I tried to run an ad on Facebook on Monday for a historical book that I helped publish. I did an ad for it two Saturdays ago and Facebook accepted it, but they rejected the second ad as being too controversial. Why I have no idea, as it really isn’t much different than the first ad, but they did it. I actually got a giant warning from Facebook on one of my pages when I linked to a video about the Capitol mayhem back in January. The warning was issued, because USA Today filed a complaint with Facebook against me as a “fact checker” based on that one post on my page where all I did was link to a video on Youtube. So, in other words a giant corporate news organization is a “fact checker” on Facebook that got them to flag one of my pages and now its downgraded and doesn’t show up in Facebook news feeds as much as it used to do. Are they just working to beat down competitors by making accusations against them as “fake news?”
On google giant corporate search results displace little guys like me and this has been going on Youtube for years. This is all a part of the current meme of “cancel culture” that is causing people to become really stressed out about the future of the internet and some of them to make the understandable mistake of embracing a victim pathology.
The talk now is that Parler is going to come back. Apple is going to put them back on their store and someone suggested to me that I should get on there and post and get a following.
I’m not going to do it.
For me, Parler is no different than Facebook or Twitter. I don’t see it as a “free speech” or a “free” place at all. I don’t spend a lot of effort on Facebook or Twitter. I just post a link to the posts on my website in the morning and that’s it. I don’t try to build a following on there and am not going to go to Parler and try to do it there either.
The reality is if you are a a content creator like me and spend a lot of time on these social media platforms what you are really doing is working FOR THEM and FOR FREE. They pay you nothing and then you put yourself at the mercy of them and they can make future changes that degrade your reach. In fact, that’s been the story of all of them and there is no reason the same thing can’t happen with Parler.
Parler is not a place to free yourself from other social media networks as it is only another one – and it’s controlled by the Mercer family. They are the ones behind the Cambridge Analytica scandal that broke a few years ago, as being major money controllers behind it, and I do not trust them and never will put myself at their mercy. From what I can tell, it appears they view the internet as an instrument to control people psychologically by using social media memes to make them feel stressed out and bad and then redirect that negative energy into places that they want. I want nothing to do with that. What I want is people to feel confident about their trading to hopefully get them in a winning direction. This is why I am not a person that obsesses over stock manipulation – it’s a meme that beats people down into a negative trading mindset that can quickly turn into an excuse to lose.
And so I will NEVER be on Parler as its a negativity trap.
NEVER!
The reality is I am not scared of cancel culture or these type of issues, because the solution to them for me is very simple. It is to own your own platform. For me, that’s my website and email list.
When I build them I am building something I own and not working for free for someone else. I will not be a Mercer slave no more than I want to be a Facebook one.
Notice, when I do Youtube videos I always tell people at the start to join my email list. That’s so that if one day I lose my Youtube account it won’t matter as people will still be hearing from me from my own email list that is my own property. I own it and don’t share the information people give to be on it with anyone.
So, these are my thoughts on this issue of the day and how I am dealing with it. It would be my advice if you are looking to get a presence of your own on the internet or start an online business. Actually, there is a long-time subscriber of mine that wrote an entire book on this topic. It’s called Unassailable: Protect Yourself from Deplatform Attacks, Cancel Culture & other Online Disasters. Mark just launched a new crypto/Blockchain investing service called The Crypo Capitalist Letter. If you are interested check it out here.
I rarely write things about these culture issues, but just felt like I wanted to get that off my chest and hope it helps someone out there dealing with these issues. There is no reason to be scared of “cancel culture” or the giant corporate combinations silencing you if you just build your own platform and assets and that’s what you should be doing anyway. Do not make yourself an online slave to Facebook, Twitter, or the Mercers. In my view all three of these things are social media parasites designed to profit by taking the attention and energy of those on them. Parler is not an instrument of liberation from the power of the giant online conglomerations, only you can do that yourself by working on your own thing.
-Mike
