"Long Post Warning" - My Long Goodbye to Facebook

I will be moving off of Facebook. Not because I'm boycotting a company that clearly doesn't need my support. Not because "oh, they're evil." Not because they restrict conservative speech while promoting violent and hateful speech from the Left. And certainly not because I think my leaving will in some way impact Facebook's bottom line.

I'm leaving because Facebook isn't a healthy place to be. The environment is stifling. Many people cannot control their emotions, and sometimes I'm one of them. Mob rule kills a lot of important conversation, and I find myself tuning in just to get that little dopamine hit like a drug addict. The amount of useful, helpful, and uplifting information I get from Facebook is rapidly approaching zero. The general population of Facebook has created an environment where open and honest communication is impossible. I can now see the psychological and emotional toll that this environment has taken on me, and at some point, each of us has to make a choice to get healthy or suffer the consequences. I choose mental health.

You can be assured that altruism isn't my motivation, because the Constellation Craftworks page and my Instagram will stay up because they make me money.

I understand Facebook's position, which is explained by a simple truism: The person who owns the newspaper says what he or she wants, all others simply read the news. If you cannot afford the risk of owning your own media, then you are subject to the owners' discretion, as they own the risk. I plan to run an editorial page in the near future, but I don't have the capital to own the server, web service platform, security server, etc...so I will be adhering to Squarespace's terms of service. That's the way it works when you can't afford the risk. People should remember that the next time they want to demand something from a company, or they try to support a company like Parler that sours its corporate relationships by refusing to manage its risk.

My editorial page, which is actually set to become a group project, is to be called The New Colonists. I believe the American Colonists were persons to be admired. Did they do everything right? No. Neither do we. But their positive characteristics as people, and as a society writ large, are admirable. The new world they created by embracing the concepts of capitalism, liberty, prudence, and cooperation is now the most powerful nation to ever exist. The United States’ influence on the global stage is unparalleled, but it is not unopposed. Nefarious actors like China, Russia, and Iran have immense power and ever-increasing global influence. They’re catching up to us, and we’re letting them by revisiting old, failed ideas like oligarchy, cronyism, feudalism, and communism instead of embracing the Colonial culture of Liberty, Justice, and Cooperation. I firmly believe that as a society, you get what you deserve, and our goal at The New Colonists is to help people make informed decisions that drive us to deserve better.

/r/

Dave