When Facebook Sells Out

I’ve posted about it before long ago, but I’ve been heavily involved in a grassroots movement called SlutWalk Minneapolis, one of the many SlutWalks that took place last year all over the world.  Last year’s SlutWalk was a big success, and we’re gearing up to have another one this year on Saturday, October 6.  Like many successful grassroots organizations in the 21st Century, we’ve relied heavily on Facebook to spread the word on who we are and what we stand for.  We’ve had a lot of success using Facebook to promote not just the Walk itself, but the various other advocacy and fundraising events that led up to it.  We tried to do the same thing this year, but we’ve hit a huge stumbling block.  It turns out that the Facebook page we created for SlutWalk Minneapolis has only been reaching a few of its 2,000-plus subscribers thanks to some new policies that Facebook has put in place.

What are these policies, you ask?  Well, I could describe them, but I think this article covers it better than I ever could.  It’s a long post, but before you stupidly put “too long; didn’t read” in the comments section at least give it a scan.  There’s even an “executive summary” towards the beginning of the article that sums things up nicely.

The long and short of it is that Facebook is using a algorithm called EdgeRank which has an impact on what ends up on your news feed.  Basically, EdgeRank decides what you see from pages that you’ve “liked” based on its relevancy and your interests.  Unfortunately, this means that roughly 84 percent of a page’s subscribers won't see the majority of its posts.

This isn’t anything new; Facebook has been using EdgeRank for at least a year, possibly as far back as 2010.  What is new is Facebook’s Promoted Posts feature, which allows admins to reach more of their subscribers by clicking a handy little “Promote” button on their page.  Oh, and they have to pay a fee for this privilege.

That’s right.  Promoting an event, service, product, indie band or grassroots organization isn’t as simple as creating a Facebook page and getting followers to click “Like” anymore.  You now need to pay Facebook to do something that was once free.  It’s not a small amount, either; admins of pages with thousands of fans can expect to pay hundreds of dollars per post if they want to reach all of their followers.  

To truly realize how bad this latest fuckery can be, try to imagine that you have a small start-up business.  You set up a Facebook fan page because that’s what you do in this day and age.  You hope that it will help to spread the word that you are open for business, but you soon find that those who choose to follow you are barely aware that you exist.  Every advertisement or update that you post is buried under glossy corporate ads from companies that can afford to shell out the money needed to reach all their fans.  Sadly, you do not have this kind of money.  You’ve been effectively thrown under the bus by Facebook’s greedy new policy.

If you ask me, this goes against what social networking sites like Facebook are supposed to do.  They’re supposed to be places where people from all over the world and all walks of life can come together and communicate with each other.  A good social networking site should be the water cooler at work, the town square and a gathering of friends except on a more global scale.  It shouldn’t be yet another place that gets taken over by Corporate America, but that’s apparently what’s happening with Facebook.  Corporate greed is taking over, and once again the little guys are suffering because of it.

My inner anti-establishment grassroots socialist hippie hopes that people will become fed up with this latest turn of events and leave Facebook en masse, but the sad fact of the matter is that I don’t see that happening.  People are sheep, especially in Facebook Land.  A small number of people may rail against this new policy for as long as it’s trendy, but soon enough they’ll go back to sending out their Farmville requests and giving their life stories in status updates without a care in the world.  After all, that’s what you’re “supposed” to do in this day and age.  People practically live and breathe on social networks these days, and for many people Facebook is social networking.  They don’t know anything else. In fact, chances are that you're reading this because of the link I'll soon post on Facebook (I'm well aware of the sad irony of that fact; there's no need to point it out).

For the record, there are other social networks out there.  They may not be as huge as Facebook, but in my opinion they’re closer to what a good social networking site should be.  Everyone is probably at least aware of Twitter, but it’s almost as big as Facebook so I don’t think I need to elaborate on it..  There’s also LiveJournal, of which I’ve been a member since 2009 as TJ1380.  It seems to be slowly dying, though.  There’s also Tumblr, but if you found my blog by scouring the Internet for any length of time you probably know all about that already.  For something closer to Facebook, there’s Google Plus.  It has yet to draw enough of a crowd to be the Facebook killer that it wants so badly to be, but that could still change.  Feel free to sign up and see what it’s all about if you haven’t already.  In fact, sign up for any of these sites.  There are plenty more out there; these are just a few that I like.  Maybe one or more of them can become big enough to be the kind of free promotional tool that Facebook should be.

And now, it’s time for me to help set right what once went wrong...

I mentioned way back at the beginning of this post that I am involved in SlutWalk Minneapolis, a grassroots organization intended to stand against the Rape Culture that is so prevalent in our society.  The Walk itself will be held on October 6, 2012, but we have plenty going on until then.  For starters, we will have an information booth at Twin Cities Pride on June 23 and 24, and we will be walking in the Pride Parade itself on the 24th.  We need volunteers to man the booth and walk with us, so if you’re interested more information can be found here along with information on other upcoming events.  And no, you don’t have to be a “slut” to participate; anybody who is sick of victim blaming, slut-shaming and the Rape Culture can participate and make their voices heard.

Yes, Listen to the bigot. You might learn something.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Bryan Fischer, president of The American Family Association.

(Note: Before you watch the following video, know that I do not agree with or endorse anything it says.  What you are about to hear is vile, disgusting bullshit spewed from the mouth of a vile, disgusting human being.)




You may be wondering why I, a staunch advocate for GLBT rights and same-sex marriage, decided to post this.  I should hate this video with every fiber of my being, but I can't.  The truth is that I'm actually kind of glad that Fischer made his point of view known.  I'm glad that he came out and said that not only is he firmly against homosexuality, but that he believes that Christians should be able to discriminate against GLBT people.

This all might sound crazy, but to me it does make some kind of sense.  As an advocate for GLBT rights, I often find myself surrounded by like-minded people.  Most of my friends these days are GLBT or GLBT supportive.  There are a few who aren't, but for the most part they're respectful and civil enough to not openly discriminate against GLBT people.  The thing about almost always being around people who are accepting of GLBT people is that I'm not often exposed to anybody with a truly hateful or prejudiced mindset.  It's almost like I forget that there are still plenty of truly homophobic people out there, people who still believe that there is a "homosexual agenda" that will destroy this country unless we start treating gay people as subhuman.

I sometimes need a reminder of what GLBT people and their allies are truly fighting against.  It's too easy for me to look around at the many happy same-sex couples that I know and marvel at how much better life is for them than it would've been just a few decades ago.  It's too easy for me to forget that there are people that truly believe that gays are horrible people who are no different from deranged criminals or terrorists, so much so that I'm shocked whenever someone like Bryan Fischer steps forward and voices his hateful and prejudiced views on homosexuality.

I cannot let myself be shocked by this though, and neither should anyone else.  The fact of the matter is that while things have gotten better for GLBT people across the country, homophobia and prejudice towards anybody who is openly not straight are still serious problems.  Things like this video and the radio show where I'm sure Fischer regularly spews similarly vile, disgusting bullshit are reminders of this.  We need to know that mindsets such as this are still out there, and that we need to fight against it.

So when you hear somebody talking about how much of a threat the "homosexual agenda" is to religious freedom, don't get angry at the people saying these things.  They're letting us know what GLBT people and their allies are up against.  Thanks to them, we know about the attitudes we need to change.  It's these attitudes that truly deserve your anger, and hopefully in a few years we can convince others how archaic and backwards this discriminatory mindset really is.

A New Name And Other Things

If you go back a few posts on this blog, you'll notice I talked about some changes that were going to happen here.  I wanted a new title that made a little more sense to me and possibly a new layout.

As you can see, I have a new title.  I am no longer "Herding Cats."  Instead, I am "Burning Around the Edges."

And yes, there's a good reason why I decided on that name.  Although I'll continue to blog about whatever the hell I want because this is my blog, I want to have a general theme of social commentary.  Things in this country are seriously messed up right now.  Technically, this isn't new; life in America has never been perfect for everyone, but to me it feels like it's gotten worse.  Society is burning, but it's not beyond saving yet.  It's burning around the edges, and we have to get through the burnt parts to get to the stuff worth saving.  I'd like to think that I'm shining a light on things that we need to change or get rid of to make things better, even though I'm just one of millions of bloggers in this country recognizing how bad things have gotten and how much worse they can get.

Also, my genius wife suggested the name while I was brainstorming what to call this thing.  I think she was thinking of pizza, and I was hungry.  Hence, we have a blog that suggests an unfortunate yet salvageable adventure in baking.

As for the layout and background, that's going to stay as is for now.  It's simple with no frills, but that's why I like it.  There are few things worse than a website where the content takes a back seat to a busy, complicated and garish design.  What I have here is nothing fancy, but it isn't supposed to be.  Those that come here will hopefully be drawn to what I write, not what happens to be framing it.

One thing that I did add was some gadgets that link my blog to a few other blogs worth checking out and to my Twitter feed.  In other words, I've added things that will hopefully make me a little more visible as opposed to the online version of the guy hiding in the corner at parties.

Anyway, I just thought I'd post a quick update.  I'll try to post more often here, so stay tuned.

An Agnostic who Believes in Jesus

Today, I’m going to talk about religion and Christianity. Again. I don’t mean to sound like a broken record on this blog, but religion has always been a subject of great interest to me. I’ve also had something of a crisis of faith over the past several months that has had me questioning my own Christian beliefs. I was raised to be a Christian, but many of the “Christians” I see are some of the nastiest, most judgmental, ignorant and bigoted people I’ve come across. It makes me wonder if the path of Christianity is truly meant for me. That being said, I thought I’d give my interpretation on the history of Christianity. I should probably do some research and be prepared to back up my statements, but that’s not the point of this little exercise. Take this as the point of view of someone who once called himself a Christian but is now more of an agnostic who believes in Jesus. And yes, I believe that is a thing. An agnostic can still believe in Jesus. Bear with me and you’ll see what I mean. * * * In the beginning, the Universe was without form, or at least any kind of form that we know. It existed as a dense, hot singularity until some abstract force acted on it and caused it to expand. This is known to modern scientists as the Big Bang, and it was the beginning of the Universe as we know it. The force that acted on the singularity is bigger, more powerful, more abstract and more mysterious than anything we can comprehend, and there is no way any human being can truly know what it is. As the Universe expanded, stars and planets began to form. After billions of years, one of these planets became capable of supporting life. We know this planet as Earth. After billions of years of evolution, modern human beings became the dominant species on Earth. These humans became aware of the world around them to decide that the abstract force that created the Universe must be watching over them. As people have a tendency to do, they attempted to personify this force. They called it many names and experienced it in different ways, but to keep things simple we’ll call this force God. People everywhere worshipped God in different ways, and this gave rise to several religions all over the world. One of these religions was Judaism, followed by people in what is now the Middle East. These people believed that they were “God’s chosen people,” and that they would one day be saved by a Messiah who was the Son of God. Many people believe that this Messiah was a man named Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus was something of a radical who questioned and challenged many of the religious teachings of the time. He also taught that we should love our enemies and do unto others as we would have them do unto us. He gained many followers during His time, but those in power didn’t take kindly to the way He questioned their authority and ultimately had Him executed. It was believed that He came back from the dead, thus demonstrating His power over death and proving to His followers that He was the Son of God. Of course, not everyone believed that a man had come back from the dead or that He was truly the Son of God. After all, it’s a hard thing for a person to believe. His followers attempted to spread His teachings, and while many of them were mocked and even killed for their beliefs, eventually some very powerful people decided that this new religion called Christianity was the one true faith. This led to the foundation of the Catholic church, which eventually spread Christianity to all parts of the world. By this time it looked as if Jesus really was the Son of God, and that He and His followers did what they were always meant to do. It was during this time that the holy Scriptures of Christianity was canonized into one book, known as the Bible. Many people all over the world believe the Bible to be the infallible Word of God to this day, but there are some problems with that belief. First of all, the 66 books that make up the Bible are far from the only Scripture that pertains to Jewish or Christian beliefs. They were only what the church believed to be relevant. Second of all, the Bible has been translated and reinterpreted so many times that it’s difficult to know exactly what the original meaning of what some of the Scriptures were meant to be, and the fact that many of the stories presented in the Bible predate the written word just makes things more confusing. While much of the Bible is true, much of it is also full of folklore that was not meant to be taken literally, and some of the mistranslations and misinterpretations over the years have filled the book with things that simply aren’t true. Faith can be a powerful thing however, and over time the folklore and half-truths were taken as absolute truth. Armed with the not-always-infallible Bible and a position of nearly absolute power, the leaders of the church began to impose their will on the rest of the world while passing it off as the will of God. Teachings that were meant to keep people in line became church dogma, and after several generations few people bothered to question any of it. Even different denominations of Christianity that broke away from the Catholic church fell into the same traps. The dogma of the churches allowed people to persecute and condemn others who didn’t fit into a specific mold of what a Christian should be, and soon this beautiful religion of peace that was meant to be founded on teachings such as “Love your enemies” and “Love your neighbor” became a bone of contention to modern people at best and a breeding ground for hatred and bigotry at its worst. There are still people who forego the more extreme and hateful dogmatic teachings and follow the teachings of Jesus, and they do provide hope for the future, but sadly the damage to Christianity’s reputation has been done. So now the question after that long-winded explanation is this: where do I fit in? I was raised as a Christian to be a Christian, but I’ve grown so disillusioned with church dogma and the hypocrisy of those claiming to follow Jesus that I find it hard to fall in line. I still believe in the teachings of Jesus, mainly because it’s hard to argue with anybody who says that we should love our neighbors and help the lowest, poorest and most “wretched” of people. It’s a beautiful message, and I would be hard pressed to find someone who isn’t moved by it even a little bit. I’d like to believe that Jesus was also the Son of God and that He did rise from the dead, but I’m both skeptical and open-minded enough to think that may not be the case. For now, I choose to look up to Jesus as a kind and wise teacher as well as someone who wasn’t afraid to question an unfair status quo. I have to plead ignorance of everything else while I make my own path in the world simply because I cannot know about anything else having to do with this force we call God. That’s the best I can do, and that’s the reason why I can call myself an agnostic who believes in Jesus.

A Blogger Overhaul?

I'm thinking of giving this blog something of an overhaul.  I'm not sure what I want to do, but I'm thinking of giving this a new theme.  I'm not sure where to go with that, since I don't like complex themes.  I have a no-frills theme right now, but I've never liked anything too complex.  I've seen blogs with designs and themes that distract from the actual content of the blog, which defeats the purpose of something meant to be read.  After all, why would anybody want to read a blog where the display and theme are more interesting than the posts themselves?

Still, part of me thinks I should have something more here than one of Blogger's generic displays.  Some of the best websites have visual components that "pop" and grab people's attention, and my blog really doesn't have that.

I'm also thinking of changing the name of this blog.  I originally chose a vague title because I wanted this blog to be all-purpose and show content that doesn't have a central theme.  This blog was always meant to be a place where I talk about pretty much whatever was on my mind, so I called it "Herding Cats."  I had hoped that the name would give the impression of someone with a lot on his mind and the ability to express it and not someone who was completely scatterbrained.  Whether or not I've succeeded in the precious few blog posts I've posted here is open to debate, but part of me thinks it's time for a change.  I've noticed that I've written more on social commentary than anything else here, so maybe I'll come up with a title that reflects that.

So I guess what I'm saying is that the few people who actually read, stumble upon, or look up this blog out of pity can expect a change soon.  I don't know when that will happen, but now that I have something resembling a focus for this blog expect it to look more like a place for social commentary.

Since I suck at coming up with names, I'll continue to call this blog "Herding Cats" for now, but I'm open to suggestions of good names for a slightly cynical social commentary blog.  Post any suggestions in the comment area below.

How Not to Talk to Women Online

Today my lovely wife was talking to a couple of young men on Twitter.  She had just met these guys, and she apparently was having a pleasant enough conversation with them until one of them asked for a picture of her “big titties.”  Not surprisingly, my wife was offended by his request and let him have it with both barrels.  He responded by calling her a slut (because “slut” apparently means someone who doesn’t take her clothes off at the merest suggestion now).  She wasn’t happy about it, but she just shrugged it off and went about her day just as she should have.  After all, the Internet is full of asshats who like to take shots at people just because they can.

Still, the whole incident had me thinking about how guys talk to women, especially online.  Specifically, it got me thinking about how guys really don’t know how to talk to women.  Practically every woman I know has at least one story of some moron sending her messages on Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, MMORPGs like World of Warcraft or any other format that allows people to communicate with each other over the Web with such thoughtful romantic messages like “ur hawt,” “show ur titties” or “lets fuckk.”  It’s not always trolling, either.  Some of these guys really do seem to think that sending out these messages will get them laid.  After all, they’re paying these women compliments, right?  They should be flattered that someone is taking an interest in them.

I know part of it is just the anonymity of the Internet; it is and always has been a breeding ground for the most obnoxious trolls imaginable.  I think there’s more to it than that, though.   I think part of it has to do with this sense of entitlement that a lot of men in our society have when it comes to women.  We’re basically taught that not only can a man have a beautiful woman if he wants one, but that he deserves to have one.  All he has to do is show interest in a woman, and she’s expected to just go along with whatever he wants.  Any woman who says otherwise is wrong and deserves the label of “bitch,” “slut” or whatever nasty name a guy can come up with.

Of course, this doesn’t just happen online, either.  I’ve seen plenty of instances of guys saying whatever they want to women and acting genuinely surprised when they get shot down.  It just seems to get worse on the Internet where people have enough anonymity to be able to say things that they wouldn’t dare say to someone’s face.  Still, I can’t help thinking that we’ll soon have an entire generation of men who think the proper way to talk to a woman is to basically proposition her and assume she must be a frigid bitch if she isn’t into it.

It should go without saying that this is not the right way to talk to a woman, and yet it looks like someone has to say it.  I’ve seen other unfortunate aspects of what I call Internet culture seep into other aspects of our lives.  I’ve heard people actually say things like “LOL” or “OMG” out loud (they sound like idiots, by the way), so I have to wonder if going up to a girl and saying “ur hawt show me ur titties” is going to be an actual pickup line for a certain brand of socially awkward male who grew up on message boards and MMORPGs.  I can see them getting shocked that it doesn’t work, and I’m not sure whether to laugh or weep for the future.

Hey guys, here’s a radical thought: if you like a girl, try talking to her like a human being instead of something that’s only there to please you.  Trust me.  That’s how most healthy relationships start, not with some lame attempt to get a girl to show her “big titties” over the Internet.

The "Black Friend" Defense

When I looked at the last post that I made on this blog, I saw that it was dated November 15, 2011.  That's too long ago.  It's been way too long since I posted anything here, and I think it's time I did something about that.  I had great plans for this blog, even if it had a slightly nonsensical name and covered a broad spectrum of topics (basically whatever was on my mind when I wanted to post something).  This was going to be my personal corner of the Internet, a place where I could make my voice heard.  I have a Livejournal account as well, but I wanted the writing here to be a little more polished and professional.  And yet, I haven't written anything here in over six months.  That's going to change.  I have things I want to say, and I'm going to make sure I say them a little more often.

Another trend I've noticed here is that even though this was supposed to cover a broad range of topics, I've spent more time on progressive social issues than anything else.  I've occasionally mixed it up by writing about movies and other things that interest me, but it'ts getting to the point where I might as well make this a blog about social justice.  So far, I've written about the SlutWalk movement, about being a heterosexual male feminist, and about how I can be an ally of the GLBT community without sacrificing my Christian beliefs.  Today, I'm going to continue (or revive, considering how often I post here) the trend of talking about social issues by tackling racism, specifically something that I like to call the "black friend" defense.

I've lived in the Twin Cities metro area of Minnesota for my entire life, and I consider myself lucky to live in a place that is so socially liberal and ethnically diverse.  I rarely see examples of overt racism; I don't see too many examples of minorities being harassed or assaulted, although I'm not naive enough to assume that it never happens.  That's not to say that I don't see examples of racism.  On the contrary, I see it all the time.  What I do see is a kind of passive-aggressive racism.  I see white people make assumptions about minorities, and I hear a lot of backhanded comments about "those people."  By "those people," I mean blacks, Asians, Latinos, GLBT people and any other minorities who happen to be interacting with us white heterosexual Americans.  It's okay for these white people to make assumptions and prejudiced comments about minorities though, because some of their friends are black.  That's proof that they're not racist, right?

That, ladies and gentlemen, is what I mean by the "black friend" defense.  I've talked to plenty of people who think they can get away with making vaguely racist comments and assumptions because they have friends who aren't white, which somehow proves that they are enlightened, socially progressive people.  Every time someone calls them out on a comment they make out of prejudice and ignorance, they immediately hide behind their token black/Asian/Latino/Arab/gay "friends," and suddenly they feel they can do anything short of wearing a white hood and burning a cross and still be exonerated for their tolerance of other peoples.

The "black friend" defense annoys me to no end.  To me, it seems to be saying that the good and benevolent white person is doing a good deed by socializing with lowly minority groups even though he or she doesn't have to.  If you're a white person who has used your alleged friendship with a minority to present yourself as more progressive and enlightened than everyone else, guess what?  You're still racist.  In fact, you're almost worse than someone who is up front about his or her racism.  At least the folks who regularly use the N-word and won't go into an ethnically-diverse neighborhood because it's too "dangerous" are honest about the way they think and feel.

Another reason why the "black friend" defense is so offensive is that it not only allows people to forgive their own racist ideology, but it sometimes allows privileged white people to believe that they know more about racism than they actually do.  This was actually a topic of a conversation that I had about a week ago that started with an article about young people in this country being sent to prison for life.  Many of these young people were children under the age of 18, and they seemed to be mostly black boys.  Naturally, people saw this and started crying racism, as well they should.  Perhaps at least some of these children did things that warranted a life sentence, but there can be no denying that it was a clear example of institutionalized racism.  The topic of the conversation quickly switched to how most privileged white people in this country couldn't understand how racism really feels.  That got me thinking about the many white people I've spoken to who either act like they are authorities on racism or don't think it's much of a problem in our society.  Of course, they feel like they're experts on the subject because they have friends who are minorities.  Yes, it's entirely possible for a privileged white person to witness racism, and I would hope that this person would be outraged, but that person is still on the outside looking in.  He or she won't know how it feels to be discriminated against when they see bigotry in progress; all one can hope for is that they recognize it and be appropriately outraged.

As a 31 year-old white male in a predominantly white country, I don't know how it feels to be the victim of racism.  The closest thing to victimization that I've experienced is that I've had minorities treat me badly because they expect me to be racist.  That does hurt, and it is wrong, but I couldn't tell you how it feels to have an institution expect me to fail or become a criminal because of the color of my skin, and it would be wrong for me to say otherwise just because I have friends who aren't white.  That is why I tend to be careful when I pick a racially-charged battle.  I will gladly stand against any injustice and bigotry that I witness, but I'm not going to pretend that I know exactly how it feels.  Having friends who aren't white doesn't make me an expert on racism any more than it exonerates me if I were to make a racist comment.

If you're a white person with friends who are black, Asian, Latino, Middle-Eastern, gay or whatever, that's great.  I'm happy for you.  Just don't act like it makes you better than everyone else or makes you an expert on the prejudices that they experience.