This is an excellent point Rob and thank you for bringing it up and making us aware. I hope each would find the time to research it and let your voice be known however you are able.
Often it is hard to discern in government where the point is between outright ignorance, negligence, and poor leadership, and the intentional/underhanded legislative craftsmanship that slowly erodes lines of freedom we didn't even know were being challenged. Even now with COVID-19, the question that should be on most minds is exactly how do we balance the freedoms we see being actively infringed upon, with the personal responsibility and guided assistance that are called for given the extremities we face together. There is no shortage of courage, commitment and preparation for sacrifice - only truth.
Ultimately in both Rob's call to action and the current crisis there is a clear and common ground:
We unequivocally deserve a better breed of leadership across the board than what we currently accept and succumb to. Integrity. Dignity. Non-Conflict of Interest. Truth. Transparency. Care. Innovation. Solutions. Unbiased Objectivity. We are selling ourselves out very moment that passes with our tolerance and indifference without even knowing where it leads. How long will they tell YOU to stay indoors. How would you react if they tried to weld your apartment door shut? The same individuals guiding decisions today were the ones found in hotel rooms yesterday dying from meth overdoses as they cheated on their spouses with escorts. The same individuals guiding legislative advancement to take rights away today, just yesterday were flying around on jets to secret orgy islands. Think about it!
When so much becomes tainted and corrupted from the self-interests of imposed agendas - bought and paid for behind scenes we could not have imagined would exist - then the capacity for a united front to deal with real emergencies becomes reduced to the memory of the last lie we were openly fed. When a real crisis happens, nefarious intentions can bleed onto a population base that has already become used to living in a world full of their deceptions, agendas, celebrity personalities, and gross disconnection. The owners of CNN as an example somehow live in a world where they believe that they can roll out Sean Penn last night to stimulate compliance, agreement, and acceptance of mass military presence. This is all we should need to know about how unequivocally disconnected they are in their world view and expectation of others.
We live in a world of more entitlement, elitist privilege, arrogance, and outright open criminal behavior than I ever would have thought possible in our lifetime. It is disturbing and unacceptable the degree by which we let controlling interests polarize humanity between the two most opposite spectrums of insanity, and then we get to watch as all of the truly important issues are bumbled and broken in between. That is where your freedoms are taken. That is where the line is moved. It starts with calling each other "non-patriots" and telling them to find a new place to live when they don't like the early complainers. It ends with having to have a slip of paper authorized by the military to go out of your house onto the street...
I can tell you from experience: those who take power are seldom willing to give it back.
We should think about that when we watch from a perception of helplessness as the lines being moved are slowly drawn forward. As media outlets perpetually re-craft their strategies to tune their outcome expectations. You owe it to yourself to be free-thinking and to stay aware. Let the power of love, non-judgement, forgiveness, and a desire for true compassion, kindness, and humility guide you. But please stay aware. There is so much more at stake.
With respects to Rob's concerns, would you like to see what the power of overreach under the guise of "protecting children" online does even at the smallest, seemingly most innocuous, point?
Try saving this Disney show to a watch later list to share with your kids or loved ones.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=8k1axb8PPqQ
Gasp indeed! Just a small example of how YouTube (Google) has helped move the line recently, by taking all video options away that even look like they are for children's consumption. Can't save them, make comments, donate, autoplay, receive notifications, add stickers, organize in playlists. Try clicking "save" and then navigate to Learn More if you think I am kidding. I had even addressed it recently regarding the Super Bowl trailers in a special domain name industry bulletin put together at
www.getyourlesson.com.
You can see the whole piece online if you care (great for domainers wanting inspiration), but the relevant portion to Rob's concern:
"This year's biggest (Super Bowl) losers have to be the companies that have been grossly impacted by the sweeping changes made by YouTube through their compliance actions, post agreements reached with the FTC related to the protection of children's privacy. This now includes heavy restrictions on any content marked as directed at kids within their content system, resulting in a number of direct penalties and publishing limitations that can have massive effects on distribution possibilities. For example, not allowing playlist inclusion or direct embedding means thousands of media reporters and organizations across the world could not give equal reporting to several of the ads participating in the event. In cases where YouTube was the primary publishing medium for the corresponding promotional videos, they had no option to even list and include some great media productions within their list of all the commercials that aired. It is a great example whereby as a nation, we cannot give up our capacity to be free thinking problem solvers using logic towards legislative overreach."
For the hundreds of billions of dollars they pocketed and the unmatched depth of talent they could be deploying remotely to do something beyond political manipulation, this is now the message from YouTube for active posters:
"IMPORTANT: Due to COVID-19, we will conduct fewer human reviews to protect the health of our extended workforce. Unfortunately, as a result we may remove content that does not violate our Community Guidelines."
Twitter has changed their contact structure to only tell you thanks for the feedback, but have withdrawn from all public contact. They have also taken certain accounts and restricted them to adding one follower per every few hours, and are literally terminating and suspending accounts that may have content they don't like related to the COVID-19 outcome objectives. They are publishing videos of people falsely being gunned down in the streets, and placed into metal steel boxes and whisked away out of sight. But publish anything remotely resembling the counter message they are trying to contain and reduce, and the social police are engaged full force. Maximum fear generation plays into their interests I guess...
I can tell you for one though, that I published
www.fightthevirus.com for sale in case it could be utilized to help the public with education. I also had setup a twitter account, and sent literally ten posts. In most simplest terms, encouraging people to look at the initial bulk shares that were dumped two weeks ago to get an idea of who was negatively triggering collapse attempts. This was before $30 trillion or more was wiped off their value and retirement plans for senior citizens were radically obliterated. I was suspended within 24 hours and not been able to use that account since. All other accounts I am also affiliated with for professional purposes have reported mass containment caps on their user functions, especially for those who are typically more free-thinking or encouraging others for integrity-based objective smart solutions.
We must demand and absolutely deserve more integrity from those who choose to engage in a leadership role in support of us, or we will pay a tremendous price. Social media outlets are crafting and manipulating messages across the board, dumping billions of messages into email boxes every day in their attempt to guide narrative. Something feels very wrong, and I for one don't like it.