Nope, no danger in using social media- no need to think before you post

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TwoTankAmin
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Nope, no danger in using social media- no need to think before you post

Unread post by TwoTankAmin » 2017-06-14, 16:16

This morning in Virginia a gunman shot a senior level US congressman, a congressional aide and two capitol police officers before they shot and ultimately killed him. Reports show he confirmed the people on the field were republicans before he opened fire. This was a horrible event. What has me making this post is what I just heard relative to this on the news. The authorities are now searching through social media sites for anti-trump/anti-republican postings.

For my American countrymen/women on this site, have you ever posted something nasty relative to our president? Have you been a bit careless in what you wrote? Should you be concerned if the FBI may come knocking on your door? I doubt this will happen to many folks at this stage of things. I do see it as a warning shot across the bow of everybody who uses social media without any thought to potential repercussions.

What I am seeing is an early indication of the hidden perils of social media and users' lack of ability to think about the fact that what they might post could come back to hit them in unanticipated ways.

I doubt is this will change the behavior of anybody on social media. If I had one dollar every time I have heard or read somebody saying they are not doing anything wrong so they have nothing to worry about, I could buy and sell Bill gates. You are only "safe" until those in charge change the definition of "wrong" and the you are not OK. Americans were fine before Senator Eugene McCarthy and then they weren't. The only good thing about McCarthy was there was no social media out there for him to use against Americans. https://www.britannica.com/topic/McCarthyism

I see this as the first steps onto a potentially very slippery slope. This shooter today was clearly a disgruntled person feeling he had a beef with the president and or republicans. So now the solution for trying to prevent such incidents may become tracking people who have posted diatribes against the president and republicans. That is the flavor of the day. Down the road things will change in terms of who holds power, what will not change are the tracks left behind on social media by those who use it.

Please do not be alarmed, you are all good people and nothing you might post in a moment of anger or when you are not thinking straight or just because you believe something others do not agree with, you are perfectly safe, no way the government will ever know or care.........
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Re: Nope, no danger in using social media- no need to think before you post

Unread post by eskaton » 2017-06-14, 16:37

I wonder how they''ll filter that search down, because finding anti-trump/anti-republican statements on FB is like finding a needle in a mountain of needles. Also, fwiw, the shooter hated Clinton as well and identified with Bernie Sanders.

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Re: Nope, no danger in using social media- no need to think before you post

Unread post by Moonchild » 2017-06-14, 16:44

Sad turn of events, but I'd say almost inevitable in an atmosphere of political unrest and a lot of people being on edge because of what the president is doing (and not doing).

Don't let fear prevent you from pouring out your life on social media if that's what you like to do, though. Ultimately, who you politically support is your own choice, and there are always people who will disagree with it. But if someone is going to get a gun and start shooting people, they will likely do so anyway regardless of social media.
"Sometimes, the best way to get what you want is to be a good person." -- Louis Rossmann
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Thehandyman1957

Re: Nope, no danger in using social media- no need to think before you post

Unread post by Thehandyman1957 » 2017-06-15, 02:29

Well it seems I have stepped on some toes without intent, so I will set the record straight. I normally don't dip into these subjects too much anymore because they have a tendency to stir up too much trouble. So I PM the OP to simply tell him I agree.

But as can happen, it was apparently taken the completely wrong way. I tried to reply, but due to the response I was originally given and the fact that I did not get a response from him I assume that I might have been blocked.

So I will put my two cents in and let the milk spill where ever it will.

I myself have never used any type of social media and to be honest, this is probably the only place I go to talk to others and these days. But now in a very limited amount, due to what I would say is a strange and sad level of simple and peaceful online fellowship. Another words, things have seemed to get very tense and troubling around here. It seems the last year has changed the type of communication and attitude of many in a way that does not invite one to want to join in the conversation anymore.

My thoughts upon this touchy subject is that it is inherently dangerous to speak your mind and thoughts online and in social media. You can never take back the things you say ever. And the Alphabet agency's are there to see all you do and say, and can and will judge you on those things. Worse, it can lead to real world implications like the kind we saw today or many other things we have seen and heard in the news. And just like was initially said, the rules can and will change and as I have seen many times in history it usually does not come to your favor.

To each his or her own, but don't say that we have not been warned. The old saying sticks and stones, but words can't hurt me are gone forever.
Something we say now in haste may haunt us forever and could even cost us our freedom or even loved ones.

So that's my two cents, Sorry TwoTankAmin for what was an apparent misunderstanding on your part and a lack of proper wording on mine.
I hope you understand. :coffee:

codeM02

Re: Nope, no danger in using social media- no need to think before you post

Unread post by codeM02 » 2017-06-15, 06:01

Social media is just a thing, it may become a weapon to destroy others or a useful tool to communicate and spread a good news.

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Re: Nope, no danger in using social media- no need to think before you post

Unread post by Marcus » 2017-06-15, 09:55

The censorship in so-called social media has started long ago with anything remotely anti political correctness being censored and punished.
In Britain, Sweden and other European countries there are police units dedicated to comb social posting for "hate crimes" and there are already people with prison sentences for nothing more than expressing opinions.
This has nothing to do with Trump or the recent shooting; it's something deeper and tenebrous.

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Re: Nope, no danger in using social media- no need to think before you post

Unread post by Moonchild » 2017-06-15, 10:39

It really is very simple: if you pour out your life on social media, you should expect everything about your life to be accessible to anyone, including people you may not know. It's your choice to do so, and the consequences are yours to bear. You are making yourself vulnerable, and often in ways you did not expect.

If agencies are using this free expression of one's thoughts as core evidence (not just supporting evidence) to alleged crimes, then something is wrong with the agency's approaches, and if it passes courts then it is also an indication something needs to change in the way these cases are handled and the weight given to social media (after all, unless there is proven un-tampered photographic evidence in those posts, it should not prove anything by itself). You may indeed want to re-think what you post, for the time being anyway, because it is very easy to end up in entrapment situations or convictions based on circumstance in that case.
But: at the same time you should not feel limited in your freedom of speech, because in my opinion this indicates a problem with the legal system rather than people expressing themselves on-line and sharing their lives.

Once more, someone angry and upset enough to go out to shoot a congressman would very likely have done so regardless of social media.
"Sometimes, the best way to get what you want is to be a good person." -- Louis Rossmann
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TwoTankAmin
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Re: Nope, no danger in using social media- no need to think before you post

Unread post by TwoTankAmin » 2017-06-15, 17:43

I just wanted to say that thehandyman1957 and I managed to get it all worked out. I mistook what he had meant in a PM he sent about what I had written and i reacted to what I perceived he had meant. When he explained it I apologized for anything I might have said in my reply and thanked him for his support. He also admitted he could see how i mistook what he had written.

Let me pass on a piece of information that I have learned in my almost 20 years online. Nobody ever wins a forum fight. At best, the thread gets closed before it gets really ugly at worst somebody or bodies get banned from a site. I have tried to remember this but every now and then I forget and the result is I am forced to remember I should have simply shut up. On the plus side, most of the miscommunication between us was via PMs and we were both rational enough to realize we had both misunderstood things and we were able to resolve things like intelligent adults instead of spoiled brats.

I know I am a fairly outspoken person and I am known for telling it like it is, so to speak. I try to do this in as respectful a way as possible. My intention in this thread was not to crusade against social media. While my reasons for not using it are varied, the one thing I wish those who do would realize is that thinking before posting is essential. If i am sitting in a bar with a friend talking politics and one of us says they sure would like to shoot the president, we know this is an expression, we are not killers, we have no plan to shoot anybody, The statement is meant to show a sentiment not a plan. And then we go home and it is if the words were never spoken. Now if we have the exact same exchange on social media, the odds are pretty good we will get a visit from some big folks in black suits from the Secret Service knocking on our doors. This is an extreme example for sure. But it is intended to make a point. How many of you would think its smart to post how you were able to get a big tax refund because you lied on your tax return?

My point here is that too many people treat what they say on social media without any concern for the potential negative consequences down the road. Do a little research and you will find folks fired from jobs because of what they posted on social media. Look at how many stupid kids commit vandalism or worse, video the whole thing and post it on YouTube. The they are surprised when they get arrested. It used to be smart crooks tried to hide their tracks and leave no evidence behind. these days they are providing all the evidence authorities need to convict them in any court, Do we think the people who first are dumb enough to commit the crime are not even dumber for posting it all online?

I guess I should give up trying to suggest people be careful. Go ahead, post anything you like, but if it comes back to bite you down the road, you can't complain that you weren't warned. And that old phrase,"I am not doing anything I need to be worried about." may prove not to have been true because the rules have changed.

I would like to leave you all with a song. This one is pretty sweet both in the music and the subject. "A Better Place"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVHOqrw3Jks
I had to edit to offer up this encore (Stones fans should like this one) https://youtu.be/GJtq6OmD-_Y?list=RDZVHOqrw3Jks
“No one has ever become poor by giving.” Anonymous
“Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts.”" Daniel Patrick Moynihan
"The good thing about science is that it’s true whether or not you believe in it." Neil DeGrasse Tyson

Lunix

Re: Nope, no danger in using social media- no need to think before you post

Unread post by Lunix » 2017-06-15, 18:49

TwoTankAmin wrote:I know I am a fairly outspoken person and I am known for telling it like it is, so to speak. I try to do this in as respectful a way as possible.
Moderator note: unnecessary accusation from a different hot (and closed) debate removed. Please don't do this; it's both threadspilling and inflammatory, and serves no purpose but to cause disturbance. You've been warned.

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TwoTankAmin
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Re: Nope, no danger in using social media- no need to think before you post

Unread post by TwoTankAmin » 2017-06-15, 19:41

I thought that was a dead issue. If you wish to start it up again, be my guest. It will be a one sided conversation. While you are at it, please send a $10 donation to Moonchild.
“No one has ever become poor by giving.” Anonymous
“Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts.”" Daniel Patrick Moynihan
"The good thing about science is that it’s true whether or not you believe in it." Neil DeGrasse Tyson

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Re: Nope, no danger in using social media- no need to think before you post

Unread post by TwoTankAmin » 2017-06-30, 13:57

Trump’s voter-fraud commission wants to know voting history, party ID and address of every voter in the U.S.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/06/29/trumps-voter-fraud-commission-wants-to-know-the-voting-history-party-id-and-address-of-every-voter-in-america/

Nope, our privacy is not under threat. All one does, all one says, every thought one puts onto the net is not going to be a problem at all. Your information is safe, you are safe. Maybe if we all keep repeating this often enough, it will be true.

So far 5 states have said they will not comply- California, Virginia, Connecticut, Kentucky and Massachusetts.

An interesting note here is the head of the commission investigating the "non-existent" voter fraud is a man named Kobach.
Earlier this month, a federal judge fined Kobach $1,000 for “presenting misleading arguments in a voting-related lawsuit,” according to Politico.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/under-the-radar/2017/06/23/kris-kobach-fined-voting-lawsuit-trump-memo-239910

I know people thing I am a foil hat type. I do not care. Please be smart about what you do and what you give away without a thought. This morning a new story dealt with how haxckers use phishing emails to gain entry into networks and computers to wreck havoc. One of the key resources these hackers use to induce one to open a phishing email and click something bad is by surfing one's Facebook, or other social media, accounts so they can craft an email to appear as if it has come from somebody you would normally trust.

The expert who was being interviewed on this topic is a consultant who teaches companies' and their employees how to avoid making this sort of mistake by knowing how to spot such phishing emails. Not paying close attention to what one is doing is the single biggest cause for these scams working so well.
“No one has ever become poor by giving.” Anonymous
“Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts.”" Daniel Patrick Moynihan
"The good thing about science is that it’s true whether or not you believe in it." Neil DeGrasse Tyson

Lunix

Re: Nope, no danger in using social media- no need to think before you post

Unread post by Lunix » 2017-06-30, 23:16

Moonchild used to have a signature about "solutions born of paranoia are never the best" - every post you make is about data stealing paranoia or "foil hat type" as you yourself call it. Careful is good. Believing that every app and website you encounter is trying to steal your information is not good. It's too much and not helpful.

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Re: Nope, no danger in using social media- no need to think before you post

Unread post by TwoTankAmin » 2017-07-01, 16:16

Go ahead and ignore what is happening in front of your own eyes. I am clearly wrong, Microsoft is not collecting anything about us, Google is not doing this, Facebook is not doing this, nobody at all is doing this. It is all paranoia. Nobody has been hacked, nobody has had their identity stolen. You are completely safe doing anything you want on the internet. It is not possible for any of it to come back to bite anyone.

"Those who cannot remember the past, are condemned to repeat it," George Santayana
"Ignorance is bliss." Thomas Gray
"Ignorance is strength." George Orwell
"The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist." Roger "Verbal" Kint from The Usual Suspects.

I am a really clever person with unlimited digital skills. Clearly, I made up the story to which I linked. I even managed to get all the major news organization to include this story I made up, i got it in every paper, TV station and all over the net. This commission does not really exist and they did not ask for all that information. Or maybe I hallucinated the whole thing. nah, here is how good at this I am, I sent a letter to every state in the country which said in part:
In addition, in order for the Commission to fully analyze vulnerabilities and issues related to voter registration and voting, I am requesting that you provide to the Commission the publicly available voter roll data for Connecticut, including, if publicly available under the laws of your state, the full first and last names of all registrants, middle names or initials if available, addresses, dates of birth, political party (if recorded in your state), last four digits of social security number if available, voter history (elections voted in) from 2006 onward, active/inactive status, cancelled status, information regarding any felony convictions, information regarding voter registration in another state, information regarding military status, and overseas citizen information.

You may submit your responses electronically to ElectionIntegrityStaff@ovp.eop.gov or by utilizing the Safe Access File Exchange (“SAFE”), which is a secure FTP site the federal government uses for transferring large data files. You can access the SAFE site at https://safe.amrdec.army.mil/safe/Welcome.aspx. We would appreciate a response by July 14,
2017. Please be aware that any documents that are submitted to the full Commission will also be made available to the public. If you have any questions, please contact Commission staff at the same email address.
You can see how good I am at this here http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/files/2017/06/PEIC-Letter-to-Connecticut-1.pdf?tid=a_inl

What those in power need most to pull off this sort of stuff is more people who think exactly like Lunix does. It is much easier to have power handed over willingly than to have to take it forcibly from the citizenry.

But here is what really galls me. Lunix wrote above
Believing that every app and website you encounter is trying to steal your information is not good. It's too much and not helpful.
Please, anybody reading here go back and read every post I made in this thread and then show me where I said one's data is being stolen. Nothing is being stolen, folks are handing this information over willingly without so much as a nanosecond of thought about the potential consequences. In fact, we are told in every User Agreement that we never read but, like robots, click to agree to, that our information is being collected. There is no theft when you give up your information willingly.

What truly amazes me in all of this is the contradiction between not believing in the privacy threat and then choosing to use Pale Moon as one's browser. What actually separates P M from all the other browsers out there? Given the sorts of issues we often encounter with sites not wanting to work well with P M, why would anybody choose it over Chrome, IE, FF etc.? What is that is does or does not do? It's simple, it does not collect any real information about its users. It allows us to continue using extensions that block advertising and tracking.
“No one has ever become poor by giving.” Anonymous
“Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts.”" Daniel Patrick Moynihan
"The good thing about science is that it’s true whether or not you believe in it." Neil DeGrasse Tyson

Thehandyman1957

Re: Nope, no danger in using social media- no need to think before you post

Unread post by Thehandyman1957 » 2017-07-01, 20:23

TwoTankAmin wrote:I am a really clever person with unlimited digital skills. Clearly, I made up the story to which I linked. I even managed to get all the major news organization to include this story I made up, i got it in every paper, TV station and all over the net. This commission does not really exist and they did not ask for all that information. Or maybe I hallucinated the whole thing. nah, here is how good at this I am, I sent a letter to every state in the country which said in part:
Your skills are clearly needed over at CNN pronto. :lol:

Seriously though, your fighting a losing battle. Most folks don't care and refuse to even give a thought of the costs.

Or, as best said in the Matrix:

MORPHEUS
You have to understand that most
of these people are not ready to
be unplugged and many of them are
so inured, so hopelessly dependent
on the system that they will fight
to protect it.

Lunix

Re: Nope, no danger in using social media- no need to think before you post

Unread post by Lunix » 2017-07-02, 01:16

TwoTankAmin wrote:Please, anybody reading here go back and read every post I made in this thread and then show me where I said one's data is being stolen.
This is basically all you ever say, in this thread and others like it. Hundreds of posts on this topic you make in the anti Windows 10 thread for example. I take all of the comments into consideration when saying you post with a paranoid attitude about websites and operating systems. If I point out specifics to support this then I'm afraid of Moonchild saying I'm "threadspilling" and deleting me again, so I won't but you do post these things all the time.

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Re: Nope, no danger in using social media- no need to think before you post

Unread post by ron_1 » 2017-07-02, 01:46

Can we all just agree that it is a different, more crappy world we're living in today compared to the not-so-distant past? :sick:
After all, I've chosen my avatar (current as of this post) for a good reason. ;)
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Lunix

Re: Nope, no danger in using social media- no need to think before you post

Unread post by Lunix » 2017-07-02, 02:07

If you mean technology, yes I hate the current world of limited mobile devices, apps, facebook where everything has to be "social" connected.

Thehandyman1957

Re: Nope, no danger in using social media- no need to think before you post

Unread post by Thehandyman1957 » 2017-07-02, 04:04

helloimustbegoing wrote:Can we all just agree that it is a different, more crappy world we're living in today compared to the not-so-distant past? :sick:
After all, I've chosen my avatar (current as of this post) for a good reason. ;)
I like it, funny, I was just showing my wife the clip on Youtube where they showed the Toyota truck and how everybody wanted one of those when I was a kid.
Glad to see your still around, seems we have lost a lot of the folks that used to be here. :think:

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Re: Nope, no danger in using social media- no need to think before you post

Unread post by Moonchild » 2017-07-02, 14:44

Can we at least also refrain from making this thread about how someone posts or doesn't post?

Yes, the world we are in now is more interconnected. With this interconnectivity also comes a certain risk, because, as I've stated before many times, the Internet is a public place. I'm not one to tell someone else what to do or not to do, as I said in my original response to this topic: make up your own mind if you want to do this or not. If you want to pour out your personal life on social media (which is, pretty much by design, always going to have whatever you post both public and retained forever) or any other public medium, then that is entirely your choice, but also your risk to bear.
"Sometimes, the best way to get what you want is to be a good person." -- Louis Rossmann
"Seek wisdom, not knowledge. Knowledge is of the past; wisdom is of the future." -- Native American proverb
"Linux makes everything difficult." -- Lyceus Anubite

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Re: Nope, no danger in using social media- no need to think before you post

Unread post by gracious1 » 2017-07-04, 18:54

Lunix wrote:If you mean technology, yes I hate the current world of limited mobile devices, apps, facebook where everything has to be "social" connected.
Me, too. I do not do Facebook (although I haven't bothered to delete my account). Never had a Twitter account. I have a flip phone. If people want to communicate with me, they can call me (or text me) or email me (or use real mail); I have had the same mobile number since 2004, and I have had the same email address since 2003. So if they are not talking to me, they don't want to! :P

If I have a photo or a video or a thought to share with someone, I just send it to that person directly (SMS/MMS, email, or if need be, by ground or airmail), or post it to the relevant web forum. I do not feel compelled to share it with the entire planet. :D
20 July 1969 🌗 Apollo 11 🌓 "One small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind." 🚀

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