Nazi computers ARE the worst! Just be, damn computers! Just be, you damn computers!
On a more serious note, definitely control is very scary, to me. I did read 1984 and Brave New World! :.shivers:.
The thing is, Aquarius rules 'the masses'. Agree with the masses,...or else! ? Agree with us, or you'll be cancelled! That is very scary to me!
I also see the shadow side of being too into group and identity politics via Pluto in Aquarius!
Read the fine print! My big name auto insurer gives me a discount for safe driving that they track with a device plugged in under the steering wheel area. Now they're doing away with the devices in favor of tracking on a phone app. I went ahead and downloaded the app, but for once I actually read the Terms and Conditions. Hidden in there is some vague wording about access for gathering info from various phone functions including "voice, text, websites, emails" -- What??? I did NOT Agree or finalize.
I've emailed my usually wonderfully helpful agent twice about this, with no response.
@warped-by-wuthering-heights
These are not insurance companies, they are data extraction machines posing as insurance companies. Using Google, go onto the website and click on some sort of insurance you would never, ever use. Get your friends to do the same. Don't get mad, get even.
Then see if you can find a real insurance company. More and more businesses are posing as service providers when their only aim is to suck every bit of data they can extract from you. There is an amazing business opportunity out there for those willing to run a genuine business based on the delivery of real services, rather than fronts for data mining.
The Conservative Woman site has today (15 Jan) posted a transcript of the entire CAF vid which started this thread conversation.
It is under the title 'Big Tech is Very Afraid of this Woman'.
I will be printing it out and handing it to friends.
Another suggestion for fighting back: DELETE SOCIAL MEDIA. I understand if you're using it for business, but keeping platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. for personal use helps feed the beast. We need a mass exodus to diminish their power and influence in society. Talk to people on the phone or via email if you want to stay in touch with them. If people won't talk to you that way, they aren't worth staying in touch with.
@space-cadet I agree. And I notice new platforms are making you sign in to read or read comments. I really hope the community comes back. I do not track you.... or even think about it. I just like conversation and seeing people help and support each other. I am shocked how many people read here but don't post.
@space-cadet After my husband died, I held off for several months on rejoining Facebook and only communicated through his page, to let everyone know he had passed and give a couple of updates on how I'm doing. I ended up going back to Facebook because once he died--most of my connections to the people in our lives did, too.
My family and his family texted me--that's pretty much it. Everyone else faded away.
@space-cadet Also, I can't remember the last time I picked up the phone to called an extended family member, or vice versa. I'm afraid to make phone calls now. Feels weird.
@notmycircus I talk on the phone with friends sometimes but don't have much contact with extended family and never have since my grandparents died when I was young. I text with one of my cousins every now and then after I went up to visit that side of the family a few years ago, so that's been nice. She's not a Facebook user either.
I may be lucky that the fading away of friends was minimal when I got off a few years ago. There were a few people who didn't keep in touch but most did. And I realized many of the people I had on there were just functioning as "witnesses" to my life without necessarily having earned that role.
I know I'm still missing out on some updates and things, but knowing some shady tech company can no longer set the terms of my social life is worth it to me.
I hope this picture shows up, sorry for the poor quality.
Here's another way forward that I see - support that you want to see more of. This is common sense (we all know how to vote with our dollar), but if we shift our focus on top of that, look what can happen!
Nat Geo - a very widely read magazine - is promoting food preservation all of a sudden. Why? Not for fun - there is a resurgence of this type of thing, and I count myself among the people trying to recover the lost skills of generations before. (We lost it all in a very short time and I don't have my great grandparents to teach me, so I have to teach myself.)
We can create markets just as easily as consumer culture does. Keep in mind this "simple sustainability" could include the designer version of everything if it becomes trendy, but then keep a look out at your local second hand stores for stuff that gets tossed due to people learning this is real work!
Wouldn't it be nice to see more of this become the focus of our national magazines? How to be more self sufficient and stop relying on the system as much as we do? I think so, maybe you do too. All it would take is a shift in focus, from being a consumer to a producer. Consider also that you'd save money and care less about fancy shoes and such, and that spreads. Then we're buying American again. We're buying from our literal neighbors, or exchanging, or giving excess away. No more illusion of scarcity.
What skills do you think you could learn? Sewing, repurposing, cooking, making your own cleaning supplies, livestock farming, canning, the list goes on! It takes a bunch of small steps but we could eventually establish OUR OWN supply chains. This ends so many things, or at least minimizes them, and could be faster than we would even realize. Do you know how much community is formed through these endeavors as well? A lot!
Anyway, that's my two cents after seeing this magazine cover. It was a hopeful sign to me. I still believe people are starving for meaning, and this Cancer says look to the past and rebuild what we've lost. The rest will follow. ?
Excellent post dolce. I completely agree with your very positive outlook. There's huge potential for businesses that want to get on board with delivering what people really want and need as opposed to trying to find a thousand additional ways to exploit us.
@eleanor-d Thanks Eleanor! I know I'm capable of being naive, but I do think this could occur if we put in the work. We'll never be 100% independent of the system - at least I don't think so - but we could really put a big dent in it and realize again how little we really need when we have solid communities full of people who rely on one another rather than take out or Amazon 
I heard a gal term it as a parallel life. Recently my daughter stated we lived off the grid. I never considered this. She said we had WiFi... that's about it!
I told her we have no well so we're not off the grid. But this conversation allowed the parallel life concept to gel in my head.
This is not over this election. I stated some years ago, I wanted to live a bucolic life. I think it means, gardening, canning, and far fewer trips to town.
I also had a friend talk to me about putting a mask on (not literal) and just blending in. This will not be fun for me but I can still make remarks to my friends, family and clients, who definitely want to interact with me in a fully honest way.
I've got this Jupiter deal going. If I can't be open and honest, I'd rather just slip in and out with my groceries, and be a NPC.
I stopped buying from Amazon, years ago. I use their site for reference though. It's never the cheapest by the way.
I do buy lawnmower parts sometimes but seriously, a purchase every six months or so is not helping them.
It's not so bad. I have my garden life, my astrology life, my married life and some friends.
It's occurring to me ignore all news. It's all meant to upset people. If I get to town one day and they say I need a head bubble or something, I'll deal with it in the moment.
I intend to shop garden stuff with the Mennonites. They're nice, they have good stuff and they also set a good example.
You can go there and know you won't be cheated. I'm a bit sick of tricky psychopathic foxes.
@elsa I relate to this post so much. The way I was raised is in such opposition to where I see myself and my family heading. I'm happy I started the process a while ago, but the turbo speed of this past year still has me slightly overwhelmed.
That said, just turning off the news and living within my community has become pretty important. I buy less and less at the grocery store. We heat our house with wood 90% of the time. It's different and I'm taking to it like a fish to water because it appears to promote truth to me. I keep my head clear of the noise for the most part. (Sometimes I hope that I am not ignoring things that need my attention but I will never know.)