GWRX is an extremely popular golf related social media outlet. I have been a member since 2007 and have participated in their forums sporadically.
As with any social media outlet, sometimes people get in some heated conversations and say things that may not be “socially” acceptable or deemed “offensive”, even if they are not.
That is “par for the course,” you give, you take, and move on, nothing personal until it gets personal.
As with any moderated forum, moderators are supposed to enforce the rules, but they are to be enforced equally and unbiased. That is not the case with the moderators at GWRX.
On many occasions I have reported abuse posts which they choose to ignore, giving me no choice but to defend my self in the open forum.
As a result, I get the warnings while the individuals who I reported continue to spill their vile comments without repercussions.
I am a very thick skin individual, but when you start to question my patriotism and my loyalties, I will fight you to the end.
My credentials and what I have done for this country speak for themselves and I will not allow some faceless individual tarnish my reputation.
The management at GWRX decided that they were going to suspend me for defending myself, so I decided to cancel my 15-year association with them.
I am posting this, not because I care about GWRX, but because this illustrates why I have so much disdain for social media and the cowards it protects.
Having rules mean nothing when the rules are selectively enforced, and this is how GWRX operates.
GWRX is cesspool and, in my opinion, encourages cyberbullying. The owners do not care, and they should be ashamed of themselves.
As a minority, I can only think what would have happened to people like me if Facebook were around during the days of the Civil Rights movement. Most likely they would have called for Hispanics like me to be hanged from trees or burned into a crisp.
Now, Facebook and Instagram are going to allow hate speech in their platforms, with one caveat, as long as it is against Russians, even those who live here in the United States, happen to be United States citizens, and are against the conflict.
But Facebook is not the only platform calling for an all out assault on Russians. Politicians like Congressman, and failed presidential candidate, Eric Swalwell is calling for Russian students at American universities to be kicked out of the country.
The former ambassador to Russia under the Obama administration, Michael McFaul, suggested on Twitter that all Russians are to be blamed for the conflict. He went on to say “There are no more innocent, ‘neutral’ Russians anymore.” To think this bundle of irrationality was an ambassador says a lot about our country.
We live in crazy times when former United States diplomats, members of Congress, and social media outlets are calling for the complete extermination of a group of people.
Let us use some rational thinking here for a minute. Am I to believe that every single Russian citizen and American citizen of Russian descent approves of Vladimir Putin’s actions in Ukraine? Every man, woman, and child? Only an uncivilized moron would believe such a thing.
I am sure there are many Russian citizens who are against the Russian-Ukraine conflict, as many of us are, but unlike United States citizens, they don’t have the freedom to say such things, unless they want to spend the rest of their life in a gulag.
To wish for the annihilation of a group of people, any group, is no different than approving of the extermination of Jews by the Nazis during the second World War or the Cambodian “Killing Fields” under Pol-Pot, but foremost, is un-American and inhumane.
This is the state of our society folks. Kill everyone, post it on social media, and everything is going to be alright. It seems Americans have lost all sense of humanity.
If you believe this is ok, you should be ashamed of yourself and should not call yourself an American.
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson Can you smell what this coward is cooking? I can, a big load of crap!
I don’t have a problem with people standing by their beliefs, but Dwayne Johnson is a hypocrite and a coward.
After standing by Podcaster Joe Rogan, he got a little heat from the ‘blue checkmark’ desk jockeys in Hollywood and cowardly backtracked his support for Rogan.
Like Rogan, Johnson has made some boneheaded statements in the past, but since the cancel culture brood has taken over our society, forgiveness is not a word in their vocabulary.
I would have had more respect for Johnson if, instead of cowardly running away, he would have taken a stance against the cancel culture morons.
How long does it take for people to be forgiven for past stupidities?
I guarantee you that most of these ‘blue checkmark’ desk jockeys have plenty of skeletons in their closets.
A very sick society! Photo courtesy of rockthetreatment.com
I am not a member of Facebook, Twitter, Tik-tok, Snapchat, Instagram, and any other of those social media outlets.
I never cared for them because I believe they are nothing more than outlets for cowards who would never dare to say the things they type, in one’s face.
It is funny to see how politicians and so-called ‘influencers,’ get upset when they get suspended or banned for site violations.
After all, these companies are private enterprises, and they have the right to admit or dismiss those they see fit. The same way, we have the right, as consumers, to refuse to use them.
Unfortunately, social media has become a substitute for real life encounters and conversations. People sit in their underwear and type away or post things, that by most part, other people do not care about.
Other than your family; who cares if your kid got a 25th place trophy? Who cares if you indulge on a Big Mac after claiming you did a forty-five-minute workout?
Social media provides the means for people to spew hate, left and right, and never be held accountable. If you are not willing to say that same thing to my face, I have no time for you. Some of the things I have read on social media could warrant some serious legal issues.
People threatening others with a keyboard, and from miles away, is a cowardly act, but that is what it is today.
From politicians telling their followers to physically harm people because they have a different political ideology, to outlets like Facebook, banning a United States President, social media has created a whole class of what I have coined “techno-terrorists.”
These techno-terrorists are protected by the government and by pages of small print customer’s agreements with the social media conglomerates.
When social media outlets allow Democrat members of Congress to say whatever they want to say but restricts and remove information provided by Republican members of Congress, this is an attack on the First Amendment. It does nothing for the betterment of society and it restricts the flow of information.
When a social media magnate is given so much power about what people is allowed to say or discuss in a free society, we have a problem. This behavior is in complete contradiction with the United States Constitution.
Let us be honest, they are all the same, be a liberal platform or a conservative platform. If you do not have a little blue checkmark or some other symbol of exclusivity next to your name, you are treated differently. This is true of Twitter or the newly conservative outlet, Gettr.
These are social clubs for the politically and socially powerful, everyone else are the water carriers, without them they could not survive.
I compare social media to Mega-churches. People are looking for something to fulfil some emptiness in their life, be by giving 10% of their income to the church with the promise of eternal salvation or following some A-lister hoping one of their posts gets acknowledge, it is all the same.
There are also outlets for those who are nothing more than irrelevant afterthoughts who need these followers to survive. As soon as some faceless follower complains about their activities or comments, they go on an apology tour. They do not even have the self-respect to stand by their comments.
Places like Twitter and Facebook allows and promotes violence by extremist groups, be Antifa, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, or BLM, while at the same time removing accounts and information posted by those who live a more normal life.
They are de-facto an extension of political parties, mainly the Democratic Party, and they serve as their digital judge, jury, and executioners of those who exercise independent thinking and free speech. They are not regulated, and as a private enterprise, they get away with everything a publisher or a real news outlet could not.
They speak of conservative misinformation, but they fail to admit they are the ones spreading misinformation by not allowing the truth to flow. They allow a liar like Anthony Fauci to flip flop in real time, but according to them, Fauci is the only doctor on the planet who knows what he is talking about.
When faced with facts by people like Senator Rand Paul, the social media police deem his factual commentary as an attack on Fauci. The double standard is despicable and ridiculous enough for me not to get involve in these types of social media outlets.
Before social media, people had to talk to each other. There was a level of respect and understanding that has been lost by people hiding behind a keyboard and feeling empowered to talk to others whichever way they want.
Disrespect has become fashionable among the ‘mommy basement dwellers’ with their Facebook and Twitter accounts. Social media has created heroes out of zeroes and a new class of useless beings.
Social media is a societal cancer and until people realize they are nothing more than a hamster on a wheel, the big tech billionaires will continue to use them, and will continue to make billions while trouncing on free speech.
I have been a collector of many things throughout my life. I was introduced to those collectibles simply because I enjoyed them.
Having said that, I have almost lost all interest in collecting some of the things I love. From Star Trek memorabilia, timepieces, wet shaving, golf clubs, sport’s items, and vintage hats. I have dabbeled in each one of them at some point in my life. Just ask my lovely wife who has endured this tragic comedy along with me, usually followed with “I told you so”.
So, you may be asking yourselves, why in the world would I considered walking away from those same things I loved so much. Easy, two words: Internet Forums!
Most hobbies these days have a dedicated internet forum, or several internet forums . Obviously, if you want to know what’s going on with your hobby, the internet offers the best options. So you decide to “lurk” around for a little while, you see how the forum members interact with each other, collect information on your hobby, etc. The longer you stick around eventually you realize if the place is right for you.
I am a pretty down to earth kind of guy and a very confident man. I don’t need adulation or assurances from strangers to feel good about myself, and after spending years participating in internet forums, I realized internet forums are a waste of time and a potential hobby killer.
Of course, I have met great people and after publicly disappearing from those forums, I usually have kept in touch, but generally, I walked away and never looked back. Now, let’s examine the usual suspects.
The Cast
You have all kinds, the ones who think they know it all, the ones with the big money and “buy” their collections without knowing a thing about the hobby, the braggadocios, the jealous type who always look down on you because your stuff is better than their stuff, the baiter who always is trying to stir things up because his or her life is one of misery. This is to name a few and perhaps the most obvious types.
The “Know it All” type always refuses to admit he or she is wrong. They will stand by their bull no matter what. They’ll argue with you until they turn blue in the face.
The “Big Money” type can’t stand when someone else scores a great deal, so they have to come back with the infamous “One Up” move. They are always demanding the acknowledgement from the so called little guy.
The “Braggadocios” type constantly talks about what they own and try to obscure your “Show and Tell thread” by posting their own unsolicited junk.
The “Jealous” type invest his or her time trolling threads and conducting “hit and run” operations. They never stick around long enough, they post, belittle, and move on.
My favorite one, the “Baiter” type, yes the baiter type. He or she uses their time to throw internet feces at the forum wall to see if some poor bastard falls for it. They never have anything productive to contribute, but at the same time, they never seem to get banned by site managers, go figure. I guess you need to keep the buffoons’ around to spice up the traffic.
I have come to realize that many of those individuals have no life of their own so they have to morph into the social media world to feel fulfilled, to feel whole. After all, everyone is a hero or a victim behind a keyboard.
I have always refused to eat the bait or engaged with those sorts, but I do read and have learned a lot about human behavior. Some of the back and forth can be very entertaining just as much as it can be terrifying and cruel.
Be In Control
If it became a toxic environment, I have always been in control and have been able to choose when not to be a part of it anymore I don’t understand how people can sit in front of a keyboard and take insults from people they don’t know.
If internet forums is all you have in your life, I feel sorry for you. Life is bigger than the internet and the cyber bullies. You don’t need the approval of people you don’t know to enjoy your hobby or the things you love in life. I learned this lesson the hard way, but once I did learn the lesson, I never made the same mistake twice. I learned to walk away!
Of course, this has been my own personal experience, and it may or may not apply to you. Once thing I can say with certainty is the fact that my hobbies are more enjoyable once I have decided to leave the internet nonsense behind, and maybe yours will be too.
