself. Unfortunately, suicide is exactly what is happening. Along with depression and a whole world of mental illness afflicting hundreds of thousands of users. So thanks Facebook! A lack of empathy on Facebook's behalf now has many suffering.

Cyber-bullies (Such a stupid name)

In a sense, Facebook is even responsible in part for making the concept of “Cyber-bullying” so unbelievably effective. Of course this existed well before Facebook with IRC’s and UseNet groups. However, nothing to the scope of how Facebook focused it.

If you demand that your real life information be plastered onto the internet for all to see and you screw up. There is no coming back. Because the things you do at this level now actually do effect you in real life. Suddenly that fireworks video fiasco you post online could now cost you a job at a tech firm that you wanted to work at your entire life.

Transparency makes the world honest right guys?..... Right?

To some they think that honesty of your real life information keeps a society honest. That if there is nothing wrong then you have nothing to hide. Right? This intention is damaging as well as costing the lives of so many people.

Guess What? Those criminals that you wanted to unmask online? Those evil cyber-bullies? Outside of the really stupid ones. Those people are still anonymous! Congratulations Facebook you've made things worse for everyone while solving nothing!

We didn't leave the party. We never showed up in the first place.

Cambridge Analytica showed to the world what we’ve known since Facebook was just a startup venture to take on Myspace. Which is to catalog and analyze people. To psychologically fuck with people in order to get that quick buck. Ironically now there’s a campaign going on about people wanting to leave Facebook. It leaves us with asking the question.

If we never joined Facebook in the first place. Does that make us not Luddites anymore but WAAAAY ahead of the curve?

We do remember a point in history where if you didn’t have a Facebook profile people would stare at you like you’re an alien from another planet. You were uncool because you didn’t put out on the world who you really are thus, you are nobody. We’ll continue to build this little blog and we will be here if you need us.

Facebook is not the only one. Hello Google and Twitter!

This of course pairs very nicely with Google which on many accounts has also attempted to invade the privacy people’s homes with products such as the Google Home ciphering through all of the content of your free Gmail server. Even attaching cookies to your browser so in case they run across the occasional site (like ours) that refuses to play nice with Google Webmaster tools. This is okay because they’ll collect those exit/enter cookies when you return to Google.

Because where the hell else are you going to go? Bing? Hah!

Now, Twitter has come out censoring people who have a descending political view that doesn’t fit their companies community standards combined with Facebook’s little public relations bon-fire. There’s now all of these articles on Medium about wanting to be down against centralization. Hash-tagging “#FacebookEvacuation” and rolling Twitter and even Google into this mix. Uh, wait.

Medium.com - YouTube/Twitch for writers.

Words matter. You on the other hand.

We should probably explain what this medium.com site does. Chances are you’ve probably read an article on their site and not even know it. Their site that is the equivalent of YouTube for the writing and blogging community. What’s the big problem you ask? Well, let me have Medium explain who they are to you.

Medium taps into the brains of the world’s most insightful writers, thinkers, and storytellers to bring you the smartest takes on topics that matter. So whatever your interest, you can always find fresh thinking and unique perspectives. - medium.com/about

So, Medium is a centralized aggregate that incentivizes its user base to write for them in the hopes of getting what they call “Claps” which is when one of their subscribers “Claps/Likes” an article a portion of their subscription goes towards the person that wrote the article. I think that's how it works right?

As a member, your $5/moth goes towards funding the authors and publishers who write the member content you enjoy. When you read and engage with a story published for members, your allocating more money for that author or publication, especially when you clap. At the end of the month, we'll divvy up your contributions based on all your reading time, applause, and engagement from that period, and it will directly go to the writers and publishers of that content. - medium.com/upgrade

It isn't just the people that I like getting money? It's also the piece of garbage political commentaries that the user accidentally clicks on which also get money as well. Yay! So hard earned dollars are going to my enemies! Medium is the definition of centralized blogging targeted to destroy sites like ours. After-all how could one site compete with the articles from hundreds of thousands of writers which do this for a living? It’s a little disenfranchising to us however do not worry. We’re aren't going anywhere.

Isn't it ironic?

So now you understand the irony of this. That you have writers running off to Medium to give away their thoughts their identity to “feed the beast” talking about how we’ve made monsters like Facebook and Twitter. We’re not entirely sure of these writers are doing this just to be ironic or simply do this because they have nowhere else to go.

For those two require further validation of why Medium.com is a group of monsters. You simply have to browse a few of your articles before you are met with a page like this. We are coming full circle in the information sharing between Medium, Facebook, and Google. simply share your information with all three networks and we'll be happy to stop nagging you. We'll of course analyze every story you read! But hey! What's a little forfeiture of privacy for freedom right guys?

Attention content creators of medium.com!

To those who think that I’m attacking the writer base who use medium on a personal level please understand that we're not! In fact we very concerned for you and wish we could help you. Your articles should stand on your own websites front and center as many of them are better then what we can only dream of having such skill.  You deserve better than Medium.

Evacuate Facebook movement.

But all of this ranting gets to a statement I see being re-posted are the following.

Lots of talk about #FacebookEvacuation but how can we get away from #Google? What’s the best alternative to Gmail? Google Drive? Google Photos? If you are not paying for it, you're not the customer; you're the product being sold

That ending quote comes from the early 1990’s of the internet. Some could argue that quote is utter bullshit and they wish that people would stop using it. That People pay for cable TV which has targeted ads so despite if you pay for something you still are the product in which you are being sold to someone in the form of advertisement. To which I would have to say to the people that bought cable TV.

You really suck ass at negotiating your entertainment packages! - S

Getting back to the original statement the community asked how they can get away from Google. Well, here’s our answer that you’ve been waiting for:

That’s easy! You just have to re-write how humans operate. That’s all…… Why are you looking at me like that? - S

Humans can get apathetic if it means having to work for something. This is natural for any living creature to take the shortest path to get what they want. Let’s take Gmail for example. There’s plenty of ISP’s out there who would be more than happy to sell you an e-mail box. These ISP’s would give you instructions on how to log in. Most modern phones have an e-mail reading system already built into their OS. So why don’t they?

Well.....

Thanks Shia. Exactly.

JUST DO IT!

IT stuff - Configuration is hard!

Setting up an e-mail requires you to know certain things about your server. Configuration being one of those items. That takes time to do. Why does a human need to remember their server address when they can just jump on the web type in their username and password and be in. Who cares if someone is monitoring their traffic so they can sell them garbage ads right? It’s free! Even when you tell someone that what Gmail is doing is a violation of their individual privacy they’re just stare blankly at you and go “So what?” with their hand in a tub of rocky-road ice cream. So in a sense. Even though the best alternative to Gmail is using actual e-mail with a POP3/SMTP server. It’s not what people want. You generally have to pay for a POP3/SMTP server.

They want another web-service based e-mail that will give them all of the luxury of Gmail but somehow sustain itself on good feelings I guess? It has to be one way or the other. Pay for an E-Mail service or be taken advantage of with ads.

What about Google Drive and Google Pictures?

Well, there’s a software called Owncloud that one could use. This of course requires that you need your own server running 24 hours. Or, that you purchase a virtual private server or cloud server online. AND some configuration assembly which is required which you guessed it. "Requires work!"

Replacing google search.

Unfortunately, there is no real open source search engine anymore. Open directory project was an aging and eventually dead platform allowing places like google to promote or demote whoever the hell they feel like without any checksum. Every other search engine like Bing, Yahoo, and Yandex will operate the same way. They will give you a free service and in return they will track your every move to sell off your individuality to the highest bidder. There is people such as duckduckgo which is a noble cause but like its predecessor "scroogle" we’re not sure how long they will be able to last. Even if you go the route of using TOR google places up roadblocks to those who completely deny the search engine any information. Making it hard to use search engines as quickly and efficiently as just using Firefox or Chrome.

Sort of ironic that Google sets up a slow lane for the TOR community while being so anti-net-neutrality. The hypocrisy train just keeps rolling along with these guys.

Final thoughts.

The road to internet self-sufficiency is hard. Since you are the one who is in control; it is ultimately up to you to configure your servers, your phones, and your computers to make them do what they want. That’s going to involve a lot of reading of how to do certain tasks.

You're going to have to go through a lot of code you download to make sure it doesn't leak out to another server. Even then you will have to partner up with people and companies such as a web-provider, or a federated de-centralized community. At this stage, you can’t even let your guard down.

Do your research, work with a friend in the business if possible. You’re going to make a few mistakes along the way as we did. But you’ll eventually find a partner that shares similar beliefs in privacy as you do. There is going to be situations such as promotion where you’re going to be stuck dealing with these giant providers. In which case the only thing you could do is take a cue from the writers of the medium. Feed the beasts like Twitter and Facebook things that will poison it.

Make people walk away from their platform by coming to yours.

These are the thoughts of one lowly self-hosted independent blogger to you. We thank you for reading our little rant and hope that independence is the path to better mental health now only for you the creator. But for the internet as a whole.

Until then, that is what server has to say.

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