Troy

If you mean by "modern" you mean far more effective at stealing our privacy, capturing our attention, manipulating our behavior by providing mindless entertainment, then yes. Of course that is what makes life worth living. TikTok is much more than just "entertainment." Nah, exploiting people for monetary gain ain't my thing. 🙂

The vast majority social media users are not monetizing their social. Social media companies derive so much financial benefit from our participation. They really should be paying everyone who uses their platforms. Sure, there are some people who are making money on social media. But if you haven’t already figured it out yet, I think social media has been a negative on our society — we’d be better off without it.

The leadership of the Black Panther party had security.Hampton was just a kid in a young organization, despite that the Black Panther party was perceived as a threat. The BBP was well known for their security measures armed, patrols, defense training, etc. As you know, the BBP were also infiltrated by the feds. again, none of the security measures taken by smaller organizations can’t do much against the United States government

yes, but a tool used against us not by us.

Just words. Not a threat. Omar Johnson say’s fiery things too, and is no more threatening.

OK, I'll give you that. Any Black man, criminally minded or otherwise has to respect the FOI.

That is why she is Honorable major of Washington DC as opposed to running behind kids and fetching beers for her boo. Still just cause you ain't read about it on some Wikipedia page does not mean she ain't gettin' hers. She may discreet. 😎

Many older people behave in a childish manner. That is understandable. I wonder, in hindsight, what your father would now say about the impact of the efforts of folks from the north. The south got segregated schools. I went to segregated schools all my life. I tested into a magnet school and was able to get out of going to my all Black and Puerto Rican neighborhood high school. Even today the south is a magnet for Black northerns seeking a better life in destinations like Texas (Houston, Dallas, Austin), Atlanta, Charlotte, Florida (Tampa, Miami, Orlando), etc.

I have an MBA and I've done stupid things when it comes to money, so it not about literacy. It is about a system that is designed to exploit people -- especially Black people historically. The reality is that the system is rigged against everyone -- even white folks, which is why Trump appeals to these people. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer is axiomatic. Our system will crumble...indeed is crumbling. It is inevitable. I hate to sound so pessimistic; I can only hope that country can hang on long enough so that my children have a decent life.

How many people make up the FOI? Would the be able to fed off a local police department let alone the Feds? Dude if the government thought the Nation of Islam were a threat, there would be little the FOI could do to defend themselves. We already saw how easily they were infiltrated by the feds... again they simply don't have the manpower. Where are they buying their guns and ammunition? Who are the dependent upon? Will those supply lines continue if they are battling the government?

Is Green that Gen Z'er in congress. If so, this is what we have to look forward to. Again, this is the behavior I'm talking about. Why is a congresswoman dancing on TikTok. Green and Jasmine are interested in going viral. It is not just about making money it is about self-esteem. But it is also about being where their constituents are, so on some level they have to do these things to reach people... I guess. Umar lost me when he took folks money and failed to open a school. When the school is opened and educating students then he will have my ear again (what is the latest with the school?). I was not old enough to remember ( @aka Contrarian is), but my understanding is that in his day MLK was disliked by the majority of Black people. After King's murder people were FAR from indifferent with riots erupting in major cities all over the country. Even in modern times the public lynching of George Floyd resulted in a similar reaction. If you are really working for the people, Black people will care if you get killed. However, if are supported by "da man" the reaction will likely be indifference (no one will be rioting in the streets if Clarence Thomas catches a bullet). But if you are a tool of da man assassination is nothing you have to worry about anyway.

Whoa, just how old are you LOL! Well at the risk of objectifying our dear sister, she is right in the sweet spot age wise for me, though a big heavy for my taste. She does have a lovely smile 🥰. Based upon this brief conversation there is truly someone for everyone 🙂 While I was in Tulsa, the got rid of their Black Lives street mural too, a few years ago. It looked very much like the one in DC. I thought it was odd Tulsa got rid of theirs, considering it was literarily on Black Wall Street. I wonder if the folks in DC and Tulsa would have gotten rid of the street sign it said, "White Lives Matter"?

Actually the Black folks did defend themselves. Even going to the courthouse to ensure the Brother accused of accosting a white woman (the event that set the race massacre off) was not lynched (and he wasin't). They were just out manned and out gunned. Despite that they rebuilt Black Wall Street.

Did you, by any chance, shoot your shot and get nixed? Otherwise, what gives you that vibe 🤔

I'm sure I'm not smart enough to explain it sufficiently for you @frankster. I liken it to trying to explain why the world is not flat or why vaccines are a societal good to people who don't not believe these things -- I've meet these people IRL. The Tesla tower and Haarp Array, from what I know, produce much more power that what who'd pick up from ambient radio signals -- which again is not much, certainly not enough to power am automobile. We can have a different conversation when one is these cars is driving around that has been vetted by a third party.

Better than sneezing into your hand… besides, the cloth handkerchiefs are environmentally, friendly, saves trees and reduces waste. 😉

I’d be surprised if it was even a blip. @ProfD I was able to get a dozen and a half for six dollars and change at the Costco yesterday. 🙂 there were many problems with the boycott, but something I think would work, as we all have said, a sustained and protracted if necessary, boycott. Getting rid of DEI shouldn’t even be the motivating factor. We should pick a company that has had a material adverse impact on our people, despite the fact that we support it. The company should be boycotted until it no longer exists, It will take some time to build momentum, but ultimately doing business with the company should be frowned upon by your friends and family. overtime you’d be ridiculed and reviled as a race traitor if you even talked about doing business with the company we picked to boycott. It doesn’t matter to me which company it is so long as it meets the two criteria I described earlier. it may be a year or more before the company feels the pain. It has to be a collective effort and that will be our biggest challenge for any boycott to work.

That is putting the cart before the horse don’t you think? Despite saying that this was not worthy of my time researching, I did look into it. The size of the antenna would need to be much larger than a football field even a city. I assume you have not looked into it…. I think most people fall somewhere in between. This is the Nigerian Prince scam all over again. The problem with entertaining this hoax is that there may be people inclined to invest in it because Black people are behind it you know the kind of people who were trying to book a trip to Wakanda. These are the same people who will invest all their money into this scheme. They are pro-black, mean well, but they are incredibly naïve and are easy marks for this type of scam.

Sure, that is true, but in 2025 doing so is MUCH more difficult that it was 30 years ago. So, while the game may remain the same it is much harder to win. There is an entire generation of adults wandering around who don't know a world where they have not been manipulated by the algorithm. Who needs social (web-based) approval for a positive self-esteem. They interact more comfortably with other humans through a screen than in person. They need trigger warnings and peanuts will kill them. Their genders and sexual orientation are fluid. Their biggest aspiration is to "go viral." 😉 Unfortunately, we handed them a hot mess, one I'm not sure they are prepared to deal with.

A gentleman should carry two handkerchiefs one for showing and one for blowing.

Interesting back and forth. Sure, flimflammers and confidence men existed long before the days of the world-wide web. However, the web does allow scammers to become orders of magnitude more effective. I think many of dismiss the adverse impact of the "algorithm" far too easily perhaps naively. We all believe we are less impacted than the other guy, but we don't have the capacity to understand how we are being impacted. Again, my strategy is avoidance, but if you are active online, as i am, you can't avoid AI-powered-algorithmically-driven feed desired to steal your attention. I go to YouTube to upload a video. YouTube buries my workspace and prominently displays the feed. 30 minutes later watch stupid videos I'm kicking myself wasting time and having to remind myself why on was on YouTube in the first place. I can stop using YouTube. The reason for me using a video sharing website, saving disk space and bandwidth are no longer factors. I can upload my videos to my own server. But I continue to use YouTube. Probably because I've been brainwashed to do so.

Again, I don’t believe this. But I gather you do. I’m sure I’m not smart enough disavow of this fantasy. I wonder if it is the fact that it is a black person behind this tech and that we (Black people) have such a profound history of abuse in this country that we desperately need to have Black people do amazing things. as a result we are more likely to buy into this story for a sense of self worth. Black people have done so many great things throughout recorded history there is no need for us to embrace this hoax.

lol! OK Fellas this does not belong in the black excellence forum. This is not about raining or anyone’s parade. This is just about critical thinking and perhaps a little basic science knowledge There is so much garbage on the Internet that is created to deceive you it is increasingly difficult to combat it. As you probably know, my personal strategy is simply avoid “the feed” as much as possible. The old Maxim’s still apply, “if something is too good to be true…“ Yes, you have to scale it up by an astronomical amount the hardware to do it would be the size of a football field… probably a city…. Just forget about it it’s not possible!

I find it hard to believe you can power an automobile from radio waves. I watched a portion of one of the video explaining the tech and describing the process... OK I can see generating a few millivolts, but enough to power an electric car -- no way! I have not done any research on this for the same reason I'm not looking for proof that the world is flat. If one could power a car why not power a home and get rid of that utility bill. Why are we putting up wind turbines and solar panels if we can extract power from radio waves?

I did not know (or have long forgotten) that Angie Stone was part of Sequence. I brough the original 12" of Funk You Up, when it first came out. It was one of the first rap records from the late 70s. I should still have it... unless it took a walk like so many of my records 🙂