It has been a wild week. Exhausting, really. I am not a fan of politics, overly, and I don’t do well in conversations about it because I don’t truly believe I am going to convince anyone, and they won’t change how I perceive things, so I mostly stay out of it. But people love it, and fight about it and solve nothing along the way. A lot has changed over the years, and the Twitters and Instagram and Facebooks of the world have facilitated that. People fight over the color of a dress and weird noises.
Donald Trump got banned from Twitter, his favorite medium, yesterday. Folks are either wildly happy or just ticked off about it. A lot of chatter about loss of Free Speech, how can they do that! Well… He agreed to it. What? This is America, we have Freedom of Speech! Not like that, exactly. Nobody said he can’t speak his mind, he just can’t do it there anymore, and he agreed to that. More on that to come.
When you signed up for a credit card, they gave you a pamphlet of the terms of the card. Did you read it? I know I didn’t. The small print and legal stuff means little to me. I get how it goes, I use their card, and pay them back. If I don’t pay them back at one time they can charge me extra for using their money. I agreed to it whether or not I read it. Right? So, if I don’t want to pay the interest, pay it off. Simple. I follow their rules, or I have to pay extra, and I said it’s ok. I agreed to their terms.
Similar is the way bars operate, kind of. You can go into any bar as a legal adult, and spend money and drink there. You don’t see the signs in as many places, but sometimes there is one hanging somewhere the states “We Reserve the Right to Refuse Service to Anyone for Any Reason.” You don’t have to sign or click on anything, but by walking in, you agree to their terms, it is implied and the laws are written to back the bar up on it. If you go in and behave, you can keep drinking and hanging out. But, if you start getting too drunk, or start a fight, or harass someone, they are going to kick you out. I saw it on Christmas Eve a couple of weeks ago. I know this guy from my bartending days, and he was at the same bar. He was talking to me and my brother. He is a little obnoxious, but since I know him I just tolerate it, and hope he wanders off. Well, he didn’t, and someone else told the bouncer he was bugging me. He got the boot. They came around and told him he had to go. And he did. Not his first time getting kicked out of a bar, we used to send him home quite often back in the day. But he knows that it can happen, he didn’t abide by their terms, and he had to go.
When you download an app, a Facebook, Twitter or whatever, they ask you to accept the terms and conditions before the app installs and is useable. It’s pretty standard thing. We all do it, and likely never read the long boring script that lays out all of those terms. Click accept and start reading and posting! All is right with the world, you are following people and liking posts and posting your own stuff, so much fun and entertainment! We probably all know someone who got tagged and did a stretch in the Facebook jail. I know several. All of a sudden you don’t see their stuff for a few days, and you know what happened. They posted something, someone got upset or it violated their standards and the account gets held a few days. One friend did about a month in FB Jail a while back. He came back ahead with a different profile, and that is a way around, but you get the idea. They usually know what they did. Do your time, and come on back out into the Social Media Playground.
That’s what happened to Donny yesterday. He violated their terms and conditions one too many times. They deemed that he was not playing nicely with others, and they put him in detention. Forever. Or at least until he is out of office, I am sure. But people are freaking out. He too, at one time, agreed to their terms and conditions. He agreed to it. He maybe didn’t read it, most of us don’t. They update their terms occasionally and ask you to click accept again, you don’t read anything, click and move forward. There is no exemption button for POTUS or anyone else. They gave him a pretty wide berth as president, but this week he crossed their imaginary line one too many times, so they yanked him. But it is their line. They can move it on us any time they want, and because we hit “accept” we have no recourse. It is their sandbox. You got kicked out for throwing sand. Bye.
I suggested to someone last night that there are other platforms, or start your own if you don’t like it. He didn’t like that. Pitched an online fit, and people like to jump on someone like that. The Internet is a nasty sandbox. People pee in that all the time and aren’t very nice. I wouldn’t engage any more, because I did what I wanted to do, I made him think, and he didn’t do so good with that. Did these people truly believe there wouldn’t be any fallout from all of this? I guess so, and they thought Trump would continue on unchecked, because of his office. Terms and conditions. They serve their purpose whether you read them or not. Even in the Oval Office.
I don’t know what happens next. We all see them demanding he resign, or get impeached again, or kicked out. It’s less than 2 weeks until he leaves, but if he gets kicked out, more ugly is going to come out. I think he is damaged, I have always felt that about him, but now he is really in a corner. Cornered, wounded animals are still very dangerous. That is really why they pulled his account. They don’t want him to rally his base into more actions like what happened Wednesday. It doesn’t take a lot of knowledge or wisdom to get that. It sounds like they made it so he doesn’t have the nuclear codes anymore either. I don’t know that he would have gone that way, but nobody thought a sitting president would encourage an insurrection either.
What I know is that we are all tapped out right now. The ‘Rona, the election and all the drama with it and now this event of Wednesday. I feel beaten down, tired, and I believe a lot of others feel it too. So please do what you can for self care right now. Set up your own Terms and Conditions for yourself, and make others accept them. I think we need that right now. I think we need to limit things that stress and create anxiety. Don’t engage with those who are looking for a fight. Protect yourself, and care for yourself. I am fond of saying you are your own number one asset, and I mean that. The fatigue of all of this is very real. I do think that is what is hurting Trump right now, his fatigue of being himself, and because he has been at it so long now, it is chipping away at him and making him act irrationally. I may be wrong, I am not trained in anything like that, but the edges are unraveling. If he doesn’t leave office prior to Biden getting sworn in, willingly or not, I am perfectly ok with him just golfing out the rest of the term. He needs the break, and honestly, so do the rest of us.
Coco's Veiw of the World 