As an introduction to this week’s post, let me pick up where we left off with last week’s post (“Please Don’t Make Me Think“). Thinking is hard, reading is hard, sometimes even watching can be hard. Falling asleep seems to be one of the few things left that’s usually easy (unless our brains won’t let us 😉 ).
There is a widespread notion that watching — whether leaning forward or leaning back — is more or less “passive”. Many years ago, “fireside chats” were introduced as a genre to bring the propaganda to the people … blanketed in a warm, cozy atmosphere of trustworthiness. Walter Cronkite became the leading heir to this sort of bullshit, and over the years this bogus mainstream crap continues to creep in through the crevices of modern technology.
Take, for example, YouTube (owned by Google), the mainstream TV of the new millennium. Millennials and boomers alike swallow this shit up like there’s no tomorrow. The marginally more literate among us do realize that it is not only a manipulation engine but also a data collection device much like all of the other devices developed by the so-called “parent” company (Alphabet — aka Google).
Let me warn you that all of what I’ve written so far still belongs to the “introduction” … and here’s the punch line: since YouTube uses “https” it is considered a “secure” website. Well, as long as there’s a certificate … and of course these certificates are brought to you by neato companies … like Google. In other words: the Google certificate certifies that YouTube.com is a secure website. Wonderful! Have you watched any YouTube videos lately? Anyone who feels secure on that website probably needs a vacation.
People who lap up my every word may already know where this is headed — if you don’t, just take a glance at some of my recent posts (like “Do Not Read This“). Yet again today, I will reference a YT video — and of course I don’t touch any Google crap with a ten-foot pole … luckily there are dozens of services online to download video junk in exchange for free offers, business opportunities, games and other potential services to gather even more data (because these days, such reliable, secure data makes the world go ’round — right?).
There is indeed a humungous “Browsing Industrial Complex” (BIC) — a vast network of spy organizations (whether for industrial espionage or for governmental institutions or military or simply to make a quick buck) — that’s watching you … in order to manipulate you … into voting for the right leader, or buying the new product or service, or whatever. It is so big that most people simply “tune it out”, ignore it, repress it into the subconscious layers of the brain where it can fester and torment us with all the other things we also repress on a daily basis, and which may time and again “resurface” in our dreams and nightmares or whatever.
Today’s image comes from a video brought to you by YouTube (of course) and they seem to have found some huckster who seems to present a somewhat trustworthy infomercial.
This quasi-tutorial on how mainstream browsers actually work is something “they” should teach kids in school — but of course they don’t, because perhaps this would make reaping profits from this kind of industry more difficult.
Once you realize that the only time BIC browsers are NOT watching you is when the WARNING signs are thrown in your face, it sort of turns “secure” vs. “insecure” upside-down … doesn’t it? Oh, sorry — am I making you think again?
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