KW Norton had an interesting article warning about AWS, or Amazon Web Services. Since I can’t seem to locate that one I will go with her broader query. Can technology be used for good?
For those who don’t know the infrastructure underpinning most of websites you read are based on AWS, as the deplatforming of Parler in 2021 might have taught some people. When I go on Facebook anymore what I mostly notice is sort of a shellshocked base going through the motions. The vast majority seem aware that there are many things which they cannot say, in much the same way that domestic abuse victims become increasingly aware of the rules of conduct and, to appease their partner, police themselves over time.
“I have called the period from 2020 to the present a propaganda masterpiece….This is the most frightening thing of all: This one has succeeded by making people do it willingly…What the Covid crisis did as propaganda is make millions of people desperate to get a “vaccination.” I mean it’s like getting people to elbow each other out of the way to get on board the cattle cars.”
—Mark Crispin Miller
Celia Farber writes:
What is the “left?”
It is a dominant social animal that crushes and ruins anybody who departs from its Party Lines. It shames, blames and lays people to ruin for being different. or for being correct.
The psychiatric term is “traumatizing narcissism,” and it was on steroids throughout Covid. In 2020, the leftist mask of “good guys” fell off, revealing a monster face, and causing many leftists, like Miller, to run from their tribes screaming. I may quibble with why it took them so long to see the true nature of the so-called left, but I also recognize that they were among the strongest fighters, when Covid hit.
The traumatizing narcissism had me thinking of my relationship with my first husband Oh. As I have mentioned I have been busy bee on my writing. I posted links to my Healing Thailand Harvests book on Facebook and Twitter. My results from my Amazon digital copy have been the same as they always are. Which is to say, extremely discouraging.
As SimulationCommander writes:
Recently, I’ve been rewatching the series “Westworld” in order to catch up before I finally watch the final season, and halfway through the third season a particular storyline jumped out at me. (Apologies for the minor spoilers, but the show is already a few years old. That said, please don’t spoil the final season!)
In the show, a Big Bad Corporation has covertly hoovered up massive amount of data about basically everybody on the planet. This company then feeds all the data into a massive AI program, which spits out predictions for each human in the system. This AI may stop you from reproducing if you have a genetic disease, or refuse to allow you to get a job because you’re likely to commit suicide.
This plays out onscreen (paraphrased):
“They won’t invest in somebody who’s likely to kill themselves, but by not investing they ensure that outcome.”
Creepy, right? Some machine somewhere — run by people you don’t know — has massive control over your life, determining your fate? Condemning you to a life of trying to scrape by, because your machine-generated “score” is too low to get a real job?
Good thing this is fiction and not actually happening in the real world.
I think that last part was sarcasm. My book sales, by the way, are $0, as they have been for at least one year. Not even a few of my liberal leaning normie Facebookers wanted it (or saw it posted there, whichever). Of course if I just pay Amazon at least $100 for advertising my book, maybe they’ll allow somebody to see it. I’d also have enroll it in KDP Select and make it exclusive to Amazon. I also could throw money in the toilet, but I don’t really hate toilets, per say. They definitely serve an important function other than psychological abuse.
I’m starting to think I should view it as a mark of distinction that I consistently make Amazon’s worstsellers list. Perhaps it means that I do have something interesting to say which they don’t like. For every high profile censored person, there are probably hundreds more who have simply been suppressed into quitting due to the economic ruin and embarrassment. Regardless I’m planning on putting my book on Draft2Digital in the next day or so. This will significantly broaden my reach. I might also go the free downloadable pdf file route. I’m looking into it.
Mostly I’ve been rereading Seven Years Later. For the time being it can only be for paid subscribers and the back half is a bit of a mess of journal entry style things which were shared with close friends over email, on messenger, and in a few other places. I went scattershot with it because I only seemed to gain traction with friends. It’s almost like this vast audience of millions of potential readers that Amazon purports to have weren’t seeing it or something.
Anyways here is another excerpt from that one. I think this is Chapter 9 or something but I thought it was interesting. I’m starting to think periodic episodes are a good idea, even if they don’t necessarily go in order. I hope you enjoy and thank you for supporting my work. Substack has been a lifesaver on that front and my 1000+ free subscribers and few dozens paid subscribers are in my eternal gratitude. Your support, including sharing, commenting, providing feedback, encouragement and time commitments, has really meant the world to me. There was a point on Amazon where I lamented to my daughter that I’d be grateful for even terrible book reviews.
I’m thinking the whole system needs to be rebuilt from the outside…
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