When I got home, Kaylee was wrapping up some Christmas gifts she hadn't gotten in the mail yet, and when she was done I went with her to UPS to get them shipped off. We stopped at Panera for her and Ann, and then at Culver's for me.
I had to swap out the GPS card in the T-6 today with an updated database, and it's pretty hard to get in and out of there without the sides/steps on it. Even getting up on the wing was tougher without a step to grab on to. It probably looked pretty funny if anyone had been watching. ;)
I'm a little stunned with everything going on in the "outside world". So since I don't talk about it publicly, I'll just say here...wow. I didn't mind the march happening in DC. People have the right to protest, just like the peaceful BLM protestors had a right to protest. There were hundreds of thousands of people there, even several I knew, a lot of families, older people, people of color, 99.5% of whom were peaceful, standing, walking, waving flags, and just wanting their voices heard like everyone else. All the people I know who were there in person, all individually said and saw the same peaceful, respectful things. None of them were in or on the Capitol building. Many were actually a ways away from it and didn't know it was happening. I called out the looting, rioting, fire starting, people getting beaten or killed, that BLM did not have the right to do that. Same in DC. The small fraction that got into the capitol and went on a rampage were wrong, crossed the line, and they did not have the right to do it. Four or five people were killed, including a Capitol Police officer, who was just doing his job. Dozens injured. Property damaged. It was no longer representing what the good people were trying to do and say. The woman who was shot and killed trying to breach the inner room against several officers with guns drawn...what do we say about African Americans who keep coming at officers when told to stop? That if they'd comply, they wouldn't get shot? She kept going. She got shot. It stopped the rest of them from trying to get in there, too. On the other hand, the hypocrisy is overwhelming on the other side. Nobody wants to "say her name" for being an unarmed woman shot by police. Good thing she was a conservative, white, retired military service member who was shot unarmed, so that there was no actual injustice and no need to loot and burn the city over the police taking her out, right? And claiming it's racism because the officers were more riot-gear attired for the BLM riots than this one? I'm sure it had nothing to do with the fact that DC was already in flames back then, with violence all over the city. When the curfew happened at 6 pm the other day, guess what happened? That's right, all those hundreds of thousands of peaceful protestors left, went home, to their hotels, and caused no more harm. The photos and images you see of all the protestors, the folks outside, the vast majority, were peaceful, calm, standing. And yet now everyone who went is a traitor, a terrorist. For a few hours there was a fraction of the damage and destruction that BLM spent 7 months doing across the entire country, shutting down and decimating entire cities even, and yet THESE are the major terrorists and the OTHERS were heroes for "standing up". And don't forget that as of today anyone who isn't left leaning needs to be shut down on social media. Parler being shut down by Apple and Google. Trump and Rush being banned on not just Twitter, but on about every media. Reddit shut the page down, Facebook shut down several conservative pages. YouTube and TikTok censoring. Etc. Yet the terrorist leaders in Iran and other actual violent folks still have their accounts up and running, no problem. So it's appropriate for a conglomerate to decide what everyone gets to hear and say, and if you don't agree with their narrative, you don't get to talk at all. Now Facebook, Twitter, Apple, Google, and the news media, they will tell you what you get to say and what you get to hear and see. This is scary, and this is wrong, and I don't care what side of the political spectrum you're on, it's wrong. If it was Trump shutting down opposing information or communication, I would call that out too. This is...scary. The party of tolerance and respecting differences? Riiiight. I'm a little afraid of what could be coming. I'm just seriously...disturbed. This is really bad.
I have been on MeWe and Parler since 2018, but I don't do much on them. I don't like Twitter, so I don't like Parler anyway. MeWe is closer to Facebook, but I have 25 friends there, and over 1000 on Facebook, so...I can't keep up with people which is my main reason for being there. All I want to do is keep up with folks I care about, and post pretty pictures of mostly airplane stuff. So I found out today that MeWe has an 8GB limit on photos, after which you have to buy more storage or delete your old photos. Well, that stinks. I only post photos, and I'm not paying money for storage to do it on a social media site. Which means when I run out of photo space, I'm done on MeWe anyway, if the Internet gods doesn't shut them down first too. So why build up people on there if I'll be ditching or unable to participate after awhile? But I hate being stuck with Facebook with the path they are firmly planted on. I wish there could be a mass migration to a truly uncensored page where people can go or not go if they want, and nobody else controls the narrative, and people would actually go and participate and enjoy. But so far, you can't break Facebook's hold. It's too deep, long-standing and familiar. *sigh*
On that cheerful note, I'm going to go to bed, I think. What a start to 2021.
No comments:
Post a Comment