Formula for Perpetual Minority Rule

Just a quick review:

1. This Republican President has unlimited authority to defy all subpoenas, lawsuits, and other legal proceedings.  The proposed remedy is an impeachment.

2. This Republican President has unlimited authority to defy all witness subpoenas and document production during impeachment proceedings.  The proposed remedy is an election.

3.  This Republican Party is actively working to limit voter registration, ballot access, and proportional Electoral College allocation, while engaging in gerrymandering of districts and other anti-democratic efforts which prevent every voter from being counted and overturn efforts to ensure their votes count equally.  The proposed remedy is to allow Republicans to continue rigging, cheating, and interfering with elections, ensuring the installation of Republican Presidents against the will of the American people.

This is the formula for perpetual minority rule under the framework of a one party, authoritarian state.  And so long as Republican voters believe such a system benefits themselves and punishes their perceived enemies, they will unrelentingly support it.

Trump Rallies and George Orwell

December 10th, 2019: Outside a Trump rally in Hershey, Pennsylvania - Image Courtesy of News2Share

Facebook Circa 2005

This was the first story CBS News ran about TheFacebook.com - a website that had spread to college students across 575 schools and required a campus email address to create an account.

Notice how completely unaware this report is with what Facebook has become or the corrosive, disruptive power it has wreaked across the country and around the world?

If only we knew then what we are discovering now.

Perhaps technology is not neutral. Perhaps it fosters an increasingly destabilizing effect on existing social and political institutions - usually in ways which favor the powerful interests who control and capitalize upon these digital tools.

A "Joker" for Our Times

"Joker" is a dark, disturbing, powerful, and timely film. It is less a conventional comic book movie than a searing modernization of Taxi Driver, A Clockwork Orange, or similarly brooding cinema. It is expertly directed, performed, shot and presented. Memorable and unrelenting, it pushes the boundaries of representations of violence as entertainment and is not likely to be enjoyed so much as endured.

The film's American release has been incredibly polarizing and is rightly controversial. However, that controversy should be reflected right back upon a country festering from a breakdown of trust in political institutions, growing economic inequality, eroding public services, insufficient mental health and social assistance programs... and yet awash in guns, television, psychotropic drugs, anger, fear and resentment.

The film has something to say about all of this and more. It is a brave, bold, ambitious and perhaps dangerous work of art. By the film's searing finale, we are all but forced to consider why such a film hits so close to home as a macabre distillation of our own zeitgeist. And perhaps we realize: the joke is on us.

Social Media and Storming Area 51

"Storming" Area 51 is a criminal offense and at least one person has already been killed by security personnel while attempting to do so.

On one level, "shit-posting" memes like this are very amusing exercises in sci-fi irony.  But taken as a serious call to action, which some misguided or delusional people will predictably do, is also extremely dangerous to any actual participants.  The nearest hotel in Rachel, Nevada is already completely booked around the proposed date in question.

Further, this highly popular Facebook event (with 2 million marked as "going" and 1.5 million marked as "interested" thus far) rather clearly communicates the intent to violate federal law (such as 18 U.S.C. § 1382 - trespassing on a military facility).

I have no idea why it is still allowed on Facebook's platform. This isn't likely to end well and social media companies will again be confronted with the role they played in disseminated what amounts to the incitement of imminent lawless action.

Facebook Jailed... for Quoting James Baldwin

Apparently Facebook believes I cannot quote among the most prominent activists and authors, himself a black man who used the n-word to interrogate its meaning and use, without being put in Facebook jail?

If my comment directly quoting James Baldwin is "hate speech," is IMDb prominently publishing this quote also "hate speech?"  Is the documentary itself from which this quote was derived also "hate speech?"  🤔🤔🤔

Likely this entire process was automated without any Facebook employee oversight and is the equivalent of an AI axe doing the more careful work of a human scalpel.  Devoid of evaluating purpose, context, intent or effect, the banning of words regardless of their application represents a serious problem for public discourse on popular media platforms.

So this is an information flow challenge which Facebook, Google, Twitter, etc. clearly has't effectively addressed.  The "automate everything" Silicon Valley types still seem to believe they can mechanize away all the context-dependent administrative and curation duties necessary for running giant websites which serve billions of users each day... but it turns out we still need humans to really understand what humans are saying and Facebook clearly isn't equipped to monitor that.

Mass Shootings - The Difference Which Makes a Difference

Every developed country has violent films, music, and videogames.  Every city and town around the world includes people struggling with isolation, addiction, mental illness, and stress.  And most developed countries have legal access to abortion while also maintaining a secular form of government.  None of these factors are themselves closely linked to mass shootings.  None of them.  We should stop pretending otherwise.



1. Only the USA is led by a xenophobic bigot who has made white identity politics his central animating force in pronouncement and by policy, demonizing immigrants and vilifying Muslims.  Then, online forums like 8chan and Reddit's r/The_Donald radicalize angry, isolated young men - many of whom embrace Trump's xenophobia and bigotry, then carry out attacks on marginalized communities. Domestic terrorists are waging white identity politics which the GOP is fueling.

2. And only the USA has widespread availability of military style rifles and high capacity magazines to almost anyone.  These weapons do not themselves create the underlying conditions for a mass shooting, but absolutely do increase the severity of injuries and number of deaths in a matter of minutes.  The type of bullet wounds and the number of shots fired without reloading are both essential elements in the lethality of a rampage attack.  Mass shooters know this and almost always choose an AR-15 or similar variant for these reasons.



This is a uniquely American problem and it is getting worse for the two reasons I just mentioned.  Anyone who tells you otherwise isn't paying attention to the global data set and commonalities these trends reveal.

Rush Limbaugh: Fiscal Conservatism is a Ruse

The game is up!  Rush Limbaugh finally admitted what the rest of us already knew: GOP "conservatives" don't actually care about fiscal conservativism at all and have just been using their fake outrage to oppose funding popular programs and services while encouraging more upper-class tax cuts.

Cooking with Condiments

My cookbook idea.

The number of women in the Republican Party should be zero

Republican congressional candidate Joan Perry (NC-3) lost to Greg Murphy in their primary last week.

In a recent PBS NewsHour interview, AZ Republican Debbie Lesko said she recognized the lack of gender representation in the GOP and hoped many more women would be elected as Republicans soon.  "That's a nice sentiment," I thought.  "Gender equality in politics is severely lacking, so more women in the GOP would be a great improvement even if I wouldn't vote for them."

But that is the wrong answer.

For decades, the Republicans have actively undermined women's reproductive rights, workplace rights, pay equity and standing as full citizens.  Their policies harm most working class people but disproportionately harm women.  And their party leader, with over 90% approval rating among Republicans, is a serial sexual predator and career misogynist.

The number of women in the Republican Party should be zero.

Those Millennial Feminist SJWs!

THIS IS SATIRE - PLEASE SHARE until someone does so unironically and fails to realize this is right wing meme parody. PS: The left can meme.

God or Government?

Curiously, many of the strongest proponents of a particular monotheistic worldview have no problem rejecting someone's humanity on the basis of their government-issued paperwork.

Why?  It turns out that, according to most Christian Evangelicals (who overwhelming support Donald Trump's immigrant policies), we are all the children of God... but casting out the foreigner (because they didn't meet the altogether arbitrary standard of government approval) is totally legit.

So much for Leviticus 19:33!  "When a foreigner resides with you in your land, you must not oppress him. You must treat the foreigner living among you as native-born and love him as yourself, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God."

Impeaching Donald Trump is Right

"Many constituents want to impeach the President, but we want to do what is right and what gets results."  - Nancy Pelosi, May 29th, 2019

Nancy, I am sorry to say, that is frequently not how the world works.  There are a great number of actions which get results but which are not right... and sometimes doing what is right might not get results - at least not right away.  For my part, doing what is right has always been the better course in the long run; expecting "results" in some value exchange for "doing what is right" is really just bargaining one's principles with the expectation of a favorable outcome.  Such an outcome may or may not arise, but we can still choose to do what is right because doing what is right is an intrinsic good.

It is entirely possible that a televised impeachment process would deeply damage Donald Trump and negatively affect his 2020 re-election prospects.  It is also possible, though perhaps less so, that Democrats launching a formal impeachment inquiry would benefit Trump electorally.  I don't agree with the latter assessment, but I'm willing to entertain it.

But regardless of whether impeachment "gets results" in the Pelosian calculation, it is almost certainly the legally-founded and Congressionally-mandated course of action... if indeed the Constitutional mechanism of impeachment has any place in the American political process whatsoever.

Nancy, if not a formal impeachment inquiry into the high crimes and misdemeanors of Donald Trump, than who?  If not after the damning revelations of the Mueller Report, then when?  And if not to hold the office of the president to the rule of law as any other citizen, than why?

Leaving Libertarianism: A Debate on Freer Talk Live

I joined Ian Freeman and Mark Edge on Free Talk Live's Internet-only extended show to discuss my time in the libertarian movement and debate the virtues of libertarian philosophies. DOWNLOAD MP3

The Facebook Jail Feedback Loop

Blimey!  I've been Zucked again!

I'm now banned from Facebook for 7 days for posting about why I was banned for 3 days for posting about a friend being banned for 1 day!

Just how meta will this Facebook jail saga get?

The Stockholm Syndrome of College Affordability

I took out and paid off my student loans from Emerson College with some degree of financial sacrifice during the mid 2000's (while making a videogame on nights and weekends, whatever that was about).

Referencing this graph, I graduated at basically the last time college was affordable for a middle class family.  I could almost hear the door of college affordability shutting behind me, even if I didn't understand why or its long-term macroeconomic implications.

And now that candidates like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are proposing tuition free college and even some student loan forgiveness programs, my reflexive response is not to feel cheated for paying my loans off, not recoiling from "a slap in the face" for paying off my student loans ahead of schedule, and not some misplaced desire to inflict upon others a perhaps unnecessary educational expense I incurred... but rather with the hopes that access and affordability for higher education improves with the next generation rather than receding from it.

We should resist this Stockholm Syndrome mentality about broken systems from which we convince ourselves subsequent generations must endure merely because we ourselves persevered through them... or worse: cede the argument to older generations (like Boomers) who often struggle to relate at all with just how strenuous college affordability is for Gen Z today.  We can fight for a better future together, because it is the best shared outcome for our society, irrespective of what dues we each had to pay to get this far.

Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - Saria's Song Dubstep Remix

that feel when the fairy kid plays your jam

Donald Trump on Wikileaks: Then and Now

 "Lordy, there are tapes!"

America Is Not "Full"

Donald Trump recently claimed that "our country is full."  That is a lie.  America is not "full."  The USA has some of the lowest population density amongst most developed countries.

The Catch-22 of Immigration

1. Extract resources from developing countries to create a first-world economy which burns massive amounts of carbon.

2. Create global climate disruption due to increased carbon in the atmosphere.

3. Developing countries suffer from droughts, fires, floods and hurricanes - resulting in ecological and political instability.

4. Struggling people in developing countries suffering from these conditions grow desperate enough to emigrate, seeking economic opportunity and political stability.

5. First-world countries then deny these immigrants entry after their extractive economic model has destroyed living conditions for these immigrants in their home countries.

The Urgent Efforts of Assassination Nation

You know, for all its b-movie excesses and indulgence in exploitation cinema, "Assassination Nation" strikes me as a timely, even urgent film with something important to say about this bleak rendition of a post-Trump, always-online America.

Though the tonal shifts are jarring and there's nothing subtle about the conveyance of theme, it is an ambitious and bold vision of life as Gen Z - a generation drowning in the corrosive depths of inescapable digital hostility. The sometimes raucous, often searing social satire depicts an all-too-recognizable suburban hellscape in which privacy is non-existent and a punitive, shame-based panopticon brings out the worst in everyone.

If this sounds familiar, it should; this is Salem Witch Trials 2.0.  The film challenges us to set aside our meticulously-curated online identities, find our authentic selves, and dare to accept one another for doing the same.

Never dull and refreshingly uncompromising, this is a cautionary tale whose cautions we have not yet heeded. And it certainly deserves a watch for those willing to overlook its more campy qualities.

Trump's Case of Narcissistic Personality Disorder

Learn the signs before it's too late.

Wrapping himself in the flag and autographing Bibles?  A more cowardly leader is difficult to conceive.

Standing With Ilhan Omar

I don't usually compose a long form response to news stories, but this issue isn't going away and the controversy appears only to be escalating. I might lose some "friends" over these statements, but they are long considered and carefully-chosen.

Republicans are all-too-eager to accuse Representative Ilhan Omar and others of "Antisemitism" when they criticize the Israeli government (and Israeli influence-peddlers like AIPAC). Republicans do so for nakedly partisan reasons. And yet the knee-jerk response among establishment Democrats to condemn or sanction Omar only plays into these utterly disingenuous GOP tactics.

This controversy reveals a deepening divide in American attitudes about Israel's policies and influence in the USA more generally... but is currently playing out almost exclusively between establishment/centrist and insurgent/progressive Democrats.

We must give ourselves a brief reminder: many of these same Republicans, Donald Trump included, have their own documented history of actual Antisemitism - jokes about Jewish money and deal-making, an ominous negative ad against Hillary Clinton with the Star of David next to her head, anti-immigrant "infestation" sentiments and internment camp policies harmful to those fleeing genocide and persecution, and a drumbeat of accusations of some "globalist takeover" associated with prominent Jewish political and philanthropic leaders. The political right is routinely lax in condemning these actions because their base enthusiastically embraces them.

Recall that almost all documented cases of Antisemitic domestic terrorism dating back decades have been unmistakably right-wing attacks, such as last year's shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue. It was at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, replete with MAGA hats and Confederate flags, that we saw young Caucasian men chanting "blood and soil" (Nazi Germany origins: "Blut und Boden") and "Jews will not replace us." If we are really concerned about Antisemitism, we should be laser-focused on the right-wing white supremacy movement and their de-facto Apologist in Chief who sees "very fine people" among them.

For these reasons, Ilhan Omar is merely a convenient political pariah because, you know, she's a Muslim woman of color and thus surely her criticisms must be coming from a place of Antisemitism. Much of this hand-wringing among conservatives about Omar's purported "Antisemitism" is mere proxy for their underlying anxieties about Muslim immigrants and leaders of Islamic faith ascending to positions of political influence within the United States - even via free and fair elections. Triangulating their hatred of Muslims off an ancillary concern about the well-being of Jews is a deeply disingenuous right-wing political maneuver. The Democratic party is falling for it.

Last weekend, Omar was herself targeted by a West Virginia GOP organization for being in office only because Americans have "forgotten" about 9/11. She regularly receives death threats for being one of the first Muslim women in Congress and the first Representative to wear a hijab. Islamophobia and hatred towards Muslims is quite casually and continuously meted out in the USA and has been for decades. Omar is the most prominent recipient, but hardly the first.

And yet Omar has been called to task, over and over and from sanctimonious elements within her own party, for asserting the broadly-held and altogether reasonable views that: 1) the foreign nation of Israel exerts far too much influence on US policy and policy-makers and 2) the boundaries of political debate about Israel's own human rights record have been far too restrictive and with far too high a body count.

Omar has repeatedly apologized for any statements which might be interpreted as Antisemitism and has shown a sincere willingness to listen to Jewish voices on this issue. But these apologies have been met only with further condemnation and calls for her to resign and/or be stripped of her committee assignments. Her critics will not be appeased by thoughtful remarks or an open dialog; they demand her censure and ultimately her silence. We should not abide.

In any case, it has become patently absurd to equivocate any and all criticism of: the Israeli occupation and its Apartheid-like treatment of the Palestinian people, Netanyahu's rampant trail of corruption, and the Israeli government's influence in both US domestic and foreign policy... as carte-blanche license to condemn said criticism as "Antisemitism." Those aren't prejudicial statements against Jews as an ethnic or religious community; those are criticisms of Israel as a collective body politic.

This is largely a problem of Israel's own making; to the extent any government ties its origins, claims of legitimacy, and political structure to an ethnic or religious identity, warranted criticisms of such a government become almost inexorably entangled in these same protected categories. To criticize a "Jewish state" is tantamount to criticizing both the political entity and also its religious and ethnic foundations. Thus the problem of ineffability here is the entirely predictable ramification of a quasi-theocracy masquerading as a secular state - expecting the privileges of both and the criticisms of neither.

Israel cannot have it both ways. If we are conversationally capable of criticizing the political corruption, human rights abuses, and undue influence of Saudi Arabia without accusations of (and resolutions against) "Islamophobia," surely we can apply the same set of standards to criticism of the Israeli government, Israeli political leaders, lobbyists and other influence groups. Israel and Saudi Arabia are not analogous in every sense, but the vastly disparate degree to which contemporary criticism of each is tolerated has become instructive and striking.

Lastly, it seems awfully convenient that the litany of "harmful Antisemitic tropes" applied to any critical speech of Israel are largely the same matters that are actually at issue here: outside monetary influence in political affairs, secretive internal alliances that are undisclosed yet affect public policy, and the misleading use of invocations of real historical grievances to shore up support for otherwise barbaric human rights violations. It appears that the very real criticisms of Israeli influence are bound up in the language of "negative stereotypes about Jews" which, whether calculated or unintentional, make genuine and founded criticism virtually impossible to achieve absent charges of "Antisemitism."

We must be willing to support the many legitimate criticisms of the Israeli government and those who make them. We now have a new generation of political leaders within the Democratic Party - and doubtless with more to come. We cannot feign to embrace their diversity of experience, background and viewpoints as mere tokenism for demographic convenience... to be seen and not heard; that's what Republicans do (Mark Meadows and Donald Trump's "black friend" comes immediately to mind).

If Americans champion elected officials who are willing to challenge political norms and established alliances - particularly those replete with corruption and human rights abuses, we must also be willing to stand behind them for these same positions rather than engage in venal friendly fire and pearl-clutching posturing. It will be to the detriment of Americans everywhere if dissenting views (especially popularly-supported ones) are disallowed by emerging political leaders with a mandate to reject business as usual in Washington's power centers. That such dis-allowance of debate is framed in the service of religious and ethnic diversity is even more objectionable.

Rules of Class Warfare: 2019 Edition

1. If you are poor, you aren't allowed to criticize the lack of adequate taxation on extremely wealthy people... because you are lazy, envious, and just want to spend other people's money on "free stuff."

2. If you are working class, you aren't allowed to criticize the lack of adequate taxation on extremely wealthy people... because you haven't worked hard enough or taken the right risks to be prosperous, and just want to punish success.

3. If you are middle class, you aren't allowed to criticize the lack of adequate taxation on extremely wealthy people... because you simply don't leverage the legal, political and accounting tricks necessary to avoid paying taxes like they do, and clearly aren't smart enough to evade taxation like brilliant billionaires.

4. If you are wealthy, you aren't allowed to criticize the lack of adequate taxation on extremely wealthy people... because you are obviously a hypocrite who can write a check to the U.S. Department of the Treasury whenever you want, and are just a liberal elitist who hates America as the "land of opportunity."

||

So what's the most important Rule of Class Warfare in 2019?  Just don't criticize the lack of adequate taxation on extremely wealthy people!  It's not allowed for anyone, at any time, for any reason!

'High Marginal Tax Rates on the Top 1%? Lessons from a Life Cycle Model with Idiosyncratic Income Risk' by Fabian Kindermann, Dirk Krueger; 2014 National Bureau of Economic Research

Expectation Vs. Reality: Coulter Edition

When even Ann Coulter realizes Donald Trump is a politically incompetent grifter and serial liar, it's time to wonder when his credibility has bottomed out.

Jeff Bezos vs. David Pecker

Because if Jeff Bezos cannot stand up to blackmail, who can?

I'm in Facebook Jail for Responding to a Protofascist Movement

For years now, I had heard from friends about "Facebook Jail" and the arbitrary, opaque process by which someone is banned from their own social media accounts for a designated period of time - ranging from 24 hours to 30 days.

I always found the topic fascinating and usually the offending posts ranged from questionable at best to outrageously mild.  And I knew, at some point or another, the Facebook Jailers would be coming for me.

||

Today, I received this dubious honor in response to a comment I had left on a post about 5 days ago, concerning the now infamous encounter between a group of Covington Catholic High School students and Indigenous People's Day demonstrators.  There has been ample and thoughtful commentary on the matter, so suffice to say I was responding with a simple and pointed observation:

On a Facebook news thread, I responded to an article with this image by stating, "I've seen this face somewhere before..." and linked to this infamous 1936 Nazi propaganda poster:

That's what I posted - a comparative image calling to mind a historical comparison and the implicit argument form it represents.  No direct or indirect threats.  No doxxing.  No incitement to imminent lawless action.

But rather precisely the kind of comparisons that have been made recently concerning the imagery of a radical right wing movement and its historical predecessors, as well as the marked increase of hate crimes and displays of white power movements in the public square since Trump's candidacy and subsequent presidency.  The Anti-Defamation League found that all 50 "extremist murders" last year were conducted by right-wing individuals.  This is not coincidence nor insignificant.

Some have convincingly argued that Trump's embattled demand for a border wall is itself a monument to white supremacy.  Others disagree and construct their own good faith argument as to why.  But that's precisely the discourse which social media is purportedly designed to facilitate, not suppress.

So nothing else came of this post and I went about numerous online discussions of the topic, including sharing and commenting on similar historical links others on social media have drawn between smug, white male privilege and its impositions upon people of color - standing up (or sitting down) for equal rights and justice for all.  I was sharing and commenting on images such as:

These comparisons seemed to me reasonable, relevant, and well-founded.  While I recognize there is room for political disagreement and debate to be had on these analogies, the content certainly did not rise to or exceed the legal limits of free speech.

Apparently, Facebook has other ideas.

||

Because today, I opened up my browser, logged into Facebook and to my mild surprise, the increasingly commonplace "community standards violation" notice appeared:

Of course, there is no appeals process prior to this sanction or so much as an effort to explain the basis upon which it was applied.  An informational link leads to a subsequent page:

This is the report I submitted:

||

I believe Facebook's erroneous limitation of my account on the ambiguous "Community Standards" violation runs contrary to a substantial amount of analysis and evidence which, when taken as a whole, establish at minimum a justifiable comparison between the smirking face of a young man in a MAGA hat to that of a smiling member of the Hitler Youth Movement.  The sincere effort to understand and synthesize historical connections has every place in the public discourse and that includes social networks like Facebook.  For this reason, I am contesting this temporary block on my account.

There have been widespread and founded comparisons between the Trump MAGA following - particularly among white males - and protofascist movements such as the Nazi party.  Indeed, Neo-Nazi, KKK and Neo-Confederate groups have openly praised Donald Trump and the MAGA agenda over and over - including David Duke, Richard Spencer, and other prominent white supremacists.  The Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville gave us as clear a connection as we would ever need between white supremacy groups and Trump's "Make America Great Again" movement.

Many of us willing to look can plainly see that the authoritarian tendencies within the Trump Administration, the likes of which threaten basic civil liberties and democratic norms, is evident on an almost daily basis. As if these transgressions against a free press, free exercise of religion, and accountable public transparency in government weren't enough, the Trump administration has actively and deliberately rounded up immigrant families into internment camps - leading to the deaths of at 22 immigrants in US custody.

These are disturbing signs of a protofascist state.  All of which are expressly and unambiguously conveyed by the iconic MAGA hat, as worn by Nick Sandmann and numerous other youth from Covington Catholic HS.  These are just some of the many pressing issues in the public discourse concerning recent events.  Doubtless there is an abundance of comparison and contrast to be had in casting effective or flawed historical analogies therein.

Thus it is hardly reasonable for Facebook to consider it a violation of "Community Standards" to draw altogether evident historical comparisons between MAGA hat-wearing youth today and those of previous eras that harassed, mocked, and/or intimidated indigenous and ethnic minorities around the world... including, in this case, those who were peacefully demonstrating (as Nathan Phillips and others attending the Indigenous Peoples March were doing).

This is not to suggest that these "MAGA youth" were directly involved in the death of detained immigrants any more so than the Hitler youth were directly involved in the death of concentration camp victims.  However, this comparison serves to clearly identify the ongoing ascension of protofascist movements and the banality with which they are introduced and accepted as commonplace - even as the atrocities committed in their name continue to grow.

In summary, my post in question is founded and based on historical and contemporary evidence to support it.  Imposing punitive measures on Facebook users who draw these sincerely held and justified comparisons does nothing to address the underlying protofascist movements which utilize social media to recruit and gain support for their agendas.  Rather, it validates them and only yields to authoritarian regimes whose real threats to real communities are far greater than whatever imagined slight Facebook identifies with its arbitrary interpretation of "Community Standards."

Facebook must do better than this.

GoFundMe - Because Your Country is Broken

By now, it has become clear that crowdfunding platforms are a poor substitute for a functional government which provides basic human services to all Americans.

The Facebook of Dorian Gray

In the era of social media, it's not difficult to see a parallel between Oscar Wilde's Gothic novel The Picture of Dorian Gray and the ongoing Facebook trend called the "10 Year Challenge."

The digital zeitgeist of posting selfies, replete with filters and photo editing, often creates the pressure to project an ageless, flawless online identity.  This certainly brings to mind Dorian's eternally youthful outward projection - contrasting the haggard, rotting inner self which he conceals from the world.  As we post images of ourselves online, it's worth thinking about who we pretend to be... and who we actually are behind the screen.

San Luis Valley Memes

Some friends from southern Colorado and I created a Facebook page to celebrate the challenges and quirks of living in the San Luis Valley.  Check it out!  San Luis Valley Memes on Facebook