'Rithm of the demons

Being a geezer, I still look at Facebook pretty regularly. But a while ago, I embarked on an experiment. I "unfollowed" everyone and everything on that site. That took a couple of hours, but it was worth it. If I want to see what friends are up to, I can check in on them individually, but I don't have to plow through a lot of junk mixed in with their doings. 

The downside of this is that unless I'm looking at friends' inidividual feeds, all I get on the timeline is junk selected by Facebook. And the worst part is, I can't resist looking at it.

At first, the all-seeing algorithm thought something must be wrong, and the feed was actually empty for a few minutes. But pretty soon it started flashing me whatever it wanted, presumably to see how I would react. Eventually it decided that I am an avid fan of the Beatles, the Beach Boys, Frank Sinatra, baseball history, tennis, old movies, jazz-rock fusion, and old television. Every once in a while, Salvador Dali pops up. Or Liza Minnelli. Go figure.

But just as the holidays were starting, an odd trend developed. I started getting, and am still getting, posts that praise our Dear Leader. And they're coming not just from right-wing media outlets but also from official departments of the federal government. CBS News suddenly keeps popping up, too. Of course, my immediate reaction is to hide everything from the senders of this drivel, or to block them entirely (which I think is roughly the same thing). But the whole flow has got me wondering what is really going on.

I am not so naive as to think that Zuckyworld doesn't know quite well what my political leanings are. I hate what's happened to our country and pray daily for the nation's deliverance. I read a lot of lefty stuff. And so why is the robot feeding me what it knows I will despise?

A few theories come to mind. One is that businesses like Insta-Face thrive on outrage. The madder we are, the longer we stay on the site, clicking around and pleasing advertisers. Or maybe Meta's just kissing up to Mudface Caligula and his minions, like all the other billionaires and their lackeys are doing.

But it's obvious that the Big F makes its money selling data about us users, and so part of me wonders whether they aren't collecting all these "hide" and "block" reactions and storing them up so that someday they can be sold to the G-men and used to deny people benefits, like, oh I don't know, re-entry to the country? The fact that the ICE dudes can demand to see the contents of your phone is proof positive that America as we knew it is over. Maybe this current MAGA onslaught on the timelines of people who obviously abhor Il Duce is part of that.

I know, I should just take a long break from Facebook, or pull the plug forever, but it's hard to do. It's Charlie's birthday! Your old friend from college liked something you wrote! Man, he got old! Sinatra was actually nice to people! Remember Endora on "Bewitched"? 

I just wish it would stop making me feel like I'm in a science fiction story that's going to end very badly. And for all the mindscrewing, they could at least send flowers once in a while.