Leaving is hard ...

but when it's time, it's time ...

Yesterday, the news broke that Facebook’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, was kicking truth to the curb. His argument is that free speech has been reigned in for too long and that the community needs to be able to say what they will. He posted a video outlining his free speech plan to LinkedIn today. Those who use the platform will be able to monitor whatever lies others are telling and make sure that truth wins out in the end. Right. Just like Twitter was going to self-regulate. If you don’t know where that has led, trust me, it isn’t pretty. I left Twitter a couple of years ago for exactly that reason: no checks and balances, the rise and normalization of lies, and the outrageously toxic rhetoric.¹

So, today I posted my last Facebook post. I’d been thinking about it for a time as I became increasingly uncomfortable knowing that my participation enabled one of the most extreme instances of personal wealth accumulation ever known on the planet. Combined with that concern is the sad awareness that such wealth accumulation, obviously, provides individuals the power to use that wealth however they wish and often, it is not for the betterment of society or the wellbeing of others beyond a token of charitable giving. Bill and Melissa Gates have each developed ways to use their fortunes for good. Zuckerberg’s contribution to Trump, his pledge of fealty to the man who is currently the greatest threat to current and future life on the planet, made it clear that he is not interested in doing good at all. He is only interested in his own personal privilege, safely ensconced as he is in his own gated Kauai haven.

Engagement

We have become connected through, and dependent upon, online social platforms. Through them, we share ideas and stories about the things we find important in our lives, both those we embrace for their uplifting and awe-inspiring insights and those we rail against because of their outrageous affronts to human community and wellbeing. Friends and connections on the platforms expose us to new music, poets and spoken word artists who speak truth to us as we have never heard it before; they present us with news items our connections find relevant and meaningful - the latter a complicated task in Canada which currently prohibits posting news to social media. And they keep us connected to people we would, otherwise, not see because of distance or schedules or both.

Additionally, on social media, we can get caught up in debates, long threads of the back and forth with people we may not know and never meet. We have used it for good and benefitted from our various engagements on these platforms. Such conversations might have previously taken place in the local pub, during coffee hour at church, or over the backyard fence, a practice once so common that my late mother-in-law used the phrase as the name for a newsletter she prepared regularly for retired clergy and their spouses.

But social media can also limit our exposure. It is too easy to build our own interest silos, read what we want, and live without any knowledge of what’s happening in our own neighbourhoods. And if a platform willingly and knowingly provides misinformation an equal presence alongside truth, that has to have am impact on relationships, families, society, and the world, itself. How many of us have relatives or friends we no longer engage because their worldviews are overcome with conspiracy theories, fears stoked by online catastrophists, or who have simply dropped out of family discourse because they think you utterly mad? It is easy to do. Believe me.

Unfortunately….. Photo Credit: Oksana Manych, Unsplash

That weird little thing called “Truth”

We play too easily with the concept of truth. Any two people, even those married for decades, may have perspectives on it that are dramatically different. Listening to the audio version of Heather Cox Richardson’s Democracy Awakening, I’m stunned that I’m stunned by all the lies that have gone into the making of contemporary America. And yes, that double “I’m stunned” is intentional. I mean, yes, politicians lie; for the last several months we’ve been watching that kind of crazy destroy the nation to our south as truth becomes optional. But I had no idea the depth of duplicity and manipulation of the public that has gone on in America, almost all of it racially motivated, since the 19… well, since e.v.e.r., quite frankly.

But we still value truth. For the moment, anyway. I often find my understanding of truth has to shift as reality becomes clearer or I spend time exploring at depths I hadn’t previously. I think I’ve dragged you through some of that awakening over the past few years. It’s painful, dammit. Who wants to leave behind the comfortable assumptions or the safe delusions that allow us to get up every morning? Often, we are not willing to risk it, but when we do, we are stronger. I know I am, even if I am broken in the process of learning my way toward it. The movement into truth is infinitely more crucial for humanity than preserving our personal beliefs in jars we line up in the basement.

When individuals in positions of power abandon their roles as a stewards of truth, it is important that we notice, that we call it out, and most of all, that we resist. Even when, personally, we don’t have the energy to do that, we can at least refuse to promote them. Pathetic though my fiscal contribution to Zuckerberg’s or Musk’s wealth may be, I’m still not willing to continue to enrich them.

You may feel that contribution is minimal enough and the social connection important enough, to overlook the downside of the engagement. I understand that. Not everyone can flip to another platform and rebuild their community; indeed, I’m not even sure I can. And I won’t condemn you for staying connected to your family and friends. For so so many, it is the only way they can stay informed, send appreciation, recognize accomplishments. If FB is the way you do that, if staying connected means staying on FB, then staying is what you need to do. Please know that I would not at all judge you for remaining on FB. I get it.

Where you can find me

Substack will remain my blogging platform; maintaining my own website to handle that work is just so much more work than I really want to undertake regularly. So this is a great way to connect with you. Please point any friends or family who may be interested in my writing in this direction.

I recently found Bluesky, a short form social media platform. It is heavily weighted with American content right now (but what news media isn’t completely saturated with US news?). Although, some of the disinformation that has become the norm on Twitter has shown up there, those who post it are quickly “outed” and often leave the platform. You can find me there.

And I’ll be building my presence on LinkedIn more intentionally as I switch to posting these Substack blogs there. It will likely, too, become the place where I build a community interested in the things that I believe are crucial to well-being, yours, mine, ours, and the planet’s. I hope you’ll find and follow me there, even if it means setting up your own account! My email address is on my LinkedIn profile if you wish to reach me by email.

Yeah. I know. That hairdo is several years old!!

Thank you for being with me. Thank you for your understanding. And thank you for your patience during this transition.

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1. Unfortunately, when I left Twitter, I abandoned my username which was picked up by a pervert who posted the most outrageous stuff for some time before anyone alerted me to the fact. If you were spammed with any of that, my apologies. Note to self: when you leave a social platform, do not abandon your identity entirely or someone else will gladly take it over.