No More Comments on a Facebook Group

I made some pithy comment on a facebook group about "Virtual Beings".  And my comment was removed by the administrator who didn't like it.  So I removed myself from that group and the lesson is learned.  No more comments on Facebook groups.  Total waste of my time.

Blocked from FB for being Pro Biden

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I guess Facebook is banning people who support Biden.  If you donate to a Democrat and somehow that gets posted on Facebook, then someone on Facebook says such a post is offensive, then you are blocked.

There is no way to protest.

Time to nationalize Facebook.

Facebook List of Celebrities You Have Met

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But what is a celebrity?  

Here is a possible list, all real.

Jimmy Carter
Forrest J. Ackerman (and Wendy Wahrman Ackerman)
William Shatner
Ivan Sutherland
Ed Catmull and John Lassiter
Lynda Weinman
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Jim Clark
Bill Joy
Tim Leary
Terrence McKenna
Grace Hopper
Willis Ware
John Dykstra, Richard Edlund, Joel Hynek, Dennis Muren, Douglas Trumbull, Richard Yuricich
Jerry Brown, Jr.
Graham Nash
Matt Groening
A host of West Coast SF writers, Larry Niven, Poul Anderson, Bob Silverberg, etc.
Sumner Redstone
Mark Hammill
Bill Mumy
Jim Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd
Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera
Harry Marks and Saul Wurman
Steven Spielberg
Jeffrey Katzenberg
Bob Kurtz
Greg MacGillivrey
Joni Mitchell (sortof, its a long story)

Returning the Gift of Nastiness in the Pandemic

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Its not everyday that you get to return the favor of nastiness to someone who has attacked you in the past and for no good reason.  I am sentimental about my old friends, yes even my old lovers. Friends on Facebook for several years she suddently attacked me for no reason.  So here we go, dear, love you!  Text follows.

Since you went out of my way to be as nasty as you could be to me for no good reason, and when I was just being cordial and pleasant, I wanted to return the favor. I hope that you or someone you love is damaged permanently in this pandemic. With luck it can be someone who dies because you infected them so you can live with the guilt, assuming you are capable of experiencing guilt.  Please dont ever talk to me again.

End of text.  That was fun!

Zuck and Hitler

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Mark Zuckerberg, that pillar of the 1st Amendment, tells me I cant say "Sieg Heil" as a comment on Facebook as sarcasm towards a friend who wants to murder children.  OK, I understand that, AI is a farce and a fraud and their stupid community standards program has the IQ of Donald Trump and does a straight string match just like someone might do in 1978.  Groovy, Zuck, way to go!   So instead we will try really sophisticated end runs like "Seek Hail!"  and "Trump sucks dead weenies like Adolf did".  Take that!

Facebook Funnies

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My Facebook "Whats on your mind" is now only on my profile.  Someone got mad at me because I am too sad.  She hated that, so I dont follow her anymore. It never occurred to my friend, who is very smart, that I really am sad.  Or maybe she just doesnt care, which I think is more likely.   

I am trying to be less negative both on Facebook and in my life.  I got some real problems here, kids.

My Facebook Progress

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The new policy is an old policy: avoid being so negative on Facebook. When people spread ridiculous stories I no longer pour cold water on them.  Who am I to tell them about reality and so upset their day and make them hate me?  What has it gotten me?  Nothing.  

But it has been hard, very hard to keep me from posting bad news or correcting stupidity. People dont want to hear it. 

A 15 year old invents a perfect test for cancer. Hardcore Republican delegates wont vote for Trump to be President at the Electoral College. All women will now vote progressive and that will be the end of the Republicans. R.E. Lee was a traitor who beat his slaves.  Anyone who supports Lee is a racist.

Good luck with that.  I hope you and your love ones depend on that cure for cancer that the 17 year old Muslim girl in Afghanistan invented.

 

Buddhist vs Ultra Reform Jewish Response to Trump

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A Buddhist friend of a friend on Facebook says we must not be angry about Trump and his stupid followers but must follow a path of non-engagement.  Or something like that.

My response was:

I am a former wanna-be Buddhist (never really a buddhist, but aspired to be as a youth, read books, you know the usual jewish white boy contrarian shtick...), but now I have returned to my Virginian ultra-reform assimilated Democratic nonJewish Jewish roots, and I call for the Tetragrammatron to smite them with a lightning bolt of patriarchal vigor!

In Response to a Post by Mary Lou Jepson

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Mary Lou Jepson asked if there was something you could tell your younger self that might change your degree choice or your path, what would it be.

So I said:

"Right now, people are treating you well in spite of your lack of credentials, but that is a temporary phenomenon, sadly. There will be a time when people will judge you based on what is on paper, and by then there will be those who like you and those who dont. Therefore, you are encouraged to get the best credentials you can now, while you have the cachet and while the various advantages society makes available to those in this stage of their career are available. If anything goes wrong, you will wish you had those credentials".

Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie Sets Off Facebook's Stupid A.I. Picture Checker

Facebook has an A.I. to maintain community standards. The following image violated those standards and got my post removed. Oh Facebook, we will miss your infinite stupidity when you are gone.

Of course, Ms. Thompson is hot, and the picture does have subtle sexual imagery, perhaps.  I really have to get over my affection for hot lesbians.  Its so juvenile.  But whatever.

It is our future to be tormented by weird, dysfunctional machine learning programs.  It is our fate, our destiny.  All in the name of greed.  We are so fucked.

Delusions of Reference and this Blog

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Do you think you are seeing yourself referenced in this blog or on Facebook only not by name? I might say “a very successful friend of mine” or maybe “a very smart friend of mine”. And you think I am talking about you, and get offended or something of that nature.

Well, I have bad news for you, its worse than you think. In fact, there is a pretty good chance I am not referring to you at all, and if I was, you would know it because I would have asked your permission first (whether or not I use your name). Always, every time. Pretty much.

It is possible, even likely, that the person I am referring to does not exist but may contain some indefinable essence of your sacred uniqueness (as we are all unique, dont you know, all God's children, etc) in some sort of composite character that I am creating in order to make a point about society, our lives, our civilization.

And you want me to stop, in fact you demand an apology on Facebook, and after I plead innocence, you tell me that is no excuse and so I end up blocking another old and dear friend. This is a bummer.

But I am not going to stop, and you are going to have to go away bitter in total ignorance of the fact that I was not talking about you at all.

Guess Which Picture Violates Facebook Community Standards

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Guess which of the pictures below violates Facebook Community Values and will get you blocked.

Have you guessed yet?  Examine each one carefully!  Which one is the most salacious, which one is the least?   Your average 12 year old boy would have no trouble answering this question.

The answer is image number 2 from Lifeforce (1985).   This is the image that got me blocked from Facebook for 24 hours.  The other two caused no problems with their totally automated, perfectly insane, AI guardian of public morality.

Pretty wacky, huh?

When you consider that Facebook also owns Tumblr, the very home of twisted pornography on the Internet, the mind achieves a unique state of Zen like incomprehension.

[My friend Jerry Weil informs me that there was a huge brouhaha about "nipples" on Facebook and so he knew immediately which picture was the offending one.  Well, me bad, I had missed this important social dialectic entirely but it reinforces my opinion: Facebook is not very sophisticated here, they are in fact, holding back my real feelings, near moron-like stupid.]


______________


Notes:

1. For those of you who are coming into this late, my objection is not to Facebook's removing images, my objection is to how they handle it, the lack of human communication, and the extreme punishment system which is probably malfunctioning.  You are welcome to read the forums if you want to see what other people think of this Facebook system.  Be prepared to read many swear words.

2. The other two pictures are (1) the famous Vampirella of comic book fame and (3) a still from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2.

Pocohontas and the Lesson of History

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Tom Sito on Facebook posted the following on the history of the Pocohontas story (which became of course a very nice Disney movie).

I made the following reply, which I sincerely believe:

If the Native Americans had killed every European as soon as they came off the boat (from a distance, preferably) and burned the bodies but studied the weapons and other technology, then maybe, just maybe, they would not have been the victims of the genocide that they were. Maybe not, also. Hard to say. But it couldn't have been worse, it seems to me.

Well, live and learn.

I Always Regret Blocking Friends on Facebook

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I always regret when I feel as though I have to block someone on FB that I respect and want to like.

Here is the situation from my point of view, and lets be quite sure going in that my friend would disagree with this, I think.

The timeline goes something like this. I write a FB post about the release of the CIA JFK files by #45. My friend disagrees with me and says that my post is a rant that hurts the agenda of rational people to impeach #45. He basically wants me to agree with him. I do not agree with him. He tries again. Again I do not agree. He keeps trying and at this point I dont see what we are arguing about. Neither of us is going to change our mind, so why does he keep bothering me.

Ultimately, I pull the post down from FB and put it up on my blog.

And I block my friend. He may not like what I have to say, but I do not like to be insulted and harassed, because I disagree with him.

As for the content of the CIA JFK post, I have no idea what #45 was thinking, but if he did not have an ulterior motive then this is the first time he has made a decision I am aware of that did not have one.

Facebook Thinks We Are Worthless Scum

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I mentioned on Facebook (called FB so that we do not activate the incredibly annoying text recognition feature) how FB did not seem to mind changing the user interface whenever the fuck they wanted no matter how stupid the changes were and how much it inconvenienced their users.

And a friend pointed out that this was a completely valid thing for them to do and I was being wrong to complain because we are not paying for the service.

In fact, he said, this is the way it should be in the future because users are scum and we should choke down on that dick..

I think my friend is right, after all, FB only makes about $500 billion on us useless scum.

What Goes Around Comes Around or It Should

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Interested in annoying your friends on Facebook? Its not too hard and I have one technique that works pretty darn well. You just take some controversial political issue and insist that whatever is being advocated for one group also be applied to them. This not only annoys the advocates of whatever it is we are talking about, it seems to annoy everyone. Its easy.

For example, although I have very few friends who admit to being a supporter of Trump, my friends have friends who are. It might seem impossible that this could be true even 120 or so days into the Trump disaster, but it is a fact of our times that most of Trump's base is standing by their man.

So a friend of a friend, a woman whom I dont know, made it very clear that not only does she support Trump as president, she thinks that he has been *wonderful*.

So I simply suggested that I hoped that she would experience what she is advocating for other people. That she be the victim of sexual abuse, that she lose her health care, that her children (if she has any) are forced to drink polluted water, that someone she knows is shot by a mentally ill maniac with an assault weapon, and most of all, that she be impoverished and get to know what it is to be poor in America.

I was accused of being “as bad as a right winger” and so I gleefully blocked those people.

When you try to harm other people, how could you possibly be upset if you are subjected to the same treatment?

I, of course, will work as hard as I can to see that no one is treated that way, but in the case of those who are working to destroy America it would only be just, it seems to me, for them to experience their own policies.

FB Game of Musical Acts

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On Facebook, one of the viral themes that is going around is to name 10 musical acts you saw live, but only nine of them are real. The tenth is fake. Your friends have to pick the fake one. Yes, its stupid. But I did it anyway. Here is the list.

Randy Newman

Frank Sinatra

Jean Luc Ponty

Miles Davis

Neil Young / CSN / CSN&Y

Jefferson Airplane

Hot Tuna

Alicia de Larrocha

Red Bone

Leaves of Grass

Rolling Stones

Grateful Dead

The answer is Alicia de Larrocha who was playing at Carnegie Hall the week that I was moving from NYC to Los Angeles in 2001. The Leaves of Grass was my brother's garage band in High School in Richmond, Virginia.

By far the most entertaining of these acts (or the two most entertaining) was Randy Newman and Neil Young. 

Facebook Discussion About Whether ADD/ADHD is a Fraud

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This is a transcript of a Facebook conversation I had with Robit Hairman about ADD/ADHD in response to an article he posted about how ADD/ADHD is a fraud. My response was treated with contempt by Robit, so I let loose with a full dose in response. I have retained some of the FB formatting to try and keep some of the flavor of my response. I believe that ADHD denial is another form of science denial on the part of Americans. At the same time I have no doubt that the disorder may be over-diagnosed.

But it is not a fraud.

Michael Wahrman

Michael Wahrman So every five years or so, some asshole comes out with an article about how ADHD is not real. But it is real. And the medication works. But the medication is nearly impossible to get because of stupid laws put in place by the Nixon administration. You may not like that, but that is just too bad. Oh by the way, thousands of doctors think that ADHD is real. I suppose you deny Climate Change is manmade as well?

Like · Reply · 1 hr

Michael Wahrman

Michael Wahrman Since I have been publicly humiliated for daring to discuss some experiences with ADHD and medication here on this forum, let me go further and share with you a little bit of what I think I have learned after living with this disease all my life and studying it for 20 + years after being diagnosed. I should mention that I am not a Dr. of Medicine, although I hope to be a Dr. of Philosophy in a few years if that matters. First, the track record of psychiatry in diagnosing this and other "mental" disorders (that is, for the most part I am referring to physical disorders that affect cognition) is not great. They have to rely on a lot of patient-reported states of mind in many cases, and there is no definitive blood test for depression or ADHD. Second, various classes of psychiatrists do not talk to each other, or maybe do not respect each other, and in the case of adult ADHD this affected people getting diagnosed and treated for decades. Third, there are excellent tests in child psychiatry for ADHD and if you have a child you suspect may have ADD/ADHD, I hope that these tests are used before a diagnosis is made. I have only been through these tests once, and they were hilarious and very convincing. Ask for more details if you like. Fourth, it was only my first doctor, the highly recommended Dr. Koch of Greenwich Ct who ever used these tests, none of the others have. It is not a coincidence that the others are adult ADD/ADHD doctors but Dr. Koch treats both types of patients. Fifth, I can tell you from personal experience that not all ADHD doctors are drug mad who prescribe at the first sign of anything wrong, on the contrary, the doctors I have used are anti-stimulant and prescribe them as a last resort. As someone who has tried all on-label medications for this disease and most of the off-label ones, I can tell you that for those with my class of the disorder, it is only the stimulants that reliably and significantly work. (The others may indeed be sufficient for those with a minor case of this disease). Sixth, which leads us to the next problem .... (end of part 1)

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Michael Wahrman

Michael Wahrman (beginning of part 2), Sixth, there is no objective way to judge in advance which medication is sufficient or effective or in what dose for the patient, at least not to my knowledge. If you are like me, you will find the hit and miss approach used by doctors to be both annoying and time consuming. In fact, I only found the best medication for my particular version of this problem more or less by accident (in the same way I was diagnosed by a friend not a doctor, originally). Seventh, once you do find the appropriate medication, if you are lucky enough to do so, good luck in getting the Dr to prescribe what you need in a reliable and cost effective manner. I repeat, Drs do not like to prescribe stimulants as it puts them at risk of losing their license. And why on earth would they want to lose their license merely because it helps the patient? Eighth, I have no doubt that this as well as many other "psychiatric" diseases are or may be overdiagnosed, and powerful medications prescribed. Sadly it is up to the parent to figure out if this medication is appropriate or not, as the patient, if a child, may not be able to. Now in the case of adult ADD/ADHD, this is quite straightforward believe it or else. Particularly in the case of ADHD but also with ADD to a lesser extent, the effects of medication in the appropriate dose are not subtle, not in the least. And in the case of the adult, it is extremely likely that the patient has self-medicated all their life to try and get relief in the absence of diagnosis and treatment. (end of part 2)

Like · Reply · 20 mins

Michael Wahrman

Michael Wahrman (beginning of part 3) Ninth, I can tell you, and Robits contemptuous response to my comment above demonstrates, that many people, perhaps most people, do not take this disease seriously. They either do not believe it exists, or that it is serious, or that the medication is required, or some other version of contempt. The fact that millions of Americans will tell them differently has no effect on their preconceptions. But let me tell you, for people like me, and I can not tell you how many there are, the disease is non trivial and the medication is non optional. If you do not believe that, then you are not going to care about the rest of this testimony. It will be dismissed by you with some off hand gesture or ("aww"). And so, tenth, you would not believe how difficult it is to get this medication legally. And we are only talking about legal medication here, not illegal self-medication. I could go on for pages about the hurdles you have to go through and not be exhaustive and you would probably not believe me anyway (most people dont). So if I have any credibility here, let me say that anyone with a serious version of this disease will spend an unknown amount of time per month getting the medication and in many, many cases not get sufficient or reliable medication for years on end. But you probably dont care because you do not believe that this is a real and serious disease, now do you? (end of part 3)

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Michael Wahrman

Michael Wahrman (part 4) Tenth, do I believe that this disease is probably overdiagnosed? Yes, I do. Psychiatry is a screwy business, subject to fads and other influences (including a very corrupt Pharma business) and the free market (what a stupid concept to apply to medicine). To all parents, I would tell you to insist on the tests I went through when I first formally diagnosed. Believe me, they are not subtle. And if your child is only ambiguously diagnosed, then dont worry about it. Its not severe. If it is a clear diagnosis, then trying a low dose of stimulant (or if you prefer the more ambiguous non-stimulants) is not going to kill anyone, and if it works or sortof works, then it will be obvious within hours. This is less true for ADD than ADHD, in the former case, one must rely more on personal testimony of the patient, but even then there are informal tests one can apply. In the latter case, the symptoms of ADHD respond very well to low dose stimulants and one can see results within hours (or even minutes in some cases). Eleventh, the good news is that the primary stimulants prescribed for ADD/ADHD are trivial to get off of. They are no where near as addictive as say, coffee or cocaine. There is the problem that people can get dependent on them for psychological reasons as these are human performance drugs, which is why Dextroamphetamine has been used by our armed forces in WW2 and afterwards. (The Germans used methamphatamine btw, a drug I have no experience with). Twelth, I do not write about my personal experiences because it does me any good. It has been used against me whenever I have, or I have been subjected to abuse or contempt. I do it to help my friends and others who may have this disease and do not know what is going on and may not realize that there is a solution. Therefore you should say thank you for the time I have taken to give you the benefit of my experience and research. You are very welcome.

Like · Reply · 5 mins

Spending a Lot More Time on FB

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I am spending a lot more time on Facebook because at least there I get some response to my outrage about the Trump disaster. My other friends, assuming I have friends, are silent on email. They are silent on the blog. Since I live like a total hermit here in exile, and I do enjoy that human contact now and then, it is more efficient to use FB.

There are other things happening in life that are both good and bad. On the one hand, I have received a contribution from a long-lost relative that will allow me to apply to grad school and keep the power and water on for six months or so. Ideally I could be on my feet again at the end of this time. I do appreciate this contribution, it has totally turned around my life in the short run.

But in the long run, or in six months, what is the liklihood that things will be better? Ultimately, I have to leave this house, what is the liklihood that I will ever be able to afford rent again? Be employed again? Work on something I love again?

Now that China takes its place as the world leader, and the United States self destructs with a right wing faction in charge of the state apparatus, I think it is foolish and unrealistic to have any hope for the future.

Nevertheless, I will press forward with grad school and with my book project and a few other things. Its better than a stick in the eye. I have enjoyed writing this blog and no doubt will enjoy writing more, from time to time, going forward. I appreciate those of you who read this, whoever you may be.

Farewell Facebook For Now

In the last few weeks I have blocked three people on Facebook, unfriended a few, and probably have been unfriended myself without my knowing it.

Its all about one or more of the following issues and I doubt you will be surprised by any of it. I am a little surprised by the intensity and insanity of it all though.

My friends are very happy because their candidate, Hillary Clinton, has probably clinched the nomination for President from the Democratic Party. Between you and me, I never really had much doubt that Hillary would do this. She has always been the frontrunner and seemed likely to me to win the nomination without the use of Superdelegates. And of course if it came to the position of the Superdelegates, I did not think there was much doubt about which way that would go either.

I am happy for my friends. It is a good thing when your candidate wins, generally speaking. I presume my friends are ethical Americans who are voting their beliefs and so forth and so on.

But for a variety of reasons, most of which have very little to do with Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton is not my candidate. Again dont get me wrong, I love Bernie Sanders. I never thought he had much of a chance of winning the nomination, but I am stunned and delighted that he did as well as he did. Its just that I think I also know something about Hillary Clinton and the kind of president she will be.

But now that Hillary has won the nomination (or all but won it, its not really much in doubt) my friends are angry that I do not fall into line and support Hillary.

And boy are they angry. I have received two death threats and lots and lots of insults. Its OK, its helpful to know who actually respects you enough to let you have your beliefs without throwing insults at you. And clearly I do not have many such friends on Facebook, or for that matter anywhere, probably.

I hope that when Hillary Clinton wins the Presidency that she becomes as good a President as my friends believe that she will be. For my part, however, I doubt it. I think she is a competent, process oriented, mainstream Democrat.  I doubt she will be any better nor any worse than any other power mad, middle of the road, Washington insider Democrat.

If you do not understand by now that the status quo is not working for millions and millions of Americans, then I am very happy for you. It means that the system is working for you, and that is great, and I am very jealous. You have my congratulations.

If you want to understand why it is not working for others you are going to have to look beyond the surface. You are going to have to ask why there are so many Bernie and Donald supporters, each in their own way. You are going to have to try and figure out how many people are actually unemployed, underemployed, and / or impoverished.

As for me, I find that Facebook is not worth the aggravation.  So instead of blocking and unfriending even more people, and the aggravation that involves, I am going to absent myself from Facebook for a few months, possibly until after the election.  I am not really sure.  If you want to know how I am doing, you will just have to email me or read this blog.

Good luck to all of you and I hope you will keep in touch.