We Can’t Have it Both Ways

Every so often in the comment sections over at Huffington Post, I’d estimate about 1 comment in 20, there is somebody complaining about the moderation (i.e. censorship) policy, or saying “I bet the censors don’t let this get through” and I sort of wonder if it is a double, triple or quadruple

We don't have the same last name

fake out.  That is, do the moderators deliberately let that one get through to make the commenter look foolish, does the person add that line deliberately to goad the moderators into letting it through so they can make the commenter look foolish, or do the moderators, knowing full  well they are being goaded but not wanting to appear petty, let the comment through.  Also, plenty of commenters whining about why they always get censored.

First off, I remember what the threads were like before they instituted the policy.  Pages and pages of “1st!” and “Bwahaaaahaaaahaaa!” and people typing the same word, like Liar! or Loser!, hundreds of times so you’d have to scroll down just to get through one meaningless comment, and other idiotic internet affectations like that so it’s actually much better now.

Yeah, they don’t  allow you to use bad language or make personal attacks, which takes away some of my better zingers, but it’s not hard to work within their guidelines and if you really feel the primal urge to let fly with a big fat “Fuck You!,” well, that’s what Wonkette is for.

But that’s not my main point for the evening, that just got me thinking.  Another thing that people complain about is the way that facebook, probably twitter and apparently now Google, too, mine your information.  They say they  use it to better hone their ad targeting, which I think is actually kind of cool in a way.  I get shitloads of ads saying “Date Hot Russian Women!”  Gee, I can’t imagine where they got that idea about me.

Of course, there is the concern that they could be passing the information along to the infamous one world government which is observing all dissidents and it’s a legitimate concern – but it would be a bit hypocritical of me to bitch too much about it, or at least disingenuous.

After all, the reason I write this blog is to get people to pay attention to my views and if I thought there were some government agent sitting in a darkened basement room in McLean, Virginia, with a box of donuts and a tall cup of coffee by his side, whose job it was to monitor my posts and comments, I would be flattered.  Page hits are page hits.  Readers are readers.

I just tried to find myself on Google images and it was depressing.  First of all, there are several people who have my same exact name who have  a stronger internet presence than me.  Not too surprising, it’s not a rare name.

Then I  saw the currently hot actress who shares my last name (but not my first, obvs) come in ahead of me, as well as the country singer who has my first name (but not my last) and smokes probably as much marijuana as I do, but I still wasn’t there.  I got down to page 50 and then gave up.

As far as the internet is concerned, I am damned near invisible.  As to those guys in the darkened basement room in McLean, Virginia, they probably spend all their time looking at porn sites, anyway.