Time To Be Brave

 

Hope uplifted me today when I read the article linked here, simply because it offers a real and practical step in whittling down Big Tech's control and influence over our lives and society. There is a web browser called Brave (it's run by Mozilla's founder) that will default to the search engine DuckDuckGo instead of Google.

Immediately after reading "How To Stop Using Google Search on Your Computer And Phone," I went to the App Store on my iPhone and downloaded Brave. I axed Safari from my phone's home screen and dragged Brave into its high-traffic spot. Fast, easy--effective. It's my one small step for today.

I had already migrated to Mozilla and DuckDuckGo on my laptop, as mentioned in a recent post. All of my recent actions in trying to limit corporate technology's long reach into my life are mere raindrops in a vast ocean. But if enough of us apply these steps, and also continue to search out other small measures to take, and if we share our findings with each other--then one day there may come a tsunami of consumer push-back against the tyrannical control of the tech monsters.

It's hard to know where or how to start the fight to regain our private lives and personal freedoms. But I think any one of us would be off to a good start by being Brave. 

 

A Long Four Years Ahead

 

One must be so careful about personal expression these days, I've been wondering how to even approach a new post. Is it worth continuing a "tip-toe" blog, where I'll need to agonize over every sentence for fear of the Thought Police swooping down upon me?

No, it's not. So I'm going to roll the dice and continue writing honestly. If the jack-booted lefties come to get me in the middle of the night, hopefully I can have someone let you know.

What did you do on Inauguration Day? That seems a fair question. I, for one, ignored it. That's right. I didn't consider this inauguration worthy of my time or attention, so I worked from home with my favorite music playing in the background. Oh, and I thanked my stars that I held onto all my CDs and an old boom box to listen on. Sorry, Google, Pandora, and iTunes, you weren't invited. Get used to it.

Since I have no cable TV anymore, I watch news on my laptop. In the evening, it was therapeutic fun to mute all the video clips of Biden talking. Of course, you can't avoid all of it, and I do want to be informed--but reading can do that. I don't need to hear him, and I'm simply not interested. Talk is cheap, Joe, as you've been proving for nearly 50 years. It's actions that count, and I've never been impressed with yours. You may surprise me in your current role; but based on the mess you've made in just two days, I doubt it. In fact, I fear that America is in for a long and tormented four years under a Biden administration.

Hmm, did I not use the title "president" when referring to Joe Biden? Well! Clumsy me.

None of Their Business

Last spring I treated myself to a Fitbit. In the intervening months I've become quite accustomed to referring to it often throughout my daily activities. In fact, I had become a tad obsessive about maintaining accurate accounts on my Fitbit. I disliked removing it, even for the necessary battery charging intervals.

So when I received an email last Thursday that Fitbit has become part of Google, I faced a moment of truth. How committed am I, really, to waging my individual war against Big Tech? It was a difficult decision, but I finished my weekly stats as of last night. This morning, I removed my Fitbit from my wrist and stuck it in a drawer. I also removed the app from my phone.

I comfort myself with the conclusion that it's probably healthier for me to distance myself from compulsive health monitoring, anyway. I have enough information on how many calories I burn in a day, how far I walk in a week, and the stats regarding my resting heart rate. There is no earthly reason why Google should receive this information, and I'm determined they will not have it.

So my focus on disconnection from Big Tech wherever it is practical and doable continues. I'm starting two new books today, following my pattern in recent years of reading one fiction and one non-fiction work simultaneously. As a lifelong reader and book lover, it is a soul-satisfying experience to hold a physical book in my hands, to turn the paper pages, to measure my progress with a physical bookmark. Because reading has always been such an enjoyable tactile experience, since the advent of e-readers I consistently have read one book in paper form and the other in electronic format.

This time, both books I'm beginning are physical paper books. Google, Apple, and Amazon will just have to wonder what I'm reading.

 

Action Items, Continued

 

In continuing efforts to limit my exposure to Big Tech, I've switched from Google to the privacy-conscious search engine DuckDuckGo. All of my bookmarks and favorites have been migrated to the new site via the more private web browser Mozilla Firefox. I now surf the web, read my email, and receive all my news on this platform.

There are other, less technology-oriented steps conservatives can take to further our principles and support the education of our countrymen in conservative values. If you're a reluctant member of the left-leaning AARP, look into joining AMAC instead. The fast-growing Association of Mature American Citizens offers subscription pricing and service discounts comparable to the more well-known group, a quarterly magazine, and most importantly--political efforts to advance conservative causes in Washington D.C. I've been a satisfied AMAC member for over a decade. If you lean to the right, please give the AMAC website a look and consider joining.

Hillsdale College in Michigan takes not a single penny of Federal money in order to be able to freely teach the curriculum they believe embodies the best education of their students. Hillsdale also offers a free monthly newsletter, Imprimis, which often distills a recent speech to students into reading format. This month, college President Dr. Larry Arnn writes of "Orwell's 1984 and Today"--more timely reading cannot be found. I've received Imprimis for many years, and I've also been a consistent donor to the college. It's my belief that when we find something we believe in and wish to share it far and wide, we should support and promote it.

As stated at the start, I'm limiting my exposure to Big Tech. The technological hydra is so expansive and ubiquitous that I doubt anyone who is online today can completely escape its iron-fisted reach. So I am facing some dilemmas. My email is still hosted through AT&T, my Apple phone through Verizon. These are more daunting challenges to resolve.

Perhaps most challenging from the standpoint of principle is that this blog is hosted through Google. I'm grateful that I've always resisted Google's push to insert advertising into its blogs. I maintain this blog primarily for the sheer joy of writing and make my living elsewhere. So I comfort myself that at least there is no advertising revenue feeding Google through my pages.

For the past week, I log into my blog with some trepidation that it might well be gone. If it is removed due to my conservatism, I'll accept that honor gladly. In the meantime, I'd like to thank you here and now for reading. It was great fun to write while we were free.

Silenced

When I left Twitter and Facebook in November, I joined Parler. While I didn't post, I followed those media figures I had followed on Twitter and read their content and comments. It was an alternative source of news, a differing perspective, a viewpoint challenging the politically correct monolith of distorted and dishonest mainstream media.

As of today Parler has been shut down virtually overnight by Google, Facebook, Apple, and Amazon--our leftist communication overlords. Free speech is now a thing of the past in America. Since I find I'm living quite easily without Facebook or Twitter, I suppose I'll adjust in time to no news on social media; I've lived many decades without such electronic outlets and certainly can do so again. 

But what to do about the corruption and curtailing of our constitutional right to free speech? Conservatives can take individual tiny steps that collectively will have an effect over time. This morning I deleted the Instagram app from my phone. I've started checking Newsmax at least as often as Fox News. I'm planning to buy a Barnes & Noble Nook e-reader to replace my Amazon Kindle. Aside from not supporting Big Tech or Big Media, we can subscribe to such online publications as The Epoch Times. 

From a practical standpoint, the fact that there were nearly 75 million conservative voters in the 2020 election shows there are simply too many of us for totalitarian measures to remain effective. When threatened by tyranny, history tells us that Americans will find their voice. I have to believe the current imposed silence will not last.

Resolving to Act

 "Crying is all right in its way while it lasts. But you have to stop sooner or later, and then you still have to decide what to do.”

~ C.S. Lewis

How to begin the entries of 2021? The traditional, ubiquitous greeting of "Happy New Year" is grotesquely out of place at the moment. With public unrest resulting from endless COVID lockdowns and restriction of our liberties, plus widespread distrust over the presidential election results culminating in yesterday's assault on our Capitol, the wheels seem to be coming off our society. So what is there to say?

After giving it considerable thought, I've arrived at some conclusions necessary for moving forward into our murky future with any hope of national recovery and peace. These measures are obvious to me. You may or may not agree, but for whatever they may be worth, they appear below:

1. Perpetrating violence against people, property, or our institutions is wrong. It doesn't matter whose banner is flying over it. It must stop, and it must be punished.
2. The legacy media must start reporting the news factually, not emotionally or ideologically.
3. Election law reform with vigilant enforcement procedures should be the first order of business in every state legislature.
4. Accurate and practical voter identification processes, consistently applied, should be an urgent and imperative national priority.
5. Social media activity must be minimized. There are plenty of more productive things for all of us to do. Read a book, listen to music, go for a walk, call a friend, work on a hobby. For your own peace of mind, and to start starving the electronic beast, avoid the hate-filled cesspools online.
6. People must be free to speak their minds without fear of harm or retribution. This is no longer the United States of America if we can't do that.
7. People must be free to earn a living and to support and protect their families and homes. This is no longer the United States of America if we can't do that.
8. Perhaps this is no longer the United States of America as we have known it. If it is not, we--not Big Tech, not the media, not academia, not the courts, not Hollywood, not Congress, but WE--as American citizens--must decide what's next.

Hand-wringing won't cut it. Action is needed. I offer a few personal examples: in June I canceled my cable television service; in November I left Facebook and Twitter; this week I signed the petition to recall California Gov. Gavin Newsom. I know I need to do much more, but that's a start.

It's your move.