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Despite Negative Press, Facebook Is a Powerful Agent for Social Change

By Nancy Scola, AlterNet. Posted April 24, 2008.


Facebook is revolutionizing the way collective political and social actions are organized.

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As an organizing tool, Facebook has had a couple of ugly weeks of late. Students at Michigan State University recently used Facebook to revive Cedar Fest, an old campus tradition that had been outlawed by local officials in the late 1980s after it frequently escalated from a party into something more akin to a riot. This time around, after violence ensued, East Lansing police officials vowed to hold those Facebook users accountable. News headlines ran along the lines of "Facebook: Tool for Chaos?" and the social-networking site was demonized as a means for the rabble to wreak havoc.

But it's only right to hold up the recent commotion in south-central Michigan against other Facebook-fueled collective action. It should be placed in context with how a Canadian university student named Alex Bookbinder has used the site to push back against state-sponsored violence in Burma. It must be judged against the worldwide attention to China's policy on Tibet that activists have used Facebook to generate in recent weeks. And it is only properly understood against the backdrop of those Colombian citizens, sick and tired of the fear that racks their country, who used Facebook to say no mas in more than one hundred cities on the very same day.

Facebook is revolutionizing the way collective political and social actions are organized today, blowing the doors off old models of how volunteer lists are amassed, funds raised, and messages honed and delivered. And no one is more surprised by that than Alex Bookbinder.

After traveling through Burma (also known as Myanmar) before his first year at university, Bookbinder returned home last fall and did something seemingly inconsequential: He initiated a Facebook group called Support the Monks' Protest in Burma to protest the Burmese military junta's harsh crackdown on the nation's religious caste. What's remarkable is that "global group" -- the social-networking site's parlance for designating a group open to all comers -- indeed became a global network of resistance.

"It was totally unexpected," Bookbinder says of the group's explosive growth. "It wasn't intended to take off to the level it did." After first attracting a handful of members of Bookbinder's own personal network of contacts, it quickly grew to 25,000 members, then 250,000.

"It's like a party," says the first-year student at the University of British Columbia. "If it catches attention, it will go viral" -- aided in part by Facebook's News Feed feature, which functions as something of an EKG for your social network. In the last weekend in September, the group reportedly gained a breathtaking nine new members a second.

Burma Campaign UK, a well-established bricks-and-mortar advocacy group formed in 1991, took notice of the contagiousness of the idea Bookbinder had unleashed. "They thought the group had potentially the largest collection of people interested in Burma in the world," says Bookbinder. The British organization made the decision to use the group as a catalyst for launching global boots-on-the-ground protests.

By the time the group's roll topped 300,000, the "Saffron Revolution" had garnered worldwide notice. And on a Global Day of Action for Burma on Oct. 6, protestors took to the streets in more than 30 cities from Vienna to Seoul to Washington D.C., demanding the repressive Burmese military regime treat the red-robed religious leaders with tolerance and respect.

Of course, though the uproar in Burma has calmed of late, the country's woes have far from passed. Attention is thus being paid to tending to the group, the membership of which stands at more than 387,000. As the group exploded, Bookbinder realized he needed help. The group now counts more than a dozen self-organized administrators, from Australia to Guatemala. Bold-faced names like Elie Weisel and Yoko Ono have added notes of encouragement to the group's posting wall. Weisel's note to the group reads "You are their hope and ours."

One of the beauties of a Facebook group is the "Message All Members" feature, by which group administrators can reach out to entire membership rolls at any time. Asked when the group will again be provoked into mass action, Bookbinder points to a junta-authored draft constitution military leaders say they'll put to the Burmese people on May 10. Pushing Burma into the realm of free and open societies is a tremendous challenge. "It's not what one person can do. It's what a critical mass can do. You need mass globalization, and that's something Facebook can do."


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Nancy Scola is a Brooklyn-based writer who has in the past served as the chief blogger at Air America, an aide to former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner as he explored a run for the presidency, and a congressional staffer on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

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A captive audience in a controlled environment - perfect!
Posted by: thoughtcriminal on Apr 24, 2008 12:26 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Wow, just think of the marketing opportunities here! They'll be able to tailor individual ads to a person's browser by tracking their choices and preferences on Facebook - this is a marketer's dream.

That's probably why Facebook gets most of its revenue from an advertising deal with Microsoft - a fact the author of this article conveniently leaves out.

For all the excitement, one sobering fact remains: Facebook has yet to prove itself as a business. The site's nearly 40 million active users generate more than a billion pageviews a day, but ad clickthrough rates are low. An estimated half of its $150 million in revenue comes from an advertising deal with Microsoft. Independent developers are drawn to Facebook because Zuckerberg lets them keep any advertising revenue their applications generate; if Facebook can't prove itself as an advertising venue, the deluge of new applications will slow to a trickle.

You know what it is? It is the cubicle model of the internet. You go to your Facebook cubicle and that's your portal to the world - all via the approved network channels. Forget about open access - welcome to the world of cable internet:

Facebook's Terms of Use make it clear that, "Except for your own User Content, you may not upload or republish Site Content on any Internet, Intranet or Extranet site or incorporate the information in any other database or compilation, and any other use of the Site Content is strictly prohibited."

Sorry, but this article is completely bogus. Stick to the real internet of nodes and connections - set up your own web page, host it on your local internet company servers, and do all your organizing that way. Even better, go out and walk around your town with a few flyers or something - because in this collapsing economy, some people might very well not have access to a laptop and a connection, right?

Don't get sucked into the empty halls of mirrors that are MySpace and Facebook.

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» Amen Posted by: socialpsych
Voluntary Big Brother
Posted by: NoPCZone on Apr 24, 2008 1:51 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Why spy on people when they will voluntarily do it for you and post it on the Internet? Looks like a no-brainer & non-starter.

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» RE: Voluntary Big Brother Posted by: Artkansas
Easy Picking for Perverts
Posted by: marid on Apr 24, 2008 3:51 AM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The so called social networking sites are one of the greatest creations for sexual predators ever devised. They don't have to prowl our streets anymore, just go online to find your prey. After having an FBI agent make three presentations to our students and parents of the dangers online, they (Facebook, Myspace) are viewed in a different light. The no holds barred presentaion for the parents was mind numbing in its depravity. The owners and operators of these sites are reaping billions in profit while using our children a bait for sexual predators, and they know it. Oh well, it is America and money rules, children be damned.
There is no way schools, could legally allow these cesspools of porn and degradation into the public venue. But we put in nice, fast, new systems in our libraries to make it easier for the perverts.
Money rules, children be damned. And to those who ballyhoo the virtues and cool stuff on these sites, what price are our children paying?

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» Turn down the fear Posted by: Phenix
» Phenix I don't think I am Posted by: marid
» RE: Turn down the fear Posted by: Ianthe
» Michael Jackson had a better idea Posted by: strahlungsamt
» My whole family is on Myspace Posted by: Artkansas
What are these sites essentially
Posted by: ssegallmd on Apr 24, 2008 4:46 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
You three - thoughtcriminal, NoPCZone, marid - seem to all agree that Facebook and MySpace are bad news. I've heard of both but have never visited either and don't really know what they are. Much of Internet culture doesn't interest me, but it sounds like I should know something about at least these two. This article assumes that you know something about what these sites are and their purpose. I don't. What I mean by that is that I could describe some sites that I do understand in a few words each for somebody who was as ignorant of them as I am of these two. For example

Wikipedia - an encyclopedia in progress written and updated as a series of pages like encyclopedia entries by any volunteer at any time which content is occasionally in error.

Urban Dictionary - a dictionary of popular slang accumulated by users who must submit entries for approval before they are included. Readers rate the entries with thumbs up or down if they agree with the author's usage

YouTube - a collection of videos uploaded by users, which include music, PowerPoint type presentations and home videos. I don't know what if any vetting process a video must go through. Users can rate the videos.

Snopes - the place to check for the authenticity of any urban legend or piece of information circulating the Internet. A good place to vet any "Did you know" material you receive.

AlterNet - a liberally oriented mostly political site featuring a handful of new articles from various sources wherein readers using a pseudonym can register to post anonymous comments that appear as threads below the articles to which refer

How would a description of Facebook and MySpace read? How are they different? What do users use them for?

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» A synopsis I don't have Posted by: marid
» Sorry AlterNet Posted by: ssegallmd
» All sorts of things Posted by: Gravitas
» RE: All sorts of things Posted by: ssegallmd
This is organizing??
Posted by: hagwind on Apr 24, 2008 5:00 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I'm not going to knock Facebook (which I'm not on) or online organizing in general -- I've witnessed and been part of several organizing efforts over the years where e-mail and the Web were indispensable. All of them were small-scale, e.g., organizing a project or rallying the opposition within an established group, but involved far-flung individuals.

What I can't help noticing about the examples given in this article is how safe they are from a U.S. vantage point. Raise money, sign petitions, write letters, spread the word -- about struggles in Tibet or Burma or Colombia, protesting governments and movements that everybody feels virtuous for hating. So what happens when someone wants to organize against, say, a bank's discriminatory lending practices or mega-chain's attempt to devastate yet another U.S. community? What if the mega-chain or the bank's corporate parent advertises on Facebook or MySpace or whatever?

Forgive me for waxing more suspicious than enthusiastic. The Internet is a great tool, but so much of the "organizing" that takes place through it is only a step or two up from a rumor mill. Its roots are so often shallow, because it's almost entirely self-selecting. Real organizing -- the kind that has effects in the real world, and the kind that lasts -- involves talking to real people, many of whom (at least at first) don't especially want to talk to you. And organizing that depends too heavily on the Internet, computers, or even electricity -- never mind the support of corporate advertisers -- is vulnerable. Better get cracking before everyone who knows how to write in longhand, type on a manual typewriter, and letter a placard without help from Photoshop dies off.

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» Total agreement Posted by: Phenix
» RE: This is organizing?? Posted by: YogiBear
Good for Them
Posted by: Gravitas on Apr 24, 2008 5:11 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Good for those students who are doing something via facebook!

I am not going to argue the point about spying or abuse of marketing. Those are valid concerns. However, I have to say I find myspace fun. I have meet likeminded friends all over the world who I never would have gotten the chance to meet in person. I also think myspace can help people break the consumption habit. For years, consumerism was an ingrained and encouraged way of life for me. (And most of us!) Now when I get the urge to buy, I collect myspace friends instead of stuff. I have learned much about social causes as many of my "friends" are social justice organizations. And it gives everyone the opportunity to be creative and tell their own story rather than just a passive audience and let the MSM entertain them. I am better able to stay in touch with old friends in a very convenient (and cheaper than long distance) way! I think the benefits outweigh the abuses. People just have to be careful!

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Don't forget TRUTHOUT
Posted by: navy-vet on Apr 24, 2008 5:52 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
One of the best and most accessible sites is TRUTHOUT--an investigative journalism news service that also prints OpEds, which could be from viewers, and has a staff that writes original articles. You can also email Marc Ash, the publisher, and get a nice reply. What I like is that it contains NO ADS whatsoever. It leans liberal but is about as unbiased as anyone could ask, as investigate j should be. IT NEEDS OUR SUPPORT WITH MONEY!

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» RE: Don't forget TRUTHOUT Posted by: paulmagillsmith
Open Source Version of Facebook
Posted by: postconsumer-consumer on Apr 24, 2008 6:06 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
For people who want to build their own social networking site there is an open-source web application called Elgg. This is an easy to use web cms that can be set up as a "walled garden" a site only accessible to members if you're worried about nasties. Check it out here at the Elgg site.

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Its pretty good in my book.
Posted by: qoppermeg on Apr 24, 2008 7:18 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I do think most people join groups without much intention to partake in any sort of activism: this happens quite a lot on facebook.
But the fact that there ARE people who can organize themselves via FB and who will create and participate in events surrounding a cause is simply amazing to me. I think its about time our generation started to speak up about issues. I often lament the fact that I wasn't born in the 50s or 60s, when people our age were actually helping create a counterculture. I want to see a revolution.

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April Fool's Day was what, 3 weeks ago?
Posted by: Erik1968 on Apr 24, 2008 7:47 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Is this a joke?

News flash: a bunch of rich kids clicking links on facebook did not free Tibet.

Didn't Howard Dean teach you anything? Virtual organizing is VIRTUAL! It's NOT REAL!

ORGANIZE NOW! In REAL LIFE! Stop torture, stop the war! Jezum crow...

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» LOL Posted by: YogiBear
Another Big Brother tool?
Posted by: HughScott on Apr 24, 2008 8:42 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Here is what Facebook says about privacy: "We MAY USE information about you that we collect from other sources, including BUT NOT LIMITED to newspapers and Internet sources such as blogs, instant messaging services and other users of Facebook, to SUPPLEMENT your profile."

"May use"?

"Not limited to"?

"Supplement"?

To me, that sounds like a blank check to publicize our lives without us having control.

No thanks, Facebook. I'll keep my private life PRIVATE!

One more thing. Imagine the federal abuse of our right to privacy -- i.e. data mining -- if John McCain becomes president. It will be 1984 twenty-five years late.

-----------------------------------------------
Hugh E. Scott, Vietnam vet, ex-USAF pilot, lifelong registered Republican, ARDENT Obama supporter and the editor of www.PhonyFighterPilot.com -- the only website about George W. Bush that presents irrefutable, smoking-gun proof of White House corruption.

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I think the Daily Show covered this pretty well. . .
Posted by: thoughtcriminal on Apr 24, 2008 9:35 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml? videoId=115059&title=trendspotting

"That's why I have 9000 friends online - what do you say to that, Professor Smallbeard?"

Waste of time, in other words. Distraction - the online equivalent of WWF, daily soap operas, Entertainment Tonight, and the Jerry Springer Show. Online video game playing is a far more interesting waste of your time.

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Room for abuse
Posted by: Ignatz deFyre on Apr 24, 2008 10:31 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
My ex-wife showed up in court the other day brandishing facebook printouts of my 17 y.o. daughter's party that my daughter posted, claiming I'm a bad parent because I let minors drink. Our social services agency and police are swamped with people submitting facebook information about others out of context, even photos of contrived situations. Yet another way to muddle up reality and suck up people's time.

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no criticism?
Posted by: bemf on Apr 24, 2008 10:43 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
This article really missed critical perspectives of using Facebook to organize, particularly an over reliance and fetishization of technology rather than door-to-door or real world organizing, failed to look at the class nature (assuming everyone has the internet and that Facebook users can "save" oppressed peoples), the security implications for activists using Facebook (state repression, disruption of movements, etc), and the reliance on corporate structures rather than grassroots infrastructure.

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nestor
Posted by: kristof on Apr 24, 2008 1:50 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
re. "powerful agent for social change"

based on Stola's details--strong links to official coopted power via captive, pseudo-watchdog organs of state and as a voice box for incorporated, more or less innocuous lefty-progressive presstitutes, maybe we need to ask what kind of "social change" and for whom?

Facebood and its ilk are indeed the ideal "powerful" tool for managed social change--monitored, guided and ultimately congruent with the US corporate gangster kleptocracy's full spectrum dominance strategem--rather than the drastic steps required to educate and jar the docile US consumer from his/her catatonia.

The protean "temporary autonomous zone" or TAZ with its origins in the Italian labor movement and in Germany/FRA is one way to deal with the G-8 Panopticon, the rising maximum security state and its own terror capabilities.

Facebook is almost the opposite the autonomous, spontaneous and nimble approach needed to assert individual sovereignty and eventual collective critical mass capable of dislodging the corporate criminals who already largely deterimine our destinies.

The bio says Stola's from Brooklyn. Does she own condo yet in one of the newly developed urban gated communities that are pummeling the less well-heeled into exile? Take your disinfo back to Wash DC where it fits.

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Facebook: Your IP Address Recorded as You Are Tracked
Posted by: sofla100 on Apr 24, 2008 2:45 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The biggest problem with Facebook, as a real tool for social change, lies in how it is set-up. Basically, any centralized system, dependent on identifiable people who are organizers and identifiable computer servers, has significant drawbacks. The biggest one is annonymity. In the USA today, if the FBI wants to show up at Facebook with either a warrant or a National Security Letter, Facebook has to give the FBI all its logs. That will consist of the IP addresses of everybody creating or viewing particular sites. Now, for computer geeks, a few ways exist around this, like proxy servers and virtual networks, but for the average guy or gal, they won't know how or be able to use these techniques. Bottom line, just be aware that every time you go into facebook, or review it's pages, your IP address and your identity is being logged. Facebook then is not a real good agent for social change. It's certainly not a trusted vehicle to challenge authority or power. When GW Bush defines terrorists as really anybody who challenges the status quo in any significant form, I would be very, very careful with using it.

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Facebook is another organizing tool. Why not use it?
Posted by: BobS on Apr 24, 2008 4:13 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Right now students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are having a sit-in demanding that the university join with the anti-sweatshop movement.

This is ironic considering that North Carolina lost much of its textile industry to 3rd World sweatshop labor.

The students are using Facebook to mobilize support. Facebook is just one more tool in a student organizers toolbox. So why not use it?

As a former SDS member (1966-1969), I sure wish we had something like this. I'm actually kinda jealous:).

Bob Simpson
The Bobbosphere

Below is an example from the UNC Facebook sit-in page:

Invite ALL your friends!

CALL CHANCELLOR MOESER at 919-962-1365 and tell him you support the students who are sitting in at his office and demand that he immediately adopt the DSP!

Hello, my name is ________ and I am a ________ from ______. I was shocked to discover that North Carolina clothes are produced in sweatshops. I urge you to listen to your students, adopt the DSP, and refrain from any kind of disciplinary action. Thank you.

After three years of stalling in committee meetings, misinformation, and outright lies about the DSP, while workers have been losing their lives and livelihoods for standing up for their rights, we say: ENOUGH!

At 12:00pm April 24, 2008, following a wave of similar actions at Appalachian State University, Penn State University, and the University of Montana, 15 UNC students began a peaceful occupation of Chancellor Moeser’s office, refusing to leave until he adopts the Designated Suppliers Program. It is an indisputable fact that the majority of the clothes on the market today, including UNC logoed apparel, are made in sweatshops. Workers’ basic human rights are violated on a daily basis and UNC has thus far remained complicit. But as students, we have the power to change that. Just as workers are organizing in their factories, we are organizing on campus and demanding an alternative. By adopting the DSP, UNC would join 42 other US colleges and universities in requiring that university licensees source from factories where workers can form unions and negotiate living wages.


Check out our website for more info!

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I just can't think of a reason to belong.
Posted by: Longdream on Apr 24, 2008 5:18 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Nothing against Facebook or any other place like it. I don't believe the isolated incidents of kids or anyone being endangered or approached reflects on the phenomenon as a whole. I'm sure it's great. it's just not something I'd do.

I like to see my friends when I want to, and I write to them and e-mail them personally when I want. I don't have any need to reach them all at once for any reason, or at least not often. I also don't want to be on a list that puts me in line to know all about my friends' lives in hourly detail anytime they want to tell me. The thought of getting through all that communication gives me agida.

I think activism has more meaning when it's done personally. Checking a box with a keystroke doesn't require much effort or much commitment, and the net effect is probably, "So what? Who are these people, and what do I care what they say?"

If the feds have more information on me than I'd like, it won't be because I gave it to them, and if I'm spammed, it won't be because I asked for it.

You guys have fun, though.

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Terrorist
Posted by: HeKnew on Apr 24, 2008 9:55 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
That's like saying the Eisenhower administration was defined by the hula hoop. Facebook is a gimmicky, cheesy little toy.

Poke Bush


Direct Democracy

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Another delusion
Posted by: Lector on Apr 24, 2008 11:43 PM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Facebook and sites like them seem to be a waste of time if you expect to collect authentic "friends". Building your own site or blogging just for your personal satisfaction is fine. But people should also be getting out of the house, hiking mountains or riding a bike, travelling, trying new foods and cultures, meeting and talking to real people, and interfacing with the world in this manner instead, if they can. They will live a longer and healthier life too and become harder targets for the government-corporate complex.

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» RE: Another delusion Posted by: Longdream
» RE: Another delusion Posted by: masterjc
» RE: Another delusion Posted by: masterjc
The problem with Facebook
Posted by: rww on Apr 25, 2008 6:37 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The problem with Facebook is not what it's users are using it for but what it's owners are using it for and how they use the users personal information for marketing purposes, often without them knowing it.

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We are spied on in more ways than
Posted by: paulmagillsmith on Apr 26, 2008 1:26 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Facebook, and anyone who doesn't realize this is a fool. Cell phones, landlines, e-mail, snail mail, security cameras, face recognition programs, blogs, even the sites you Google & look at are all subject to observation or infiltration. Where you shop, what you buy, even what brand of beer you had in the bar last night are all trackable. 1984 came even farther back than the date. Why do you think FISA was passed, and why are the neo-CONs so intent on imasculating it?

Get used to it folks. Big Brother is watching you, has been, and will be. So what is the solution? Don't reveal any information through these means of communication if you are that paranoid about what you are doing that could get you in trouble, right? Meet F2F in a place with loud music, and speak M2E (mouth to ear) if it bothers you, but not in a quiet place unless you have a clear view 360 degrees for quite a distance (and even then you can be heard electronically with a device known as the 'big ear'). In 1960 my brother built one and we could hear the neighbors on the corner talking at dinner THROUGH A BRICK WALL.

Sure I use FaceBook, and sometimes even MySpace, but as a tool for social networking, not to expose plans for any kind of revolution. Crazy is as crazy does, as Gump's mother likely also said on occasion.

Just because there is likely a file on me, you, and almost all Americans somewhere in a government building (the assumption is probably very valid) this doesn't mean I'll tremble in fear to speak my mind. Fear is the prime weapon & strategy of fascists. If you don't fear them, and they know you don't fear them, in this fashion you win & they lose.

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