I've slept on this issue. It did not impact the quality of my sleep and I am not over the issue. In fact, when I woke this morning I was more mad than ever. And being who I am I made a connection between my personal experience and a news article. Now I am more angry. In part because I do not know what I can do about it on my end. And in part because, as usual, a politician has inflated a petty issue while ignoring a significant issue. So here are some thoughts about Vladmir Putin's ban on memes in Russia and the scammers who make blogging less fun.
First of all, this made me a little angry when I read it. Our politicians in America seem to think that if they give you the stones to throw at them that you should have more self control than to use that ammunition in your arguments or to heal yourself when you are heartsick about the things that are making your life more difficult than it needs to be. If sticks, stones and words hurt and you do not want to be hurt by them then don't hand them out like candy at Halloween. It is that simple. If you want to be respected and revered then do the things that gain the respectful reverence of the masses. Stealing the common man's livelihood, sucking the life out of his soul and the soul from his desire to live isn't the way to do it. And neither is sucking the resources from the planet and hording it among the wealthiest of persons so that you can influence policy and criminalize the poverty that you created. If you are going to behave badly then you deserve to be called out on it. WE LEARN THIS IN KINDERGARTEN PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!
We also learn that instead of committing criminal acts that cause bodily harm we are supposed to find creative outlets for anger and frustration. Creative communications and artistic expression are those outlets which allow us to let the fear and frustration out so that they do not harm us while giving us a direction away from committing bodily harm. Satire is a statement of anger and frustration. Memes are an expression of satire. One such meme going around is a bit of advice from someecards. And I think it applies here. It is none of your business what other people think of you. Even if it posted publically?
Yes. Oh I know, political campaigns spend hundreds and thousands of dollars to find out how they can get the most votes. Public opinion polls seem to make my statement null. However, there is not ONE SINGLE POLITICIAN who has EVER taken ANY of the REAL advice they get from their advisers. You guys
Mr. Putin, if you are going to act like a typical American Politician why should you be exempt from the typical American pundits pen? You built the climate in which being caught in a social media poop storm can happen. What good is it in "crying" about it? Make some changes. And for Gods Sake why would you want to BE LIKE an American politician? Can't you find a better role model? The Germans seem to have all of their needs met and a far better economy than anyone else at the moment. If you have to copy someone else's model I think that is the one that makes the most sense. Sure, it isn't a perfect system. But right now it seems everyone would rather live in Germany. (I want to live in Germany more than anywhere else right now so that statement may be heavily biased). Well, unless you want to create an economic oligarchy then by all means keep doing what you are doing. Just remember what happened to the oligarchs of the French Revolution.... when the revolutionists outnumber those in control lots of stuff goes wrong really quickly. You've seen it in your own country. Taking away rights isn't going to make you safer. It usually only deepens the resentment. And at some point, people do not mind getting their hands dirty and they forgo weapons.
We have a saying, You get more bees with honey than poop. (I know it isn't accurate. Name one metaphor that is). Being the Grand Orge of Eurasia isn't going to get you a grand spot in the people's hearts. And the people's hearts are when politicians need to be... NOT IN THEIR WALLETS!!!!!!! When you start poking at people's thoughts, their expressions and you force frustration to go inward be criminalizing it then you create a situation where implosion is guaranteed and the possible results can not be predicted. What is wrong with a little satire if it keeps people from doing harmful things? What is wrong with being nice and as fair as is possible in the world? Why can't you politicians just let sleeping dogs lie?
I think one of the things that makes me angry about the attempt to police creative expression is that the focus is on something silly like one figure being upset that a meme told the truth or twisted it and made him look bad. Again, if you are going right then there is nothing to worry about. If opinion of oneself dims then one must ask how one contributed instead of crying foul and prosecuting those who call you out on your crap. While this is a focus, very little is being done about the people who are using the internet to commit crimes. Are you aware that a large portion of the worlds scammers and phishing sites are in Russia?
I've run this blog for 7 years (in May). I am naturally creative. When I can not use words or images to process my thoughts and do not have an outlet for my creative energy things get very ugly in my life very quickly. Blogging keeps me occupied for a nominal cost where otherwise I would quite literally die of boredom. The brain stays sharp. The soul stays happy. I stay out of jail or the grave. I also blog to keep my skills as a writer sharp. One day I hope to be a paid writer. I write for the joy of it, but when my body breaks down and I can't work a physically demanding job any more I will need something that I can do to pay my bills. So this is the main blog where that happens. Where I try to keep things fun, fresh, and I work out thoughts that can go into "real" articles latter. Everything in here is mine. It is MY INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY!
And it has been stolen. Well, cloned is more accurate. If you go to sherola1701.blogspot.ru which should not exist because I did not open and account with Google Russia, you get a message stating that it is a phishing site. Some one in your country, while you are all pouting about how your public figures are being damaged by people's memes, has cloned my blog and is using it to commit a crime. And I do not know how to stop that from happening. So what will you do to curtail this kind of activity? Anything? My guess is probably nothing. Your country will do nothing.
My overwrought mind which had gorged itself on spy and crime dramas is pretty certain that what is happening is a state sponsored thing... like China and Korea spying on US companies using hackers. But this is probably a bunch of Russian wiz kids running these things in a network of cloned blogs and product websites with state sponsorship. The network is probably so vast that no one in the CIA would be able to associate it with the Kremlin. And yes.... that is what I think. I think that you all are a bunch of spoiled brats who take from everyone else and demand the kind of loyalty and worship of rock stars and movie stars for doing things far less beneficial than being entertained and far more egregious than tearing up a hotel room in a drunken haze. And by you all, I mean ALL. There are no such things as borders in this issue. It doesn't matter what country any of you are in. None of you are worth the chads in the voting booth. Not when you let this kind of thing happen.
And yes, You let it happen. Your resources tell those who would visit my blog.ru that they could be phished. Yet you do not take down my blog.ru !!! You can ban anything else in your domain. But you can not kill my cone blog??? I call Bullshit Mr. P. BULLSHIT!!!! Oh, cry about the bad opinion you get from a meme or a slightly disagreeable report in a news paper. But what about me? How many people are getting phished by that clone of my blog and think I am the one doing it? How many red flags are being sent up requiring investigating me when clearly I AM NOT THE ONE DOING IT? But what do I matter? I'm just a single white American female who is too poor to actually own the stereotypical 3.4 cats or her own place to live. Why should anyone care what this phishing clone is doing to my reputation? I am too poor to defend myself legally. And I am too poor in technical know how to fix this myself. So just cast me into the wind! Let KNOWN phishers keep gathering data illegally. Don't do anything about it.
But don't get mad at me either if I think this is state endorsed hacking. If Google Russia knows this is an issue and doesn't kill a clone blog what am I supposed to think?
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