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This is probably this blog's final post of 2020. I've refrained from posting for most of the past few months, and, though I feel no obligation to maintain momentum, it has been because I've had both too little and too much to say. Too much to comment upon; too little benefit to be gained from doing so. I've not been doing much music during this period, as I have been mainly making short films, although I do have a lot of ideas, all the time, and am stir-frying lyrics in my brain pan.
There is also the matter of what's worth doing, or not, anymore. It's one thing to be aware of the need for a change in artistic direction, but there comes a protracted moment when the energy expended by the effort is of questionable value. Although I've experienced and surmounted this before, it's always as daunting to do so, despite past examples of victorious breakthroughs. Exercising the intention of preparing for such, I've been updating my music-making software and sorting-out my sample libraries. It's something to do; it reminds me of what I should be doing.
I quit Instagram, the only social-media account that I had maintained – aside from a Fecebook account into which I log, via a VPN, which I had begrudgingly established because someone had been impersonating me on that platform. (I do a perfectly good job of that, thank you.) Getting locked out of two photo accounts for posting mask-litter should have a definitive red flag, but IG's new TOS are just too much for me to acquiesce to.
Aside from that yes, IG can now use your photos in advertisements, without your permission and without compensating you, there were other reasons why I quit. I had foolishly noted the changes in their TOS as for "later, when I have time to devote to it," but the day before I quit, I'd noticed that the app was triangulating my location when it notified me that "an unidentified iPhone" had logged-in to my account. I had not granted the app permission, and I have Location Services turned off on my iPhone. Since the app was arrogating the discernment of my location, I decided that I should have read the changes to the TOS, which had gone into effect a few days before.
What I found was that, by using the app, I was consenting to IG's coming in to my house, eating all my food, shitting on the rug, and fucking my dog. First, it's sharing everything with Fecebook. It's logging mouse movements, and the the OS, device ID, applications installed on your device, file names and extensions, and other activity, including windows in the background. It's also gathering whatever info it can about other devices on the network and in proximity to yours. (All this includes computers, not just smartphones.) Then it's monitoring your content (on and off the app) to assess it for threats to personal and public safety, however that might be interpreted. Basically, handing it all over to Thinkpol for assessment.
Over the past six months, while reading the Comments sections of “stimulus update” videos on various YouTube channels, I’ve watched America catch-up with what I’ve been seeing since last Spring:
- that “this virus” was created as a pretext to destabilize our society and circumvent the constraints that the Constitution places upon authoritarian takeover;
- that “they’re all in on this;” that it’s not that they don’t care about is, but that they view us as livestock;
- that rendering us desperate and dependent not only preps us for stringent authoritarian rule, it renders us powerless against them;
- that independent businesses are being intentionally bankrupted by this, so that conglomerates can absorb their markets and better control what products are available to the public;
- that mask-wearing, closure of facilities and businesses, and “social distancing” not only prevents us from candidly conversing without metrics and monitoring, it creates a demoralized and depersonalized dysphoria among us;
- that the “mandates” and “guidelines” are not laws, and cannot be legally enforced as such, but that we stupidly earn our status as livestock by complying with them, enforcing them by shaming others into doing so;
- that if “this virus” were really so terrible, statistics of deaths “from” it wouldn’t have to be conflated with deaths “with” it, nor with deaths of people who may have been “exposed to” it within 60 days of death;
- that neither should deaths by pneumonia and influenza be counted as deaths by “this virus;”
- that the increase in number of “cases” is the result of more testing for “this virus,” and likely due to a preponderance of false-positive results;
- that if masks and distancing really worked, “this virus” would be under control.
It is imperative for everyone to swim against the current of what the Mainstream Media, the Government, and other such entities tell us to think, feel and do – and to connect with one another in real life. Remember that? There had used to be no other option than; life was unquestionably real. Now we argue over versions of reality, while They control this-and-that "narrative." That word itself smacks of an origin in some think-tank where memetic engineers had discussed how to confuse and control us. There is no "narrative" to reality. By taking a "side," you're marginalized from reality. It's so much more complex than a false dialectic, now – black-or-white thinking has been superseded by imperceptibly-scaled shades of gray.
