Pioneer1

Troy OK I see the problem you are looking at this from only your narrow self interest. If I looked at the WWW is has been a great benefit to me. It has allowed me to do something I think is relevant and given me some freedom an autonomy, but collectively I wonder if, net-net, society has been disserved by the WWW. What is societal interest....besides a collection of INDIVIDUAL interests? Perhaps what you see is a pathology in society may be seen as entertainment and fun to those engaging in it. I think Gangsta Rap is pathological and promotes violence, disharmony, and drug use. However Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, T.I. and other Gangsta Rappers will differ with my opinion because what I see as a pathology made THEM rich. I fail to see the distinction. The difference between the TOOL called "social media" and the MOTIVATION behind creating that tool can be likened to the TOOL commonly known as gun powder that was developed by the Chinese for the MOTIVATION of celebration but Caucasians found it and used it to make weapons against the motives of the founders. Tools aren't always used in agreement with the motives of those who invent them. Again, I'm talking about collectively. If you took all the people who made money on twitter and factored all the damage it has done, was the trade off worth it to society collectively? For society in general...I would say yes. The good that social media offers the society IN GENERAL seems to outweigh the bad. For AfroAmericans collectively...I would say no. The bad of social media so far has outweighed the good. Is talking on Twitter really than just talking to friends or joining a club? What about the kids holed up in the room swiping through tick-tock rather than going out to play.. Perhaps with what's going on in the world today the kid IS better off in his room communicating on social media than being out exposing themselves to alcohol, abuse, or Covid. No. That is why we need good journalists and better reporting. Some amateur video pushed out onto the web without context is not helpful at all. We've seen many videos of situations that were very misleading, because they did not show everything that happened before. Of course there is the issue of "deep fakes," which can not be ignored. I want the information I see vetted. You're talking about exceptions. I'm talking about generally speaking. Generally speaking when an amateur puts a video of a crime or shocking incident that happens in public out for the world to see they haven't "doctored" it to the point that you can't tell what's going on. You may not get the FULL context of exactly what transpired but if what you see is so shocking like a cop killing a 6 year old unarmed kid....how much context DO you need to see to make up your mind of what happened? One of the worse consequences of the WWW has been the gutting of journalism. It has led the rose of deep fakes, misinformation, and alternative facts. "News" has became a revenue stream and society has definitely suffered as a result. Journalism was jacked up and manipulated long before the advent of social media....lol. Society has been complaining about the editing and censorship of newsworthy material for DECADES. I remember as a kid growing up I'd see something happen in my neighborhood and then run to the television to catch it on the 6 o'clock news and what they report is ENTIRELY DIFFERENT from what me and my friends witnessed. Now a days it's harder for them to do that because they never know when a video shot by a citizen on their cell phone might "surface" and blow a hole through their entire story. Yes, Pioneer has a tendency to fixate on minor details and fails to see the bigger picture. Part of the reason I believe is that Pioneer struggles at conceptually thinking is that he focuses on the individual cases, personal experience, and the like. But most people do this, it is human nature, we are moved by personal stories. Also relying on personal experiences and observations helps to guard you from being manipulated by those with agendas to control and steer your thinking. If you put more faith in "data" being presented to you from the media than you do in what you've actually seen with your own two eyes...you are literally being GIVEN your reality instead of experiencing it. Delano @Delano Don't argue with a person that can't think conceptually. Since they can't understand what you are saying. Can you CLEARLY define "conceptual thinking"?

Yeah, they showed that Caucasian officer briefly.... But their FAVORITE clip of that Insurrection and failed Coup attempt was the that Black police officer being chased up the stairs by that Caucasian mob. They LOVE to show that brutha running and looking afraid and confused. They'll show that clip over and over and over again and broadcast it around the world. If there's anything they love more than seeing a Black man being chased by a mob of red-necks, it's a Black man IN UNIFORM with weapons STILL running and being chased by red-necks.

Troy Liberty is a state of being LIGHTLY restricted. Usually only basic laws or rules to protect the safety and privacy of the general public. What most Caucasians have enjoyed in the United States right up until recently was LIBERTY (not freedom) and they're angry because that liberty is in jeopardy. Sometimes it is hard tell the difference between dishonest person, a troll, and someone who is dumb. That's because sometimes they're all rolled into one...lol

Obama was inexperience in holding an EXECUTIVE OFFICE. His only prior experiences were that of legislation and academia.

Stefan No, what I said was an absolute FACT. You literally quoted NOTHING....lol.

Troy Yes, I know but I'm questioning if the good out weights the bad That's like asking does the good of MONEY outweigh it's bad. Or does the good of ENERGY outweigh it's bad. Tools are tools, it depends on HOW they're being used and WHO is using them. Social media is good for me because it helps me get some of my ideas out and I get to meet people and exchange ideas. I've known some people who've gotten into fights and have legal problems because of their interactions on social media. But so far, despite how good it's been for me and many others....in my opinion social media has been bad for MOST AfroAmericans collectively because it causes to many to engage in un-productive and counter-productive behavior. But again, it's not necessarily social media's fault but the MOTIVATION behind it's creators and it's users. Again I know, but why are the unsubstantiated musings of the average schmos a better? 1. It's usually good for them as an individual (as long as they aren't calling for unjustified violence) to get their frustrations off their chest...kind of like therapy. Sometimes it helps to just talk. 2. Following that previous point, verbalizing their frustrations to a listening audience will release some of that pint up frustration and MAY prevent them from going out and doing something reckless. Still I question whether this incredible tool has done more harm than good. It's highly individualistic. A LOT of people are making money off of Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube...and not just the founders but a lot of average people who are in business who ordinarily wouldn't be in business or wouldn't be making AS much. It has certainly benefited THEM. While at the same time...as I said earlier some people have gotten into fights and legal problems over the content they shared on social media. It's not about good or bad or good over bad it's about good for who AND bad for who. Have the videos you talked about resulted in fewer police killing or more prosecutions? Has the pandemic ranged any less, have we gotten better politicians, has wealth disparity lessened, have the population become better educated, have life expectancies increased, have opiod drug addiction been reduced? Great question: I don't know the answer to it. I will say that I'm certainly glad that I'm able to get raw video in a lot of these cases that would ordinarily have been smothered in a lot of gravy and heavily edited if even talked about AT ALL on mainstream media. Wouldn't you rather have the raw uncut TRUTH so that you can make up your own mind about what's happening in your environment?

I doubt we would have had to deal with 4 years of 45 were it not for social media. Is the ability share memes with friends with the trade-off? Social media is a TOOL...and like most tools they can be used for good or bad. For example..... Besides giving the average person a platform to get their ideas out to the masses (something the average joe couldn't do 30 years ago), another good thing about social media is you have people who can give you more accurate and immediate details about an event as it unfolds BEFORE the mainstream media get's a chance to edit it and spin the story. For the past 5 years or so people have been tweeting pictures and videos of things like unarmed AfroAmericans being killed by the police that in the old days would be covered up or spun in the editing room to make the brother look like the bad guy. If an innocent man is being gunned down on Facebook live and 20 million people see it....it's pretty balsy for Fox News or CNN to turn around and report that people didn't see what they all just saw.

Troy Both posts are lies, but do you see why I approved one but not the other? Yeah... You hate scammers and spammers more than you hate racists, lol. It appears that you may be confusing FREEDOM with LIBERTY. There's a significant difference. Freedom means NO RULES and NO CONSEQUENCES. I don't know of any society (this or anywhere else) where you can say what you feel without any consequences. Does your freedom of speech allow you to threaten public officials? Actually this forum does allow one to block the posts of another user from being seen. I think this defeats the purpose of being in these forums and worsens the experience but it can be done. A lot of platforms carry this feature. I don't find it very appealing, I want to KNOW what my adversary thinks and is saying about me...lol. Nothing anyone has written so far has irritated me to the point that I'd rather just not see their posts or acknowledge their existence. That sounds like a feature a FEMALE would really enjoy...lol. They love "ignoring" people. When I was in my early 20s there was this very attractive woman from Nicaragua I used to work with and every time we got into an argument about something after while she would just turn her back to me and fold her arms. MADE ME ANGRY!!!! Man I couldn't believe how angry it made me! And she KNEW it....lol. Come to find out as I got older it made MOST men angry for women to do that to them...which is why she did it. I've seen her and other women do it to men and smile or giggle with their backs turned KNOWING how frustrating that shit is.....lol. I've been involved with a few women who would do that, although I find the women who do it the most seem to come either from Latin America or the Middle East. As angry as it made me, there was also something attractive and "feminine" about it because I never saw men do that in an argument.

Troy The man (or men) who raise a boy does not have to be the biological father. No, absolutely not. Infact, in the very near future (this year actually) when we begin to build our own communities we will be building new family structures and many if not most of the families will have father who are NOT the biological fathers of the children but will treat them as such. I thought Obama was raised by a grandfather. Yes he was very successful, but based upon your criteria, so was Donald Trump... Success is meeting goals. Doing what you set out to do. Both of them aspired to the highest office in this government and both of them achieved those goals.

Troy Just know that how we operate here is impossible in Twitter and that is the problem. Your message board is governed differently from Twitter because you have a different MOTIVE than Twitter and other social media platforms. You created this forum with the intention of giving authors and those interested in their work to discuss and critique that work...Twitter and other forms of social media (like the new app Clubhouse) was designed to MANIPULATE THOUGHT. Whether you're talking about Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Clubhouse, ect....they all go in the same direction: 1. First they let you say WHATEVER you want to say and seemingly don't notice or care. 2. That gets you addicted and you end up enjoying the freedom, making friends, and letting your guard down. 3. A few years (or months now) after you're hooked they SLOWLY start taking more and more of your priviledges away and use algorithms to steer you into certain directions and penalize you if you don't go. Do you think the way AALBC forums, for example, are moderated protects free speech? Let me answer that question by first saying we DON'T HAVE free speech anywhere in this society. No matter where you are in this society there are consequences for uttering certain statements. People often wonder why I choose not to post my pictures or talk about my true identity as if you and the other posters are the ONLY ones monitoring this site...lol. Do you know how many racist Caucasians lurk and monitor AfroAmerican sites looking for victims? But more directly to your question...... Like you said and I've noticed you moderate this forum pretty lightly and honestly it's ONE of the reasons that has kept me here so long. But counter-intuitively...... I believe your pretty much hands-off moderating style is one of the reason many people may NOT be attracted to the site! It's hard to believe this but many people PREFER a place where things are heavily moderated so that they can point the finger, complain, and get people banned and blocked if others say something they disagree with. I don't know how much work you do on Youtube but the chat-rooms on Youtube videos are NOTORIOUS for "moderators" not knowing how to properly moderate and not respecting people's priviledge to express their opinions. You basically have to join a GANG in most Youtube communities to be protected from overly aggressive moderators...or give money in the super-chat so that the Youtuber protects you...lol. This counter-intuitive desire for TYRANY and HEAVY HANDED MODERATION is one of the reasons Twitter and other forms of social media are so popular. People don't like for THEIR "freedom" of speech to be curtailed but they usually LOVE doing it to OTHERS...and social media allows this.

Troy I agree that boys should be raised by men, but especially by men who were properly raised to be ideal men THEMSELVES. One of the reason there keeps being blow-back on your (and my) point is because they can easily point to examples of men who WERE raised with their fathers in the home but didn't turn out to be as successful as a lot of men who WERE NOT raised with fathers in the home. Obama is a good example of a man who wasn't raised with his actual father but turned out to be pretty dog-gone successful. Both sides fail to take into account that the purpose of having a father in the home isn't JUST to protect and help the mother provide for the children but to also TEACH boys how to grow up and be ideal men. Something that many AfroAmerican men don't know how to be themselves let alone teach their sons. But the standard IDEAL man in the home is much much much better for the entire family INCLUDING the girls....than having no man (or a sorry ass man) in the home. There is more than enough wealth of everyone -- regardless of ability -- to live a comfortable life in the country. Honestly if I were a multi-billionaire I could not amass so much wealth while so many around me were suffering. Maybe because I've seen so much poverty and I know we have wasted so much human capital because of structural inequities in our culture. I agree. If I had the money (and power) I would definately eliminate the suffering...except as punishment for extremely violent criminals. I would make sure the 4 basic needs are met for everyone. That would be a healthy foundation. After that.....physically and mentally healthy people need to be motivated to improve their OWN lives. I know my livelihood is dependent upon the world wide web, but I'm beginning to think society was better off without it, all things considered. With the way things are going, I have a feeling that sometime this year people are going to find out whether or not this is true...lol. I believe AfroAmericans would get MUCH more done as a society if our people didn't waste so much time beefing with eachother and clowing on social media.

Stefan I've mentioned this to Troy a few times but prior to about 1 year ago I don't believe there WERE as many AfroAmerican Trump supporters as we may think there were. Even today the vast majority see Trump as a racist.* I truly believe that for atleast a year the Trump Campaign spent MILLIONS of dollars flooding the internet and especially social media with a lot of paid actors and operatives...some actually Black and other's pretending to be Black while hiding their faces...to push the Trump narrative in AfroAmerican circles and influence them so that today you have a lot of AfroAmericans (still only a minority though) who really do like Trump and think he's a better alternative to Biden. But this is as a result of confusion, brainwashing, psychological manipulation. I've met many many so-called "Black" people on line who claimed to be pro-Black and but would ONLY say negative things about Biden. When I questioned them on Trump they'd start dancing and playing silly games or totally ignore his racism. They clearly had agendas. Yes a lot of AfroAmericans are socially conservative....all the more reason to ask why would they support Trump who is NOT a social conservative and not religious. *I'd say less than 20% DON'T hate him....lol And of those -20% I'd say less than 5% actually SUPPORT him...the other -/+ 15% are on the fence and agree like certain aspect of him and dislike other aspects.

A couple points: 1. A lot of people are saying this is a violation of his 1st Amendment rights and freedom of speech, but the fact is the 1st Amendment doesn't apply to social media. It's a private platform and they have the right to suspend or ban anyone, anytime, for any reason. That being said...... 2. This is a slippery slope. Did he actually CALL for violence or did he just use inflammatory language over the years that incited certain vulnerable people? The rules must be CLEAR and applied evenly because if you start banning people simply because of their effect on people instead of whether or not they clearly violated stablished rules....pretty soon that'll be a justification for tyranny.

Troy I would speak to several classrooms and not see a single Black male student. I notice you said MALE student. As an educator why do you think AfroAmerican females often do so much better than males in this educational system? Again if these white folks were truly racist, why don't they do something about all these poor white people? Because most of these poor Caucasians aren't angry at the rich and don't want anything from them but LOYALTY. That's why they love Trump who's a billionaire....because they think he's LOYAL to them and the cause of racist Caucasian Domination. I've said it over and over again but you don't want to believe it....Caucasians don't think like us, they have a different psychological make-up. YOU want wealth and comfort....Caucasians want to maintain Caucasian Domination and they recognize that in this system SOME of them must be rich and OTHERS must be poor and do the grunt work. They understand that and don't mind. If you notice, most of these poor rednecks didn't storm the Capitol over not getting $2,000 checks. Money isn't their issue.

Stefan You provide a quote with literally NOTHING in it...lol...yet you accuse ME of being jaded?

Troy Are you STILL teaching along with your work with AALBC? I've said before that they PURPOSELY sabatoged the public educational system with the intention of failing AfroAmerican and brown Latino students. As long as the public educational system was segregated where they could ensure that ONLY Caucasian children would get the best education....they kept up the system. But when it allegedly "integrated" where it became harder to control who got what....they started playing all types of game. -Dividing up the school districts. -Based public school funding on the taxes of each district -Promoting more Catholic and charter schools -Allowing some schools to fail while others become top notch (Brooklyn Tech, Cass Tech, ect....) Just playing typical White Supremacist Caucasian Dominist games..lol.

Troy Actually I don't want to destroy....I want to ABANDON. (why does this conversation sound familiar..lol) I think this system will destroy itself without too much help from AfroAmericans. I want us to SEPARATE from these devils; abandon their society and BUILD a brand new society from the bottom up as you said.

Like I said earlier, back in those days most AfroAmericans believed in and practiced the old adage that you had to be TWICE as good as Caucasians in order to get the same credit. I'm not sure when we stopped believing and practicing that. Probably aver the 60s during the ILLUSION of inclusion when many felt they no longer had to try harder to be successful. Also...talking about the school systems..... The United States used to have one of the BEST public educational systems in the world right up until the 1970s....then they ALLOWED it to collapse and produce what you and I observed growing up. If you think back in your life and your interactions AfroAmericans who graduated from highshcool before 1970 you'll notice that despite their educational achievement they have several things in common: 1. They have SUPERB hand writing. 2. When they recite how to spell a word they do it quickly. 3. They do math and calculate differently and more efficiently Am I lying?

One party is more openly racist, the other party is more subtly racist...but both will arrive you to the same conclusion. The ONLY benefit of the Democrat party is that it has more AfroAmerican members. Many of these AfroAmericans mean well and can actually benefit us to some degree. But as far as the leadership and direction goes...BOTH Parties are equally harmful. One Party wants to destroy you physically and the other wants to destroy your mentally.

I've been saying for months now that these rednecks are planning a second CW, which is why they've been stocking up so many arms for years and years and spouting off their racist anti-government rhetoric. Trump was put in office to spark it. We shouldn't involve ourselves in THEIR fight with eachother. The question shouldn't be so much of what's next for the U.S. as much as it's what's next for US (AfroAmericans). We should focus on SEPARATING ourselves from these devils and building (physically) our own communities. Building our housing, our schools, our hospitals, growing our own food, ect..... We should begin the process NOW in 2021. Troy So does @Pioneer1 ??? ..and what is THAT supposed to mean? Delano It seems that Daniel is in exile. Along with most of the other Black Trump supporters....lol

Troy Oh no. Man o man, I'm sorry to hear that about the brother. He lived a long (in this day and age) and successful life. I'm sure he had FEW regrets in his final conscious hours. I wonder how is his wife holding up. Often times when it comes to couples at that age who've been together with eachother for that long, the surviving spouse....... BTW who is that gentleman you are using as your Avatar now? Ordinarily I'd give you a smart-ass answer before giving up the name but after hearing the news about our brother, nah..... He's one of the wealthiest and most successful AfroAmerican men during the pre-Civil Rights era. The Black Titan himself...... Mr. A.G. Gaston He owned hotels, restaurants, construction companies, insurance companies, ect.... The brother had the Midas Touch and everything he touched turned to gold. MLK used to stay at his hotels. You probably have heard of him but if not I'm almost sure Daniel @daniellegfny knows who he is....lol. He also lived a relatively long life....he actually made it OVER 100!

I was actually thinking about The Bronx during this discussion.....lol. I remember seeing the movie Fort Apache The Bronx as a kid and to this very day THAT is the image of the Bronx I have.

Troy Yeah, I wish Daniel would come on out of hiding....lol. Well one of the few good things about Republicans is that they are very ANTI-regulation as well as ANTI-tax. Most regulations are just methods of control and it actually stifles your growth and puts unnecessary burdens on you, especially if you can't afford to follow them and maintain your business. If it's a regulation for the safety of the citizens, I'm for it. But just enacting laws and rules that force you to spend money getting a license and training??? Just more garbage to squeeze every drop they can out of you. See...I'm not an "absolutist".....lol. There are good and bad (mostly bad) things about BOTH parties.

Troy When I say destroyed I mean LITERALLY. I mean they literally went into the neighborhood and either burned it down (as in the case of Greenwood) or bulldozed it (as in the case with Black Bottom) and GOT RID OF IT! People, building, trees, infrastructure....everything. Harlem was RUINED. Harlem was allowed to DETERIORATE. But it wasn't literally DESTROYED. The fact that it's STILL THERE is proof of my point. You grew up there....because it was THERE.

Troy I honestly see ALMOST no difference. And I say "almost" because I actually made more money under Trump than I did under Obama...although I'm not giving Trump credit for it. When we talk about the AfroAmerican agenda and how it benefits us we need to think about ourselves COLLECTIVELY and not only as individuals. Too many AfroAmericans look at their own individual circumstances and feel if things are going bad for THEM then it's going bad....and if things are going good for THEM then things are working great in this Administration. Just because a handful of hand-picked negroes were given some token and pay-back jobs for their loyalty to the Democrat party doesn't mean that translates into success for our people as a whole. Since the 70s right up until December of 2020...crime, poverty, and family dysfunction had become progressively worse in the AfroAmerican community despite the fact that we have more millionairs and billionaires and more people in elected office. There were far more AfroAmericans who were homeless, in prison, on drugs, and victims of homicide in 2020 than in 1965...even if you account for population growth. Why? Because the wealth gap has grown tremendously and most of those who fall into destitution pretty much end up IGNORED in this society. This nation has trained it's residents to focus on the billionaires, millionaires, and success stories instead of the hard times being experienced by the masses of Americans.