Troy

Did anyone actually hear what Trump said? The website you shared @ProfD won't let you listen to the clip unless you subscribe. I don't know if they are a reputable news source given their use of this tactic... Report the "news" or don't, but don't bait me with scandalous content and fail to deliver. At any rate. they use terms like "appears" and "apparently" when it comes to his use of the word. So I can only assume it was not blatant - still he has to play to his base.. approval rating are down. I guess he'll be hurling the N-bomb soon--that will really rally his supporters. He'll probably hold that card until right before the midterms 😉

Perhaps. My position not new; in the 1950 C.L.R. James wrote a book entitled American Civilization. It is based upon the premise that America is indeed a civilization and he describes why. Since neither one of will read the entire book; we can only speculate how successful he was in the effort.

Aliens are apparently real. My money is on them being Earth based and not "alien" at all.

No one is asserting that they are interchangeable--at least I'm not. However, they are also not mutually exclusive as I wrote American is both. The point I was simply making s that many empires (and civilizations has lasted longer the 250 years and to assert this as a paradigm is a function of a myopic western European perspective. The fact that you are seeing references to this perspective making the rounds is not surprising. I presume you saw most of these references online and we know who controls the online space (newsflash it ain't us 😉).

Wow! I need to know what woman can pull not one but TWO of the Jackson Five! The kids' father is also their uncle...

WT Hillbilly F! Where did you learn that piece of gossip so their kids are both siblings and cousins huh?

No, the two are different but, America is both a civilization and empire.

Kindred spirits?

Do you apply the same logic to the religion of Christianity? Obviously, I disagree with you in that particular point all racist are Homo sapiens. This does not mean that the entire species is racist, right? I also disagree with the notion that Black people can’t be racist because they lack the power to exercise it. A racist is simply a person who believes that there are inherent differences to people due to the artificial constructive race, especially when it describes inferiority or superiority.. As I always used to tell @Pioneer1 (hope he is ok) his racist beliefs always led to false conclusions, including a wide variety of stereotypes he believed. Racism is bad, but Christians and conservatives don’t have a monopoly on it.

You have to factor in what available. McDonalds is arguably the worst of the hamburger fast food joints -- but they are everywhere and they spend a ton on marketing. Imagine of 90% of the restaurants were McDonalds: In this imaginary world most people loved McDonalds and extolled their virtues of providing nourishment to the hungry without have to get out the car. Singing the praises of being able to get square pieces of pressed marine biomatter between bread at midnight. This is what the WWW has become today. @aka Contrarian YouTube IS a haven for crackpots and snake oil salesmen. They are also for all practical purposes a monopoly and is the #2 most visited website only beaten Google. I've been a user of YouTube for more than 20 years -- before Google brought. If was great for helping people serve videos when disk space was expensive. Google was allowed quickly allowed, unencumbered, to serve as a platform for music piracy. YouTube quickly amassed a catalogue that eclipsed iTunes. In the past doing this, like Napster, were shut down, yet Google was allowed to rack up Billions. Remind me how musicians make money again? One of my up-coming projects is to pull all my videos off YouTube and serve from my own server. I have already gotten rid of Google Adserver (don't you hate going with websites with all those shitty and intrusive ads? Thank Google for that), Google Ad Manage, Google Analytics. Next is YouTube and I will have the planet's only website completely free of Google. No, FB is in no way shape or form reflective anything real -- that is a trick bag.

@aka Contrarian, did anyone challenge, or even question, the post eviscerating Sowell? Of all the positives you mentioned, FB did not invent any of those things, as they were already available on the 'net. FB just managed to corner the market with disproportionate Black support. The "Free exposure" is not free; indeed, FB has made getting exposure more costly and time consuming. Again, this was not true when FB launched but it is true now. The same goes for Google. The incentives have been perverted on social. What drives engagement is what feeds the algorithm. "Influencers" who produce content that pleases the algorithm do not serve us. The two are in conflict. Though I'm open checking out any contrary examples. Google basically trashed their search engine for profit. If anyone discovers new site through a Google search today it was by accident. A new Black-owned indie site has no chance of being discovered through a Google search unless they pay Google I deleted my FB profile and stopped actively using the platform 10 years ago and am better off as a result. The incidental benefits you described are not worth the tradeoff from a personal, business, or cultural perspective. @ProfD There are profound differences better a dimwitted Trump sycophant, an elderly Stanford emeritus Professor, and precocious 30-year-old.

Do any of y'all make any distinctions between the Thomas Sowell, Clarence Thomas (funny how both could be called Uncle Tom) and kids like Candice Owens and Coleman Hughes? How do you feel about less controversial republicans like Herman Cain or Condoleezza Rice? I do. I'd venture a guess that I'm the only one reading this who has read more than one book written by Sowell, most of what I read does not address race issues. I have also read--and enjoyed-- Sowell's columns for years especially his "Random Thoughts on the Passing Scene." They were though provoking tidbits that challenged liberal views. For the record I tend to be both fiscally and socially liberal. The article was generally hyperbolic, which Facebook's algorithm loves! So, all Tdka is doing is enriching Mark Z by feeding the algorithm. Everything has a context. "The master's tools will never dismantle the master's house." Audre Lorde Today, we blindly and feverishly use the master's tools to build up his house, the problem is that it comes at the expense of our own.

Yeah, he "seemed' that way. He was probably nutty long before that--The money was just and enabler. Wasn't his Dr. convicted for mis-prescribing his medication or something like that?

I have distain for most of these platforms, and the reasons are complex. Your description of facebook; "FB is a sounding board. A chance to get on your soap box and blow off steam to a vast, ready-made audience..." is accurate, but simplistic (all due respect to your wisdom and intellect). Facebook and Meta (Youtube) do not operate in isolation they entered a WWW where there was a vibrant and growing community of Black-owned and Black-centered platforrms. In a variety of ways these companies have completely destroyed this. In the earlier years I even helped Facebook accomplish this, but I had no way of understanding what was happening. I also understand that even if I did know it would not have made any difference--because it makes no difference today. It is not just me, some disgruntled website owner whose posters now suckle at Mark's teat. There have been many books written about how bad Facebook is--even Facebook's own employees describe the problems. Look, Facebook (and Goole and Amazon) IS THE WEB for most people. A hand full of companies control what you see hear and read. Their rage driven algorithms fan the fire of dissent for profit. I have more than 22K followers on FB that I earned through engagement on Facebook (helping FB build an audience). Today if I post something less than a handful of people will engage with it--don't even think about posting a hyperlink to a website. Even If I paid to boost a post (yes, I was naive enough to try that) I still did not get the same type of traffic that I used to get during Facebook's early days. Facebook used me. like they use everyone on the platform. You've read about Cambridge Analytica, right? Surely, you've read about Facebook's adverse impact on mental health, especially teens. Then there are the issues of abusing our privacy, and on... Facebook is much more than a "sounding board." I know most people do not get this and if they do, they could care less. I also appreciate, being an active contributor to the WWW for more than 30 years, that I have a perspective that most people do not have. I get that. It is just painful to watch, as Black people are hurt the most and are completely oblivious to what is happening. I could go on about YouTube, or rather Google (Alphabet) as well.

I know the question was for @Tesa , but only equal things should be treating equally. A couple of beers over cards is fine; crashing your car or losing your job because you are drunk not so good. Gambling is fine, but losing your house from a gambling debt not so much. Moderation for most things is fine Things like cigarettes, crack, meth, etc, have no real benefit that I'm aware of... and should only be available in the Black market.