Opinion by Dr. Rima
Rima E. Laibow, MD, Medical Director, Natural Solutions Foundation, January 22, 2021
Censorship by Big Tech is a huge and very, very real problem for our rights and freedoms. Political opinion, medical fact, social commentary all are under attack as We, the People, struggle to keep our balance and our voices.
John Brennan, former CIA Director, said on inauguration day two days ago that “law enforcement, homeland security, intelligence, and even the defense officials are doing everything possible to root out what seems to be a very very serious and insidious threat to our democracy and our republic.” He stated that this threat “brings together an unholy alliance of religious extremists, authoritarians, fascists, bigots, racists, nativists, even libertarians.” [1]
Apparently, the ever compliant Facebook freedom bots are on the job protecting freedom and keeping us safe. We can sleep easier tonight!
I avoid Social Media. I do not like being surveilled and having my data commercialized and criminalized. I do not like having our views on vaccine dangers and official-ocracy stupidity (like masking) stifled. I do not like the fact that Counsel Ralph was de-platformed by FB along with Natural Solutions Foundation.
But the best way to notify Valley Vet that the expensive (and important to my dog’s health) doggie treadmill that I had purchased a few months ago is not working seemed to be to post a request for help on FB. I succumbed and attempted to post my request.
You can see the result in red.
But when I tried to post my question on FB as to how this post could possibly violate their community standards, the response was to reject the query noting “Something has gone wrong”
Oh, yes. Something has gone horribly, terribly, terrifyingly wrong with our society.
And this algorithmic chilling of communication is very much a part of what has gone wrong.
What are we going to do about it? I, for one, will not go back to Facebook again. While I cannot say that there is nothing that could compel me to do so, I cannot imagine submitting to the AI whims of a system this oppressive and opague.
Have you tried Gab dot com, Dr. Rima? It’s a promising beacon of hope in the midst of our dark winter.
I purchased a people treadmill for about $ 675.00 on or about December 1, 2009 at Wal-Mart Supercenter in Uniontown, Pennsylvania. Its belt started slipping within a few days. Running on a treadmill whose belt slips, despite your efforts to tighten the bolts down around the rollers in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions, is a lot like trying to run on a slick surface of ice with a film of water on top. It feels weird. Mid-December of 2009, after putting up with it for about two weeks, I ran on it for fifteen minutes and again it started slipping, and instead of jumping off, I stubbornly pushed on for about fifteen more minutes. About 23 hours later, I got personally acquainted with “delayed-onset muscle soreness.” One soleus (calf) muscle was so shortened all of a sudden that I could no longer put my heel on the floor to walk. Casting my foot in a homemade wooden cast to keep my toes from pointing in bed while I slept, for a couple of nights (age 48 at the time), was a marvelous way to heal that, that the best doctors in southwest Pennsylvania could not touch nor fathom. Even while injured, I boxed up that cheap, Chinese treadmill and brought it straight back to Wal-Mart and got my money back. These days, my solution to the dark winter is an Xiser (incorrectly called an “X-iser” by Beth Leonard on page 374 of her book, The Voyager’s Handbook: “Lorraine Colman demonstrates the (sic) X-iser in the cockpit of her 34-foot boat. The (sic) X-iser offers a compact solution to the aerobic exercise problem.” Yes, in the sleeper cab of a 63-foot tractor-trailer, it does !! The triumph of American free enterprise.
I believe that what the FB notification is saying is that you recently posted something that goes against their ‘community standards’ so you’re unable to post anything at the time being, including your post on the treadmill. This means that you posted something else prior to your attempt to post about the treadmill and that is what flagged the FB system to put you in FB jail. I know because it’s happened to people I know. I’m sorry this has happened to you (quite unfairly and unjustly) but, as you said, the solution is to get off of FB and choose to engage with platforms that respect freedom of speech. Thank you for all that you do to bring awareness on issues that require lay-people’s attention.
Well, that would make sense if I had posted anything to FB but since I have not in months and months, there was nothing that violated any community standards at all.
Wow, I am so sorry about the censorship that you have experienced on FB. Know that you are not the only one and are in good company. I pray more people take note and make the decision to exit platforms that do not respect freedom of speech (be it their own or others’). Maybe that will send them a message that they censorship is not acceptable.
Everything is being censored. They’re pulling the biggest con job this planet has ever seen. As Robert Casey, Reagan’s head of the CIA was allegedly overheard saying, “We’ll know our disinformation campaign is a success when everything the American people believe is a lie.”