Social vs what? (Unfortunate necessities for communication in modern times.)

As I mentioned in the last post, this is going to be somewhat of a political blog entry. 
I don't like getting political about things but it is unavoidable in this day and age.  And I usually will try to be politically neutral on most of my posts.  Today though is a different matter.

This post was began on Monday the 11th of January and was immediate paused shortly after.  I had just done something that I had been debating on doing for several months prior.  I deactivated my Twitter account.  Of course, I would wind re-activating it by Wednesday morning so that "Failed Hero" and I would be able to communicate easier about the "Project WWWN" stuff via DM while he is at work.  (Being that he is a teacher, he cannot access discord easily (if at all) while he is at work but he can DM via Twitter from his phone easily.)  And since I am working on the "Project WWWN" stuff from home and other creative projects at some point since being put on disability then Twitter DM is unfortunately the easiest way to communicate.  (True Facebook messenger is technically an option but I don't honestly care for Facebook either.)  

This is just a bit of backstory and explanation on the situation.  The issue here is Social Media and censorship.

Social media tools have become unfortunate necessities for communication in modern times.  And as much as I loathe saying the phrase, it could be argued as something of a necessary evil.  And I think it has been argued in a few journals out there as being an addiction or bordering on one at the least.  It has also become something dangerous that I believe will even get more dangerous in the coming days.  

For starters, Social Media has created a society that, despite its denials, has glamorized hate and even made it seem cool. It has made ostracization of others fashionable. It has also made hypocrisy the norm.  Need proof? Go back and look at how many people in 2016 after the election were spewing hateful comments toward Trump, his family and Trump voters while also saying "#LoveTrumpsHate" and similar hashtags.  Want more?  Look how many of those people were "punished" for hateful rhetoric when reported on Twitter when reported for hate rhetoric and harassing other users.  

In the past four years, Social Media has also made censorship completely acceptable... as long as it is the censoring of those of whom one group or another disagrees.  And I don't believe that I am too far off base when I say that the people running social media platforms "relish" in the power that they now have in this regard to decide "who gets Free Speech" and "who doesn't get Free Speech".  (Spoiler Alert: FREE SPEECH IS A RIGHT UNDER THE US CONSTITUTION.  Another spoiler: JUST BECAUSE SOMEONE SAYS SOMETHING YOU DISAGREE WITH DOESN'T MAKE IT HATE.) 

These people, who I guess are not being called "Big Tech" have spawned something called the "Cancel Culture" movement that is little more than "angry mobs taking to the digital streets" if someone so much as says they are not a fan of "K-pop" much less anything political.   And the people running these social media sites?  Several of them have flat out lied before Congress without any sort of repercussions.   And don't even get me started on the alleged behavior of Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and that behavior's relationship to the late Jeffery Epstein.  (Oh and for the record: EPSTEIN DIDN'T KILL HIMSELF.  And if you think it was Trump's folks that killed him then you are not paying attention... or perhaps a few other things I can think of.  There were enough names political and otherwise and Trump's name was not even on the flight log.  And not to sound like a conspiracy nut or anything but there's at least five other "celebrity deaths" in recent years that I find the details of to be suspicious.  Four of them were ruled suicide.)

But enough about that... especially the bit of a tangent in the last paragraph.

I use to like Twitter.  It was a great tool as it was originally presented.  One could post updates on creative projects, link to information, post humorous observations about the day.   (If I am being honest, Facebook was not bad when it began either. (Though... I still miss the original Myspace for a variety of reasons.)  Somewhere along the way, Twitter mutated into the monstrosity that it is today. 

At some point, the "trending topics" started churning out assorted rhetoric that encouraged hate.  And then people discovered how the "trending topics" could be manipulated and they used that to put forth all sorts of other hateful rhetoric.   And all of this was before the 2016 election.  All of this was before Donald Trump beat  Hilary Clinton.   

Point #1: As a post I saw on Instagram pointed out: The election of Donald Trump didn't create the hate and division we now have in this country not to mention around the world... it revealed it. 

In 2012, a bill labeled as HR4310 was signed into law which basically "allows the use of propaganda to be used on US Citizens".  It effectively repealed the "Smith-Mundt Act of 1948" which banned the use of propaganda on domestic soil.  And while it is quite easy to argue that propaganda has been used anyway since the 1948 law, especially by those who do not have a full understanding of what propaganda is, the HR4310 cleared the path for there to be NO potential ramifications for what happens next just in case things got called into question. 

It also allowed for a few other things.  It allowed for the media to dishonestly cover events like the  Boston marathon bombing in 2013, the Fort Hood shooting in 2014, the San Bernardino Massacre 2015, the Orlando Nightclub Shooting 2016. The Vegas Shooting in 2017. and don't forget the various school shootings.  Now before you get the wrong idea, like you haven't already, allow me to clarify something:  the dishonest covering likely varied in all these cases.  The common denominator in all cases was the use of these events in the dissemination of propaganda during the course of the "media coverage" and since then.  

For those of you who don't quite understand what propaganda is:

Propaganda (from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.)

1) The systematic propagation of a doctrine or cause or of information reflecting the views and interests of those advocating such a doctrine or cause.

2) Material disseminated by the advocates or opponents of a doctrine or cause.

And as much of that propaganda was disseminated via social media as via the traditional mainstream media coverage.  Often times, it was mainstream media outlets using social media as well as various parties who were admitted "advocates" and "activists" for various causes.

Consider this: HR4310 being signed into law was the beginning of the problems we now have with "Big Tech" and the onslaught of both sides decreeing "FAKE NEWS" at the top of their lungs.  It essentially gave the media the ability to lie about the news and not face repercussions.  Social media gave them the means to do it with ease and to manipulate the public into helping spread the lies as truths. 

Point #2: You are being manipulated.  That manipulation is usually happening through you emotions being manipulated.   This manipulation has been on various fronts.  You have been coaxed into accepting lies that made you feel good rather that unpleasant truths that might be a bit uncomfortable.  And then your feelings have been manipulated and that has led to you being mentally manipulated.  They have banked on your cognitive dissonance kicking in at the slightest suggestion that you have been misled into believing some various lies. 

Consider this: Malcom X is quoted as saying "If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing."  He wasn't far off the mark.  He might have amended that statement had he seen what's come about in recent years.  I mean we have generations of youths and young adults who believe they are oppressed because they hear a word that offends them.   Being oppressed is not hearing a word that offends you or having someone disagree with you.  Oppression is being told that you can not say something for fear that you will offend someone else.  After all... "in order to think, one has to risk being offensive." (paraphrased from Jordan Peterson.)

Final Point: I am going to leave you with a few "meme" images I snagged from Instagram.  Just a few last things to consider.  

Now I am off to watch The Royal Rumble.  

I suspect there are some things that you should #InvestigateForYouself

Till next time.

Cheers

when a title like "Untitled and Unsung" doesn't even start to cover it.

There is a song by the 90s band Belly called "Untitled And Unsung" that for years I always misremembered as being called "Untitled And Unstrung".  For the sake of this blog, both 'unsung' and 'unstrung' seem appropriate.  And while you are welcome to look up the band Belly (I am told they actually reunited a few years back) and the song in question, I particularly recommend the album "Star" though the song is on the album "King", neither are necessary for the context of this blog. 

You might notice from the date on this blog that I didn't post a blog last week.  The draft for it is currently sitting here saved but I couldn't be arsed to finish it up.  I even managed to have wrote it at the beginning of the week.  I do plan to finish it up and go ahead and publish it this weekend though.

This happens periodically.  I wind up starting on blog entries and abandoning them for one reason or another.  It is something that, per my earlier post, I am aiming to improve upon this year.  Doing so will be a bit of a necessity going forward.  Usually, the unfinished blogs are a result of either getting distracted by other things or various pain issues forcing me to stop.  (The pain issue being one of the things that has hindered a lot of my writing in recent years.)  Neither was the case here.

The halted blog was (more or less) a political entry and this not meant to be a political blog.  Though as I allude to in the blog, the political stuff is somewhat unavoidable in this day and age.  And while there will not be many political entries on this blog but we are sadly at a point where modern political bullshit has become a poison that has seeped into so much of society.   With that in mind, I figured it might be best to be up front with folks on some various things.  In this case, my own personal political leanings.

For the most part, I have always considered myself an "independent" though I frequently have found myself leaning as much libertarian in recent years as I have in any other direction.  An acquaintance of mine named Gothix, the Twitch streamer and YouTuber, used the phrase "politically homeless" to describe her own views recently to which I can somewhat empathize.

Personally, though? 

For starters, separate "political ideology" from "political party" before going any further.  I am equally critical of both the Republican and Democrat parties.  For the better part of 30 years, the Republicans have struck me as not entirely understanding various domestic issues. (And even when they do seem to grasp that a certain problem exists, they seem to underestimate the severity of it or they misdiagnose what caused the problem.) Then you have the Democrats who simply see no need to fix problems, especially ones that they caused, are benefiting from, or they can exploit.  And that is just the two parties in the past 30 years though it could be argued that not TOO much was different during the entire 45 years of my life. (Cold War ending and 9/11 type stuff aside.)

I am quite critical of the media.  The unposted blog is actually regarding this to some extent.  I have mentioned before in a now deleted blog (that I will be reposting soon) about my experiences in journalism.  When I do get around to reposting that blog, it will likely include some references to some of my experiences in media production as well.  A lot of my criticisms of media are from my idealistic hopes and expectations of working in those fields vs. the bittersweet reality of working in it.  And the best or worst part of it (depending perspective I suppose) is that I didn't even see the worst of it. There were things that I did see though that were enough to make me quite cynical and jaded before I even made it out of my twenties.  Much of my most recent criticism has been focused more on "social media" and also some various historical notes about the media.  The short version of things is that "media bias" and "media manipulation" are both very real.  And whereas it might have once been a case of such behavior being done for "altruistic" reasons that has not been the case in decades.

I am also relentlessly critical of academia or "the education system" in this country.  And this is largely from having survived it and then seeing how much it has gotten since I went through it.   The bits that are not related to that are more directed at various people who I have known over the years that are teachers.  (And apologies to my friend Failed Hero who is one on this matter.)    I will definitely be doing at least a blog or two on my issues with the education system on this topic.  It is safe to say that that many school in this country (both high schools and colleges / universities) are more interested in miseducating and arguably indoctrinating students than anything.  And while it is reasonably safe to say that it is not "all the teacher's fault", there is enough of it that IS their fault and many of them know it. (Screw you, "Mr. Jed"!  And that is as nice as I can be about it.)

And last but not least on things: I don't do Identity Politics.  (And there will be a blog on that one.)

Sorry for getting a bit off track.  The point is that I tend to approach things by various issues and find myself disagreeing with both of the US political parties.  That doesn't mean I don't vote for one or the other.  I frequently find myself doing so begrudgingly given some of the wankers on both sides of the aisle.  It is very rare that I will support any politician directly by name (or otherwise) and I am usually up front with people about why in the few cases when I do.   And I've been known to play devil's advocate on a few issues to point out the flaws in a few opinions on issues.

Basically... if I do get off on any sort of political or current events stuff on here, I am doing so based on my own opinions and observations on the topic.  And if and when I do comment then I will do my best to give you information on why I have those opinions.  If I can, I will try to provide information to folks so they can investigate things for yourself further.  Or at least start to investigate further.

And I will try to include this hashtag both here and on Instagram and Twitter to encourage folks to: #InvestigateForYourself 

Cheers

the whole "how I know AJ Styles thing" and a couple of stories on that.

So the following bits are scattered but connected.  I got on a a stream of thought about a few things while working on another blog post last year.  

I'm not usually not one for "name dropping" though that concept has become a bit sketchier and murkier to me over the years.  Having working in the Film and TV field a bit, I get asked about people I know and people I've worked with by folks.  And let's be honest, the variety of folks I have met over the years makes for some fun stories and sometimes the names involves are what makes the story. With this one though, I'm leaving a few names out either at their request, just don't want to bother mentioning them, or one due to my bad memory.

For those of you who do now know who AJ Styles is, he is one of the biggest names in professional wrestling and has been for at least the past ten years or so. The dude has worked for Ring of Honor, New Japan, NWA - TNA / Impact (whatever the heck they are called now), numerous other promotions, and currently works for the WWE.  He began his wrestling career (more or less) in a little promotion called "NCW" which would quickly become NWA Wildside.  

It is by no means a claim to fame on my part but I knew AJ back in high school.  We're from the same area and went to rival high schools.  I was not able to compete in any sports in high school due to health issues and injuries but I did manage the high school track team and help the coach out with record keeping and all that mess.  As a result, I got an earful from a few people (players and a coach) who had made his acquaintance regarding him though I legit don't recall if it was related to football or wrestling though it might have been both.  On top of that, a step-cousin of mine knew him and his family as they had attended the same high school. 

AJ and I didn't meet in person until he had started his run in NCW / NWA Wildside.  Two friends of mine had started training at the promotion around the time he was debuting for them.  One of the two friends still competes in the local indie promotions under the name Azrael.  The other guy, named Larry, never made it through the training school for a variety of reasons but he factors into a lot of this mess.  Interestingly enough, the cousin of a friend from high school and co-worker was training there too and worked the indies under the name "Slim J" for a number of years.

When Larry and Azrael began training up there, I'd had the idea that I might be able to get my foot in the door regarding learning production stuff.  I figured I might even be able to help my friends who were trying to get started in that field.  There was a lot of miscommunication though of my interests and I got met with a lot of runaround and outright resistance on the idea.  Looking back, it was probably for the best.  

While I have mentioned over the years that I know AJ, there's a couple of fun stories regarding him. 

The main one involves me trying to turn a bad situation into something potentially useful. It is something that I will have to tell the WHOLE story of another time but it loosely involves "AJ costing me a $39,000 job offer" (it was actually two jobs opportunities which were $20K a year and $19K a year respectively) and me poking fun at the incident on the NWA Wildside Yahoo groups both before and after his heel turn when he joined Jeff G. Bailey and the NWA Elite.  (Again, I will tell more about that story another time if there is enough interest.)  To his credit, AJ had a very good sense of humor about the whole mess. I told him what happened for real and he and I had a good laugh over it.  I am pretty sure he knew that I was somewhat working the fans on the yahoo group (though one of his colleagues IMed on yahoo messenger asking me if it was a work or a shoot) and at one point played along with it at what was termed as a "Wildside house show" in some bar and grille joint in Gainesville GA that had the ring sat up on the place's dance floor.  

The story that I was wanting to tell somewhat begins at that particular show.  

Prior to the show, I had been asked by Larry to drive him up to Athens, GA for his birthday.  Now this was not inherently a problem though honestly I didn't want to sit at a strip club with him while he was drinking and I was expected to be the responsible designated driver.  (There are reasons that I will address eventually.)  I had this hair brained idea to invite a few of the NWA Wildside guys to go with us.  Of course, the only ones who I spoke much to that I really cared enough to invite to go with us were Azrael, Slim J, and Seth Delay (who were not old enough to drink) and AJ.  Okay, I had an ulterior motive here. I had intended to leave Larry to his own devices at the strip club and go bar hopping with whoever we got from the Wildside crew to join this endeavor.  Plus, it might have served as a means for Larry to better his status among "the boys" of whom many of them didn't care for him.

Well bless his heart, AJ told me straight up that he was not about to do anything of the sort.  I didn't even get to the part about not staying at the club.  I don't begrudge AJ a bit for not wanting to go and I actually benefited from the idea not happening.

See... I did wind up leaving Larry at the club.  I wound up at a place down the road where this "goth band" was playing.  I am not sure how to describe the music nor remember much of it or the band's name.  I enjoyed the music and got to chatting with members of the band.  There was a girl in the band who had on some "fairy wings" and described her attire as that of a "bondage fairy" which should tell you enough.  The band members and I hit it off enough that we all wound up going back to the strip club after their last set for me to get Larry out of there.  

Another thing that happened night was I got more acquainted with a dancer there than I ever expected to.   And it is thanks to her that I would eventually become acquainted with one of my dearest friends.

And well... things probably would not have turned out as well had AJ not refused to go with us.  🤣

Cheers.

And 2021 is a go... !?

 Alright.  It is January 7th, 2021.

I am not one for "New Years Resolutions" or any of that mess but this is a special case scenario. 

Amidst all the chaos of last year, I realized a few things.
1) Twitch is not the best platform for me as far as most of the content creation at the current time. I've nothing against Twitch as a platform,  per se, but it is not the best avenue for much of the content that I want to be able to create.  And I think trying to make it work has hindered me creatively.  (though that isn't to say that might not try to venture back there at some point.)

2) I am more interested at the moment in making content with my reactions to certain stuff in games or my commentary about certain stuff in games than I am trying to live stream content with a live audience.  To that extent, YouTube is a better platform for that overall.  Having said that, I have other certain priorities than making some gaming related content for YouTube though it is something that I will likely do at some point this year.  And truth be told, there is always a chance that I will do some stuff on Twitch again at some point... just going to have to figure out the best way to do that.

Therefore, heading into 2021:

My first priority is going to be getting this blog back up and running.  This will include some blog content to both be imbedded here and to be viewable on YouTube.  This includes at least one weekly blog post on here.  This also will include getting my discord channel back up and running.

My second priority (aside from getting through the main story of  Assassin's Creed: Valhalla, Assassin's Creed: Odyssey, Hitman 3, etc) will be figuring out what I am going to wind up doing with some other creative ventures that have long been on the back burner / indefinitely hiatus due to my illnesses.   I've some preliminary ideas on what will be done with some it.  There's still a few things that I would like to make happen if possible but will have to see.

My third priority will be helping my friend Isaac (aka "Failed Hero") get his "World Wide Wrestling Network" up and running as well as expanding on the concept.  We have some definitive ideas on how this proceed and some of those ideas will actually allow me to do some stuff with creative content of mine that will not otherwise be getting used.  Stay Tuned.

My fourth priority is fairly simple but doing something more with the ideas of "Hamrick Investigations" and "Boxcar Thirty Nine" (aka the name of this blog) / Boxcar 39.  This links back to the earlier mentioned priorities.  

so yeah... not so much a resolution list but more a list of things to get done this year.  

One thing that is sort of a resolution related to not streaming on Twitch though one that began months ago: going to be involved is less people's communities.  There are some Twitch streamers who I had previously supported a great deal who I no longer feel right giving support to.  I'm not naming names.  That said, the resolution part is that I am going to be even more cautious about "supporting various Twitch streamers".

With that in mind: I have some stuff to be working on, don't I?

Cheers.