By David Glenn Cox
It was a curious thing, about a year or so ago my readership suddenly dropped dramatically. I was at a loss to figure it out. I had my suspicions, but I didn’t want to sound like Margaret Traitor Greene. I didn’t want to sound paranoid and point fingers without any proof. I was on about a dozen @acebook groups where I would publish articles. Most were curated, so if they didn’t like or want my content, they could tell me and remove it. If anyone ever complained, I never published there again.
@acebook didn’t like that because they wanted money! Money, I didn’t have. I had tried their @acebook promotions, but they never worked out as advertised. “Give us $10.00 and reach 100 extra readers!” I wasn’t doing anything against the rules by placing my articles where I was a member of the group. I would get blocked for 7 or 14 days for made up rules like posting too fast. So, I decided to hell with @acebook. But I had requests from several subscribers who still wanted to read my articles. So, I would post them only intermittently on my tiny little insignificant “This Carbon-Based Life” @acebook page and nowhere else.
I come from a long line of troublemakers. George never had any children, but Martha Washington had two daughters. One married light horse Harry Lee and the other married my ancestor. So, I’m related by marriage to George Washington and Robert E. Lee. Two well-known troublemakers. But in the family lore, none stand taller than my Grandfather. A union organizer who was jailed and beaten for his activities. One day while watching a parade in Springfield, Ohio. The Ku Klux Klan came marching by. One of the Klansmen recognized my grandfather and called out to him. “Cox! Join us!” while pulling on his sleeve.
My Grandfather decked him by punching him in the nose. As you can imagine the other Klansmen were none too pleased about that and a riot ensued. My Grandfather was arrested and jailed, charged with inciting a riot. He didn’t care if there were 50 of them and only one of him. He didn’t like bully’s thugs or Fascists! So, he punched them in the nose.
The other morning when I turned on my computer this curious event occurred. Like some god had thrown a lightning bolt from high up on Mount Olympus. I was logged out of everything! Google, WordPress, Reddit and half a dozen other sites including @acebook. I was able to log back into all of them except @acebook. It kept telling me the password I had saved was from five years ago. I knew they were incorrect because my wife died five years ago, and I had changed and saved it at least twice since.
I tried logging in with Google and got, “An error has occurred” Trying it again, I got the message. “You are misusing this function and are blocked! If you feel this does not violate community standards, please leave us a message.” I’m blocked and I can’t log in; how can I leave a message? So, just for basic amusement, I tried to log into @nstagram. I have never once posted anything there because I didn’t understand it. But I got the same type of messaging.
Gee, I guess if you write one little article criticizing @acebook and comparing them with Nazi propaganda. They take offence as billionaires are known to have thin skins. I have been BANNED! But I never violated any community standards. I simply gave a history lesson and drew parallels. They couldn’t ban me for violating the rules because I didn’t violate any. I waited and double checked, and it was true! It made me so proud of myself I was fit to bust. Little old me with my old computer had pissed off a billionaire! And they didn’t ban me because I lied. They banned me for telling the truth about them.
I could now look my Grandfather in the eye. I had punched a Fascist in the nose too! Freedom of the press? Free speech? Don’t kid yourself. “Nine, Verboten!” Now ask yourself, if I had spoken out against the Nazis in Germany, what would Nazis do? WWND? They would ban me or worse! So, in effect by banning me @acebook was at the same time confirming that what I had said about them was true!
Don’t think they aren’t watching you? Still think this a free country? Step on the billionaire’s shoe tops sometime from the very backwaters of @acebook, and watch what happens next. Within 12 hours I was banned. I had upset them and made them very angry. Fascists want everyone in lock step. How dare you say the Fuhrer picks his nose! I have done you all a community service by illustrating just how “Not Free” you really are.
The media is controlled and contrived and if you speak against them no matter how insignificantly, they will move to silence you. I felt like I’d won a Pulitzer prize! I had done it! I’d made the big time! I had gathered the attention of the rich and powerful. And I now knew the reason for the sudden drop in my readership. That was also very curious as my readership only dropped in the United Snakes while remaining stable and even rising in Europe and Australia. Curious huh? Almost like the Internet was being censored in this country. Odd, isn’t it? A real David and Goliath story. One little man with a computer making a big and powerful corporation angry!
My Grandfather had seen a man badly burned at the cast iron mill where he worked. The man was taken home to get better or die. No hardhats, no safety glasses, no workman’s comp or Medicaid. Just bring in a new worker and forget about the old one. My Grandfather fought to change that his entire adult life. A long line of trouble makers indeed.
But one question which still bothered me. How could this lighting bolt throw me off line across the full spectrum of the Internet? I find that a very intresting question, don’t you? But in the back of my mind, I imagined old Woody Guthrie saying, “Good on you boy. Good on ya!” This Machine Kills Fascists! I felt as if I had done something worthwhile for the first time in my life. I had written something which needed to be said. And which the billionaire’s were more than kind enough to validate for me.
Please help support “This Carbon-Based Life.” I understand if you don’t have any money to donate. I don’t have any money either. But please share the articles and pass them on to friends and spread the word. Maybe you too can get banned for telling the truth in America today! Any contributions will help me to stay afloat and to be a perpetual thorn in their side and rock in their sandal.
Any donations are appreciated, one, five or ten. I don’t eat much. Fight back!
“This is the thing to bomb. This is the beginning—from “I” to “we”. If you who own the things people must have could understand this, you might preserve yourself. If you could separate causes from results, if you could know that Paine, Marx, Jefferson, Lenin were results, not causes, you might survive. But that you cannot know. For the quality of owning freezes, you forever into “I”, and cuts you off forever from the “we”. ” ― John Steinbeck
This Carbon Based Life 
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