Western Rifle Shooters Association, one of my favorite blogs, is down. I miss them. I hope they come back soon!
Scuttlebutt (1 & 2) is that WRSA was brought down by WordPress.com. Sounds like the usual gambit: “This post isn’t politically left of Trotski so we arbitrarily shut your blog down. Never forget we’re in charge, peasant. Next time vote as you’re told.”
For Fuck’s Sake! Why am I hearing this kind of crap in 2020? I’m more upset that WRSA didn’t avoid the obvious situation than WordPress.com acted like nincompoops. WordPress is a corporation in 2020, of course they acted like nincompoops.
My blog was on wordpress.com for six and a half years (a shadow still remains). I was dependent on them and decided it was unwise. I took pains to extract myself after witnessing corporate/media’s behavior in the 2016 election cycle. Who wouldn’t?
If you’re dependent on a corporate entity (or pretty much any large organization) the question is not if but when they’ll screw you. Eventually, SJWs will run the organization and you will do as Karen says or get fucked. If you haven’t yet learned that simple lesson in 2020… the problem is you. To quote my own blog on that very topic (from 2018):
That’s why I left WordPress. I did it in 2016. Here’s a four year old link to explain my reasoning:
I have no ill will toward wordpress. It’s just that I am dependent on them and dependency is Latin for “eventually dumb blogger will get deleted”.
Is there a price to going you own way? Sure. Freedom is not free. Self reliance is a PITA. TANSTAAFL. Etc…
I pay for all my own stuff; in time and labor. Blog hosting is a PITA and I pay fees for hosting and to register my domain and other stuff. (Thanks to everyone for the donations that keep me going! By the way, if you ever have $5 and are wondering “what can I do with this fiver to generate fun stories”… I’m your man!”)
I don’t Tweet; which costs me a huge audience. Then again Twitter is obnoxious. Nothing wise was ever debated in 140 character slogans. It’s telling that they’re in a pissing match with the President of the United States. I don’t care if you hate Orange Man or not, any group that’ll jack an account around for shits and giggles when the account is the Goddamn President is out of control. If they can hose the Donald, folks like you and me haven’t a chance. Incidentally, that’s exactly Twitter’s reputation. They’re known for nuking bloggers and secretly rerouting traffic.
I also don’t F***book. That costs me a lot of publicity too. I setup an Adaptive Curmudgeon F***book presence but never use it. Facebook unnerves me; it’s built from the ground up as a snitch factory. Also Facebook is run by the Karen army. Getting kicked off Facebook is pretty much a given for anyone who thinks beyond a meme. They’d eventually throttle my presence for aggravated wrongthink. Plus the setup experience made me feel like a whore.
YouTube likes to demonetize people for inexplicable reasons that always seem to lean left (it’s almost like there’s a pattern). Thus, I won’t expand into video. If you’re wondering why there aren’t videos of me sailing into rocks or riding my motorcycle into trees… now you know.
I forgo an absolute mammoth amount of attention I might otherwise get. But I also keep my balls out of their vise. That the true condition of freedom of speech in American in 2020. So repeat after me: Corporations are not your friends. Don’t act like they care. How many shots across the bow do you need?
A.C.
P.S. It’s only fair I mention my use of these guys:
Are they corporate entities? Yes. Would they, therefore, love to screw me? Of course. Will they? Probably. Have they yet? Nope… but when it inevitably happens I won’t be surprised. I’m ready for it. (In fact, Amazon cut off one spigot of money a few years ago. When it happened, many blogs wen’t dark. I wasn’t among them. I was never Amazon’s bitch so I skated.) I still link to Amazon stuff and I still get a kickback that costs you nothing. So far they’re mostly about commerce and not politics so I can live with it. So by all means click on any Amazon link I’ve posted (like to the cool new toolboxes I bought), and then buy anything you want. If it’s something huge I get a big reward and buy liquor. If it’s small, I’m still happy and buy beer. Regardless, I never get too dependent on them. That’s the key, none of the three (Patreon, PayPal, Patreon, or Amazon) can kill my blog. Corporations act like nincompoops… don’t let nincompoops near the kill switch!