This post is not exclusively about me, but it is based upon my own experiences. Kind of like the old “based on a true story” thing that Hollywood once loved. I am beyond frustrated with social media. Not just for myself, but the many, many good, awake, valuable contributors in the alternative media.
There are many of us who do podcasts, write books, and blog regularly, who could go much farther than Tucker Carlson did, and eventually draw the same kind of huge audience. But there isn’t a single television network that’s going to give any of us that kind of platform. They know that, even as dumbed-down as most Americans are now, the kind of powerful truth we could expose about 9/11 and so many other forbidden topics, would draw people, including lots of “normies” who are asleep but still reachable. And there are plenty of us who could present this kind of information in a humorous and entertaining style.
Since television serves as a public relations outfit for our increasingly deranged “Woke” authorities, and talk radio is dominated by mainstream conservatism, the internet has long been our only hope. And until they banned Alex Jones from the big tech platforms in 2018, the internet was a shockingly free place. Kind of like the old Wild West. YouTube wasn’t censoring the often insightful citizen journalist videos about Sandy Hook, the Boston Bombing, and many other topics. Some alternative channels had a million subscribers. I used to be invited on some of the biggest ones. But after Alex Jones, the dominoes started falling, and other channels were banned.
And it’s not like the alternative voices support each other that enthusiastically. There is unhealthy competition, and distrust, which I’ve commented on before. A lot of them cheered the deplatforming of Alex Jones. Too many suspect others, who are saying similar things, of being disinfo agents, limited hangouts, etc. So we have to depend to a large extent upon those who are listening to and reading us. The Twittersphere especially is like a high school hierarchy. The numbers of followers you have is crucial. It becomes particularly unfair when something artificially limits your ability to grow an audience there, or elsewhere in the social media world.
I was involved in Dustin Nemos’ Stop Bit Burning campaign, to combat this odious online censorship. He was working with one of embattled Kentucky teenager Nicholas Sandmann’s attorneys. I don’t know what happened to the group, or to Dustin. But it’s pretty obvious they weren’t successful. The censorship is growing steadily. I suspect that the snoozing hordes who want to punish the “insurrectionists” and think our greatest threats are Vladimir Putin and “White Supremacy,” would be fully on board for the FCC taking over the internet, and making it as boring and useless as terrestrial radio and network television.
We are akin to cyber Minutemen at this point (okay, Minutepeople), forced almost to use guerilla tactics to combat an all powerful and ruthless enemy. If you still believe in free speech, unlike most present-day Americans, you must demonstrate your support. Listen to my podcast, and the many others like it. Subscribe on Substack to all of the truly independent voices here. Read the books that those like me write, while there are still publishers willing to put their names on them. There are also many valuable self-published works out there.
On a personal level, people ask me all the time, “how can I help?” They want to know how to support my work, beyond buying the books and listening to my radio shows. It’s very gratifying to know that there are people out there who want to help me. I’m not in danger of going homeless any time soon. Most of the world would laugh at my First World problem. America is no longer a First World country. However, some of us can still have First World problems. I live a comfortable life, but my full-time writing and commenting career doesn’t pay that well. I’m living my dream, and doing exactly what I always wanted to do, but I’m getting paid like a McDonald’s employee.
Most of my net worth is in my home. And, of course, that’s entirely subject to the vagaries of our rigged marketplace. If the real estate industry collapses, as it very well could, the net worth of many millions of Americans, including me, would plummet. We wouldn’t have those First World problems to worry about any longer. And if we do indeed go to a digitalized currency, with some kind of corresponding social credit score, then people like me will be literally unable to pay our bills. I have seven books out there (with an eighth about to be released), and countless articles, social media posts, and podcasts, that damn me as a hopeless pariah and Thought Criminal.
It’s very heady stuff to get the accolades I have, from people all over the world. When someone says that you’ve changed their life, how do you respond to that? Whenever I think I’m not making a difference, someone reminds me that I am. It’s sobering to consider that I spent fifteen years, ending around 1989, in a physically demanding job, pulling carts around that weighed as much as a thousand pounds. When you’re a blue collar worker, no one praises your job performance. So it took some time to adjust to hearing people say they were my “fans.” I’m very humbled by that. But I know that sooner or later my fast food income could catch up with me.
And the censoring of the big names in our world, starting with Alex Jones, has trickled down to the likes of me. I am shadow banned on both Facebook and Twitter. I have the maximum number of 5,000 friends on Facebook. When COVID started, I instantly was skeptical, and significantly increased my following with my controversial posts on Facebook. I lost a lot of former supporters, and my own niece cancelled me from her life. But then, at some point, I stopped getting much reaction to my posts. I didn’t know what a “shadow ban” was at first. Boy, have I learned.
Whenever I post anything on Facebook now that is either “controversial,” or just promoting my book, my podcast, or even an upcoming interview, I get only a handful of reactions. However, if I post about my dog, or my birthday, then I can still get hundreds of responses. Today, I posted a notification about the new Beatles book I wrote, along with Bob Wilson, called From Strawberry Fields to Abbey Road: A Billy Shears Story. It’s about the “Paul is Dead” controversy, and includes interviews with many celebrities. In the past, when I announced a new book, I got great response. This time, there have been six likes and zero comments in the first hour. And it’s not like it’s one of my controversial books.
