fear-based acquiescence

i have taken to refusing to scroll down the feed when i log on to facebook these days simply because there is nothing constructive in doing so…the feed is chock full of loud, contentious, abrasive, and relentless posturing over issues that may or may not be of concern…in large part it is not any sort of calm, reasoned debate…rather it is mostly an appeal to emotion…and the emotion it appeals to most is fear…from both sides of the political spectrum there are posting that are fear based…from “they are going to take our guns” to “amazon is selling facial recognition technology to the government so there will be no anonymity in public…well, for the nonce, no one is taking anyone’s guns unless there is a legal reason ( don’t wave a .45 at your neighbor...they frown on that ) and there is no such thing as privacy or anonymity in public anymore…have you actually looked around for cameras in public spaces recently? They are everywhere and those are just the ones you can see…we are all observed and have been for some time…this will only continue…but back to the fear –based business…all propaganda ( and hence advertising ) are designed to create anxiety…to push emotional buttons and create a state of unease that neutralized resistance to the message…weary acceptance of whatever is on offer is a successful sale if enthusiastic approval is not obtainable…I am inclined to think that an equal portion of this is designed to bludgeon me into apathy…to so overload me that I turn away ( which, actually, I have in part by refusing to scroll down the feed...there is another facet to that reaction however ) retreat in to happier thoughts which then allows the purveyors of this emotional assault free to frame the debate and exert greater control over immediate events ( variables increase, probably exponentially, as the event horizon moves farther into the future…human cognition is limited…no one knows they are simply trying to bullshit you into believing they do )…neo-cons or liberal, there are those who want to engender apathy and acquiescence …there are a godawful lot of people out there who want to manipulate my thinking…whether into cowering agreement or apathy doesn’t seem to matter…in their pursuit of power or money ( although, near as I can tell, they are fungible commodities…either is a gateway to the other )…refusing to scroll the feed does not indicate retreat or surrender however…there are other sources of information…and while none are truly objective ( mostly because there isn’t a truly objective human ) they are more balanced than the neatly packaged propaganda facebook keeps churning out…the issue there is finding them and then perusing them which tales more time than being spoon fed by the feed but will weave you more intact intellectually and in a better position to judge events and act…and acting on your perceptions is what it is about…don’t let them beat you into a position od acceptance…fuck quietism.