Thursday, October 31, 2024

Dear Daily Disaster Diary, Oct. 31 2024

 Life often presents us with a choice of evils rather than of goods.

- Charles Caleb Colton


Q & Adaptation-answer


You guys were never on FACEBOOK, TWITTER, TIKTOK etc. , you never bought a VW or a TESLA. How did you know?


In an age where the world is a screen away, and “engagement” means scrolling through a social feed until it fuels your latest outrage, we’ve opted out. 

That’s right—no Facebook, no Twitter, no TikTok. No Teslas or VWs parked in our driveways. We didn’t “catch on” by accident; it was research, pure and simple. The kind of research that every successful venture should be built on. 

And it led us to a truth as unsettling as it is simple: Big Tech isn’t here for fact-driven dialogue or rational exchanges. It’s here to rile us up because that’s what sells, and nothing rakes in profit quite like anger, fear, and uncertainty.

This business model has a name: “the outrage industrial complex.” It’s an apt phrase for a digital ecosystem built on sowing division and feeding resentment. 

Platforms thrive on tribalism—an endless cycle of “us against them,” using every inflammatory tool at their disposal. Politicians like Trump are Big Tech’s greatest beneficiaries and the ultimate rage farmers. 

Divisive by design, he doesn’t deal in unity; his playbook is all about disunity, hopelessness, and distrust. Because outrage? That’s the fuel keeping his campaign engine revved and his followers fired up.

So, would there even be a MAGA movement without Big Tech? Not a chance.

Our decision to stay off social media wasn’t about a naïve longing for simpler times; it’s a conscious stand against these digital machines that profit from discord. 

Social media’s business model isn’t simply troubling; it’s toxic. 

Our answer? Resist it. 

And “resistance” doesn’t mean glueing ourselves to buildings or resorting to slogans that burn hot and fade fast. Instead, we resist with our wallets.

When corporations openly support those whose values we oppose, we take action. 

Toyota may have its merits, but it won’t get a dollar from us while funding a party bent on dividing Americans. 

Amazon’s out, too—Jeff Bezos may rule the retail world, but we won’t buy from a conglomerate that perpetuates a dystopian level of dominance in media and market alike. 

And when companies stand up for transparency, we support them: hence, our latest subscription to The New York Times because it dared to sue EU President Ursula von der Leyen over accountability. Resistance cuts both ways.

Sure, it’s inconvenient. Sure, it’s a pain to juggle apps to avoid Amazon, or to skip the car for a train, or to find alternatives that don’t have Big Tech’s fingerprints all over them. 

But that’s what it means to draw a line in the sand. We’ve opted for inconvenient principles over convenient silence. Our wallets are our megaphones. It’s not as easy as tweeting, but it’s worth a thousand retweets.

So, what’s your resistance? Will you spend your money to support what you believe, or throw it into the outrage machine?


Sincerely,

Adaptation-Guide


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