Today I am thankful for realizing that I am not alone.
There is a frustrating feeling that one gets when trying to educate lawmakers about the reality of the world in which we live.
I saw this feeling expressed by Mark Zuckerberg during that charade of a Congressional hearing he took part in this week.
Zuckerberg looks a mixture of angry and frustrated. I know that face. That's the face where I am stifling laughter so hard that it looks like I'm going to cry.
That's my political face.
My background is in social science and psychology. Imagine how irritating it is trying to explain that city policy is based on the concept of a traditional nuclear family (mom, dad, kids - people tied together by blood or legal policy). As such, there are laws on the books that break up other types of families (more complex family systems of economic cooperation). Trying to explain that there are people who share economic resources without blood and marital ties who are being torn apart by local housing policy is incredibly frustrating. I am commonly met with blank looks and phrases such as 'I don't get it' by idiots who are paid with our tax dollars.
The idiot who was the most vocal about his inability to understand was one that I spoke incredibly highly of after his department ruined my family with their shenanigans. Now....I'm seeing why they were so daft.
Or maybe he's simply paying me back for the time I recorded him with an obnoxious boom mike....yeah...it's a long story.
I don't know. Maybe I need to bring my microphones to the city building from now on for inspiration....yeah....inspiration.
Next time, I'll bring construction paper and crayons. Perhaps that will help with the explanations.
I don't know if I should even broach the fact that city policy is based upon prejudice against people of certain races and sexual orientations. Any city policy that does only defines a family based on marriage was put in place to prevent live-in couplings between people of the same sex or different races.
Now that such marriages are legal, the laws disproportionally impact disabled people sharing resources.
I mean....only one family can live in a house. Households are only allowed one other unrelated adult. If they take in disabled close friend of the family....say old "uncle" Joe and his common-law wife Mary....well....guess who the city is going to evict?
Yep...one of the disabled couple.
Maybe I need to draw it out. Perhaps I'm making it too complicated. This is a very basic idea in social science. It's difficult for me to comprehend that someone doesn't get it.
Perhaps the best thing to do is drape myself in the Gadsden flag* and tell the government to back off and let people live the lives they want to live. At least I'm polite enough to try to educate them.
You don't know how many people I meet who have been in this situation and evicted by the government from their own homes because the government has a backwards definition of "family." I'm seeing it more and more now that my eyes have been opened to the problem.
A family shouldn't be based on blood or legal ties alone. It should be based on economic ties.
I'm sorry.
I don't mean to digress, let's get back on track.
Time is money and if lawmakers are going to waste a CEO's time - the least they could do is educate themselves on how the internet works.
He had to answer the most ridiculous questions.
They have no clue what they're doing.
Oh my.....
My daughter joked that Zuckerberg probably had to set up the internet for the chamber while he was there.
We all have different skill sets. I felt bad for Zuckerberg having to try to explain basic business strategies to elected officials.
Now....
if I understand correctly, the Cambridge Analytica scandal was due to a rogue app that collected data on people who used it.
I was not impacted by the breach and neither were any of my political friends because we don't take the silly little polls and quizzes on the site.
My take on these sham hearings are two fold:
1.) It would seem to me that some politicians would love to get their hands on specific profiles for political advantage.
2.) Zuckerberg may think he wants to regulate platforms, such as Facebook, to give him a marketplace advantage.
On the first point, well.....we have a responsibility only to share what we are comfortable going out into the real world. If it's on Facebook, we probably put it there.
Of course, there was the time someone hacked into my Amazon account and made a vibrator wish list. I took it down and changed my password. It hasn't happened since.
That said, my stalkers tried numerous times to access my Facebook account. Facebook was always great about emailing me with the IP address of the people trying to log into my account.
That's how I was able to figure out who my stalkers were.
On the second point, um....regulation is a horrible idea. Yes, regulation will make it harder for other platforms from the United States to come into being. Regulation has a way of knocking out competition. It will increase the cost of doing business. Facebook will have to change its model. It will have to charge.
Zuckerberg is young. I was more liberal before the government started messing around with my life. I was always fairly conservative (well....because the government started messing around with me when I was five years old and in foster care). In high school, I understood the desire for more laws. Over time, seeing the results of these laws on my life only made my Conservatism grow worse over the years.
I mistakenly thought that liberals wanted to protect my rights. When I started my journey into political activism, I quickly found that Republicans were the only people who answered my queries and tried to help.
The Democrats typically ignore the electorate. They vote like a herd, as if they are stuck in group think.
There are far too many Republicans that act like Democrats. This is why I am not in their party.
That.....and I don't agree with their immigration policies. They also don't understand the basic tenants of social science when it comes to reproduction and family violence.
The more control we give the government, the less control we have over our lives. If they just left us alone, we wouldn't need to worry about whether or not our lawmakers understand the theory behind social science or business.
I identify as libertarian.
The Libertarian party....well...I think they've been infiltrated by leftists. I hate to say it but I'm had some bizarre conversations with leadership. The head of the party is pretty smart but state leadership seems lacking. I'm hearing this story from friends in other states, too.
They say that a libertarian is a conservative who has been screwed around by the government.
If you're liberal, I'd say just to give it time. The longer you live, the more the government messes with you. One of these day's you'll wake up and want to drape yourself in the Gadsden flag, too.
There will be a day when Silicon Valley turns red. If platforms like Facebook are regulated, that day will come sooner rather than later.
*In the view of a libertarian, Facebook is a private platform. They can do whatever they wish. We have the option of using them or not. Data is like gossip. If we post our crap online, well.....it will grow into a monster.
Gossip, even gossip that begins from a false narrative, can take on a life of it's own.
Love ya,
S.
**I'm going to commission a local artist to create a fabric painting of the city logo surrounded by a rattlesnake with the phrase "don't tread on me." at the bottom.
That's going in my front window.
Maybe I should commission a stained glass piece?
That's strange.
I'm going to end the post earlier than I want. I just received a text.
I'm being asked to take in another homeless transgendered teenager.
I'm very thankful she doesn't have homeless siblings because the city would force me to evict one of them.
I need to go clean out the basement apartment. It's become a repository of my ex-husband's football card collection and old tech.
The libertarian thing to do is to help without forcing a reliance on a government solution. It's incredibly sad when the government ruins things by forcing our hand with inane laws.
Usually, I take in kids kicked out of their homes due to their sexual orientation. This kiddo came from a loving home. Her family was priced out of their apartment and are homeless. I wonder how much higher real estate taxes play into the scenario.
If I could take in her parents, I would. I can't because of municipal code.
I'll do what I can.
The world would be a better place if each of us made a pledge to do what we can to help others.
When you do the good you can do, I pray the government doesn't meddle.
Sigh....
Cheers!
P.S. This is funny.......