Talking pewp is where I draw the line

One of the tipping points for realizing it was time to high-tail it off Facebook back in 2018 (as a place to engage with in any meaningful way, at least) was not long after one of my cousins posted some inane meme of Kermit the frog drinking tea talking about ebola and the flu. I already was 3/4 out the door due to Facebook whoring out private info. Not to mention its hive mind, "borg-like" nature infecting otherwise intelligent people. It was also a time-suck too even though I was not on there very often. But when I saw the Facebook hive mind in all its glorious action to such a silly degree with the Kermit meme, I figured it was time to move on, lest I become like one of those lizard people myself. In this case? Merely questioning that sacred Kermit the frog meme — and in jest at that — set a bunch of people off, including a couple of my other cousins, one of who had such a bizarre hangup on the subject I fully expect to see him in a hazmat suit at the next family reunion. I can only imagine what his shrieking hysteria looked like during the mask & jab psyop. He probably still mainlines every brand of the fake vax each week, wears a mask in between bites of food at restaurants even when eating outside, and hysterically slurs behind it as he yells at people in grocery store lines. Anyway, getting some of these dorks worked up was mildly amusing and fun. Especially since I was sitting in an airport bored on a long layover, anyway. But what was not amusing was seeing otherwise intelligent people — my own kin! — not being able to communicate without parroting the hive mind so precisely. It was like they were all reading from the same script word-for-word… complete with the usual social media intellectually dishonest butchering of logic, showing an embarrassing inability to grasp context, and constantly moving the goal posts & getting off point to try to make another point to cover up the fact they really had no point in the first place. Not to mention resorting to having to make arguments with even more irrelevant hive mind generated memes, all topped off with a chest-pounding magnificent lecture about how “correlation doesn’t equal causation!” while linking to a newspaper article that didn’t even cite a single source. These were reply guys on steroids. And those were just the highlights I remember. Frankly, I didn’t even care enough about the subject to have an opinion. I simply asked a question about a Kermit the frog meme. The result: You’d think I burned an effigy to their deity. And in some ways, I think I did… Anyway, that's when I had a Cartman (from South Park) moment when he saw the absurdity of the existence of Mr. Hanky the talking poo, and threw in the towel: “Alright that does it. Screw you guys, I’m going home. Talking poo is where I draw the line.” And so it was with Facebook for me. Because at the end of the day, with all the virtue signaling, hive mind parroting, speech & thought policing, incessant de-platforming, privacy plundering, and news manipulating… not to mention the way it is designed (which it’s co-creator fully admitted) to have all kinds of negative effects on peoples’ brains & hormones… Facebook is nothing if not the digital equivalent of — Talking poo. That’s my take on it. On a somewhat related note: Earlier this year I did return to Twitter when it was clear it was no longer being completely run by the propaganda arm of the Democratic Party. If you want to follow my antics on there go to: [https∶//www.EmailPlayers.com/twitter]( Ben Settle P.S. Tomorrow I am starting a 13-day sale on all my books. Each day will have a sale on a different title. You’ll have approximately 18 hours to take advantage of each day’s respective sale. I have not done this kind of sale in a long time, and may or may not do it again in the future (I did not do it last year, for example) as it’s kind of a pain in the ass to administer. Plus there are always - always - people who can’t get their lives together enough to even so much as figure out time zones, miss the sale, complain to me about how cruel I am for holding them to clearly-defined deadlines. That sort of thing happens more and more I am noticing. And, now that I think about it, those boys & ghouls are kinda like talking poo, too. Fun times.. This email was sent by Ben Settle as owner of Settle, LLC. Copyright © 2023 Settle, LLC. All Rights Reserved. No part of this email may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission from Settle, LLC. Click here to [unsubscribe]( Settle, LLC PO Box 1056 Gold Beach Oregon 97444 USA