Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh has kept a relatively low-profile since the Senate narrowly confirmed him last year amidst serious allegations of sexual assault. That will change tonight when Kavanaugh is the keynote speaker at the annual convention for The Federalist Society, an enormously powerful right-wing legal organization.
Thank you for the excellent reporting, Judd. You just reported on two of the most dangerous threats to American society and democracy and I don't know how either will be curtailed. Assuming the best and Warren (or another Dem) is elected and pursues a break up of Facebook, as you pointed out, Mark Z's allies are there to save him and in failing to break up facebook they will basically annihilate antitrust law, allowing corporate interests to dig an even deeper foothold on the country.
And then, of course there's Facebook itself. It has marketed itself in a way Big Tobacco or Purdue Pharma would envy, securing more addicts in all likelihood than cigarettes and opioids combine and IMO, much more dangerous since tobacco and opioids harm the body but Facebook seeks to control minds. I recall a study group I was a part of a few years ago and one of our objectives was self-discipline. We were to abstain from something we felt hampered our productivity for the 6 weeks of the study. One woman decided to abstain from Facebook and over the 6-weeks she voiced how hard it was for her to stay away, even while admitting that she had much more time to accomplish productive tasks. At the end of the 6 weeks, she was ready to happily dive back into her addiction. Every single day it seems, someone asks me to friend them on Facebook or like their page and I'm met with astonishment when I say I don't use Facebook nor do I intend to.
Aside from everything that Judd has uncovered, Facebook is a vile, dangerous place. I used to have a Facebook account and left the first time because of an obsessed stalker who began contacting everyone on my friend list and spreading lies about me. The person was local and I was able to file harrassment charges and secured a no contact order. I left FB for 3 years after that and then decided to try it again. During the year and a half return, I attracted another stalker, who managed to get a great deal of personal information, but I had little recourse since the person wasn't local. Fortunately he finally gave up. But there was another who tried to lure me to sexting with him and when I turned him down, launched a visible character attack against me in groups that we were members of. Then, finally the last straw was a woman in an advocacy group that I founded that corresponds to my blog. When the woman found she couldn't control me, or my content, she too launched a baseless public assault against my character, and even hired a private investigator to try to catch me in some misdeed. I tend to be a boring person so about all she found to use was that I was a spendthrift since I bought some clothes, and some wise cracks about my flower garden.
People seem to travel in packs on Facebook ready absorb anyone who will embrace them and to attack any outsider who either disagrees or fails to comply with whatever it is the lead bully wants. And because of Judd's excellent reporting it's easy to see why. They've been indoctrinated to attack and are reinforced because their actions create the chain reaction shares that Facebook algorhthms reward.
The question is, "how do you stop it?" and I haven't a clue.
Like others, I was encouraged a few weeks ago to finally delete my FB account for good (in both senses) by your coverage -- thank you for your clarity and your focus. You are an antidote to the collective media ADD.
Thank you for the excellent reporting, Judd. You just reported on two of the most dangerous threats to American society and democracy and I don't know how either will be curtailed. Assuming the best and Warren (or another Dem) is elected and pursues a break up of Facebook, as you pointed out, Mark Z's allies are there to save him and in failing to break up facebook they will basically annihilate antitrust law, allowing corporate interests to dig an even deeper foothold on the country.
And then, of course there's Facebook itself. It has marketed itself in a way Big Tobacco or Purdue Pharma would envy, securing more addicts in all likelihood than cigarettes and opioids combine and IMO, much more dangerous since tobacco and opioids harm the body but Facebook seeks to control minds. I recall a study group I was a part of a few years ago and one of our objectives was self-discipline. We were to abstain from something we felt hampered our productivity for the 6 weeks of the study. One woman decided to abstain from Facebook and over the 6-weeks she voiced how hard it was for her to stay away, even while admitting that she had much more time to accomplish productive tasks. At the end of the 6 weeks, she was ready to happily dive back into her addiction. Every single day it seems, someone asks me to friend them on Facebook or like their page and I'm met with astonishment when I say I don't use Facebook nor do I intend to.
Aside from everything that Judd has uncovered, Facebook is a vile, dangerous place. I used to have a Facebook account and left the first time because of an obsessed stalker who began contacting everyone on my friend list and spreading lies about me. The person was local and I was able to file harrassment charges and secured a no contact order. I left FB for 3 years after that and then decided to try it again. During the year and a half return, I attracted another stalker, who managed to get a great deal of personal information, but I had little recourse since the person wasn't local. Fortunately he finally gave up. But there was another who tried to lure me to sexting with him and when I turned him down, launched a visible character attack against me in groups that we were members of. Then, finally the last straw was a woman in an advocacy group that I founded that corresponds to my blog. When the woman found she couldn't control me, or my content, she too launched a baseless public assault against my character, and even hired a private investigator to try to catch me in some misdeed. I tend to be a boring person so about all she found to use was that I was a spendthrift since I bought some clothes, and some wise cracks about my flower garden.
People seem to travel in packs on Facebook ready absorb anyone who will embrace them and to attack any outsider who either disagrees or fails to comply with whatever it is the lead bully wants. And because of Judd's excellent reporting it's easy to see why. They've been indoctrinated to attack and are reinforced because their actions create the chain reaction shares that Facebook algorhthms reward.
The question is, "how do you stop it?" and I haven't a clue.
Like others, I was encouraged a few weeks ago to finally delete my FB account for good (in both senses) by your coverage -- thank you for your clarity and your focus. You are an antidote to the collective media ADD.
Facebook has become the “Faux News” of social media.