Day 11: Remembering Aaron Schwartz, should we forgive Zuck, and what kind of censorship did you face? Here’s my story…
Get this… I posted a reel on FB and used a song from their library–Jesus Jones’ “Right Here Right Now”–on a post about a blockchain conference that took place in the Free State of New Hampshire this past weekend…
This morning, after I shared it to an FSP group last night, I notice the privacy setting had changed to “locked”–my posts are generally public–so I went to investigate…
My post now has a copyright ding from Warner Music on it… BUT, if you want to submit a dispute, the SUBMIT BUTTON DOESN’T WORK…
When you factor in I literally told my husband last week that this will be the next way corporatists censor speech (I used to do IP law in Silicon Valley, mind you), I don’t know what to think…
Is it a simple issue, like I have used that song on a reel before (I have)? If so, WHY DOESN’T THE DISPUTE BUTTON WORK?
Is it something more nefarious? When you consider how many times in how many ways I have been censored on social media, I’m pretty sure this is a newfangled lawfare approach to censor speech…. Note how looks like the song is OK almost everywhere, but not in the USA?
When Facebook started the practice of providing the music I thought, Huh, wouldn’t it be interesting if they use copyright infringement claims to take down dissident content in the future… I don’t know for sure that this is where we are, but something is mos def sus…
The Free State Blockchain Digital Asset Conference was amazing. More details to come!
This week, Manch Talk is in the new studio and bugs are still being sorted. We cover the moves towards more secretive government and censorship, with Carla uncovering some startling revelations from Grok on X, including “#FreeAssange” being banned.
I will upload the Grok screen grabs here later.
I was banned on Twitter/X for almost 6 months. I was never given a reason why. Whenever I appealed, I ended up in an infinite automatic loop of non-responses leading nowhere. I shudder to think of our futures in the hands of these inane auto-loops. If you think classical muzak on long-hold calls is bad, consider it an angelic symphony compared to stock email answers from a bot.
Last week, when my credit card was again charged for my Blue Check ($8) and Elon Musk subscription ($4) (which I merely took in support of the proof of concept for the subscription model and can hardly afford to be handing money to a billionaire, but m’kay), I decided I was going to get stroppy.
By which I mean, I was going to stop half-arsing my frustration, and take concrete action: reach out to tech contacts who might know people in X Legal; line up folks at Institute of Justice and F.I.R.E.; send one final appeal request.
In response to the receipt I received, I sent an email complaint back. Then suddenly things started to move and within an hour, I was restored, my 20,000 past Tweets came back, and then a bit later, my followers.
Friends and colleagues cheered my return. I’m pretty chuffed too. Follow me now.
But what did I learn during my six-month exile?
The urgency of the news cycle is fake. When you don’t know what’s cooking every second, you… eventually… don’t care AND… it… doesn’t actually matter? That you can, and likely, should, take a break. I’m not even sure I want to be back. I may be cured. I like having my attention span back. While in exile: I wrote more; I read more long form; I listened to more music. I’m going to protect these gains and protect my mind, because those who control your attention, control your mind. Mind your mind, because it matters.
I try and roll with the punches… so I haven’t complained much about getting banned from X after PorcFest…
But now that I’m trying to finalize a project before the end of the year, and have come to discover THEY’VE LITERALLY ERASED MY ENTIRE PRESENCE FROM TWITTER, I’m fucking pissed.
For a while, even though I couldn’t post anymore, you were still able to find my content, and you could still search my 20,000+ posts.
TWENTY THOUSAND IDEAS OVER 10+ YEARS THAT I PUT OUT IN THE UNIVERSE, ERASED.
ONE HUNDRED sequenced “My Life in Balance” post-its, sorted and ready to be compiled into a book, ERASED.
The history of erasing history is a “tyranny tell” that those of us who study history understand the historical significance of. By which I mean, as a self-respecting dissident: FUCK THIS SHIT.
Yes, I know I shouldn’t place trust in Big Tech and Big Bro. Together, they’re the worst bullies on the playground. But when you get pushed out of the playground entirely, things start to take a different bent.
This year, as you can see, my Halloween costume was Street Fighter CHUN-LI, the strongest woman in the world. This wasn’t an accidental choice. This was me manifesting the notion, if I can’t spread my ideas online, I will take them to the streets.
To the enemies of liberty: Be careful what you wish for.
What is the status of my X “case”–shall we call it my “X-File”?
* Every appeal has been dismissed without a reason being cited, and after my last complaint, they erased me down the memory-hole.
* X is still charging me for my Blue Check and Elon Musk subscription. Big mistake: I am literally a paying customer being denied service. This gives me strong standing and is going to be part of my First Amendment case to get reinstated.
* I am also going to approach FIRE and the Institute of Justice to see whether these organizations will help me. (If you’re reading this and have other suggestions, please DM me, thanks!)
* Many of you know I have been trying to get Elon’s attention about the Free State Project for years now. Guess the cosmos is telling me to sue his ass?
My frustration is heartfelt. I am sitting here writing in bed, fuming so hard, Louis can see smoke: “THIS ISN’T FAIR”!!! lol
But then I remind myself, Rome was not dismantled in a day, and I find gratitude in the fact that I have orchestrated a life where I know thousands of people in meatspace too, and that I can make a difference on the ground in New Hampshire because, ultimately, THIS is THE value proposition of the Free State: concentrating freedom fighters in one geographic area… IRL.
Finally, I am reminded, as you know, my secret middle name is PERSEVERANCE: I am unstoppable, and I’m coming for you, Big Bro.
When a car hits a human, one would naturally assume the human was the one in peril, but rest assured, according to this po-po press release, our first concern is, of course, for the “police officer operating the cruiser” who “did not sustain any apparent injuries” (because, you know, he was in a fortified metal box). Sadly, the meat popsicle he hit did not fair as well.
Also, when YOU’RE in an accident, they sure like to put your name in the paper, but no worries, cops are special and above the law, so the identities are being “withheld.”
How can we do better?
1. Drop the passive language
2. Always name all players
3. Report the facts the same whether it’s a cop or not
Bastiat famously states in THE LAW: “If the natural tendencies of mankind are so bad that it is not safe to permit people to be free, how is it that the tendencies of these organizers are always good? Do not the legislators and their appointed agents also belong to the human race? Or do they believe that they themselves are made of a finer clay than the rest of mankind?”
Do those who “serve” us think they’re of “finer clay”?
I was listening to a Twitter Spaces recently where the speakers were lamenting about how bad the online censorship has been, and how little the Common Man understands this. During that talk, a panelist claimed that the hashtag “TRUMP2024” was suppressed on Twitter in… 2019!
2019… The same year Adam Schiffty-Schiff banned antivax documentaries from streaming platforms, wut???
During the same talk, it was mentioned that the Wayback Machine, a nonprofit organization my husband and I have regularly donated to, now allows you to edit the past post, thereby rendering it useless! I haven’t been able to independently confirm this, so if you have the scoop, let me know.
A real danger is that online dictionaries are now susceptible to manipulation real-time as well, as we saw during Covidmania when the plain meaning of words were changed to support Regime propaganda. See e.g. “Vaccine” (removed references to “natural immunity”) or “Pandemic” (changed to remove “causing severe illness”) or “Antivaxxer” (added anyone who is against mandates).
This means that unless you have independent KNOWLEDGE of something, the Internet is no longer your friend. Proceed with caution.
Everyone read this: Congress is Set to Expose What May be the Largest Censorship System in U.S. History by Jonathan Turley.
Congressional hearings started on Twitter Files. It’s BS, but you can take a look HERE.
I’m of the opinion that the word CONSPIRACY THEORY has been so overused by the enemies of individual liberty that it is close to being meaningless.
Guess time will tell, but I’m batting very strong on being right so far.
Desperate people overplay their hands, and the Regime is desperate to stay in power. Words like “domestic terrorist,” “conspiracy theory,” “conspiracy theorist” will continue to be deployed while also losing more and more impact over time.
If everyone is a “conspiracy theorist,” is anyone?
Look at the Google Trends pic below, taken over a 5 year period. One must wonder what psyops was deployed in March 2020, eh? Be interesting to track the news against the peaks there. Maybe a project for another day…
One of the things I love about social media is how it captures our memories! I also believe this feature is contributing to rising censorship. It’s a lot harder to lie to people when we can juxtapose clips side by side over the years, and show the falsehoods, hysteria, lies and hypocrisy for what it is: A sham and scam. For example: climate change claims stemming from the 1970s that still haven’t materialized.
FOLLOW ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram.
Below, we have a Facebook memory from 6 years ago. If you want to learn more about the voices in my head, and how I healed myself, start HERE.
How aware are YOU of your own self-talk? Have you identified the voices in your head? Friends or foes? For me, identifying, and learning to disregard the meanies in my head, was a massive step towards restoring my mental balance. If you suffer from stress, anxiety, negative self-talk, or other mental issues, you can HEAL. But it starts with making YOURSELF YOUR NUMBER ONE PRIORITY, and regrouping from head-to-toe: your habits, your diet, your family, your friends, your exercise and self-care routines. If you want to get better, here’s the first thing to internalize: Be selfish. It’s okay, in fact, it’s the best thing you can do for yourself, and society at-large.
Yep, I said it: BEING SELFISH should be your #1 goal!
Next, we have a classic meme from 2012: The Philosoraptor! Here he is asking a valid question about marijuana prohibition. How people tolerate the illegality of a plant they want to consume is beyond me! How can Nature be illegal? Surely the people who deem it so are evil? Only Control Freaks, the most evil of evil people (those who think they own others or “know better”), would come up with a plan that legalizes alcohol, A NEUROTOXIN that rots your brain, and ban something for which you have receptors in your body. Philosoraptor gave me plenty of shareable memes over the years, and I even made a few myself. One of mine I can remember? “230 Million in Democide? Worth the Roads?”
I’m giving them hell on Twitter, even if no one can see! I was so shadow-banned, I don’t even show up on the lists of being shadow-banned, but then there was that one glorious week after Elon took over where my engagement went up 150% and I got 1,000+ new followers, then I said Fauci should hang, got suspended for a week, and now, well, it’s a slog again…
ICYMI, the storm in the teacup for the past 2 weeks was banning gas stoves. I posted the pic below on my Insta A DAY BEFORE JOE ROGAN. Ahem.
Finally, a bonus memory from 13 years ago, because then and always, and even now, in my Fifties, I will forever make unicorn jokes!
