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PAGE 4A-THE MADISON COUNTY (GA) JOURNAL. THURSDAY. DECEMBER 5. 2019
Opinions
In the Internet casino, the house also wins
I wonder if there's a “change-your-
mind” metric gathered by Google, Face-
book and other Internet companies on us.
I’m sure there is, right? I think Google
could probably predict my next waist size
before I can. The fact that I just typed that
provides analytical data, doesn’t it? OK,
don’t be cruel, Google.
But it would interest me to look into
Facebook's treasure trove of data on you
and see what they think actually sways
you, what specific clicks show real be
havioral indicators about you, because
they absolutely have an opinion about you
(and me) specifically, even if you’re not on
their platform. When you get down to it,
that’s the Internet’s monetary value, isn’t
it? Internet companies have so much data
that they can make accurate online behav
ioral predictions about all of us. And this
digital insight is a gold mine, not just for
goods but for governments, movements
and criminal enterprises. The data gather
ing and selling holds a kind of power in
our lives that feels more and more like a
bad trade, at least to me. It begins to feel
like every click makes me a target of some
future product or political sales push. I
also feel more and more wary of infor
mation collected secretly, then sold and
used as propaganda force by left, right,
domestic or foreign power. It is fair game
for all — those with civic-minded intent
but also those with criminal aims. And the
criminals or bad actors tend to be the most
motivated, right?
I would wager that most “swaying”
of opinion is not conscious. We believe
we are completely in control of our own
belief systems, but I tend to think that’s
only partly true. What’s in our heads and
how we act are our responsibility. Don’t
go blaming others when you do a terrible
thing. I firmly believe this and am irritated
when people take a childish “he-made-
me-do-it” defense after their bad actions.
But that doesn’t negate other facts. We are
heavily influenced by how and where we
grew up, who taught us, and whether the
people who taught us cared much about
right and wrong. Our economic standing
at birth is a big factor in where we will go
in life. It just is. And we make a variety
of good and bad decisions along the way
with whatever cards we’ve been dealt.
So when new information hits our
brains, it travels through a circuitry that
has its own peculiar tangle of electrical
tape and solder wires. And when we get
outraged online, it seems worthwhile to
remember that we have a type of skewed
vision, just like everyone else. There is
no uniformity of experience, so there will
In the
Meantime
zach@
mainstreet
news.com
By Zach Mitcham
never be uniformity of opinion. Also, most
all of this online junk is free. Right? How
much value would you put on any elec
tronic gadget you got for free? How much
faith would you have in the reliability of
a microwave that sits in your house free
of charge? Would you be surprised when
sparks shot out from the side and the aw
ful odor of a burnt Chinese plastic Hades
remained in your kitchen for weeks? No,
you would remember that you got that
stupid appliance for free. You would kick
yourself for relying on such a “free” thing.
But we do exactly this online every day
and think that we are entitled to quality,
even if it’s free. We see no responsibili
ty in paying for reliable information. This
huge, infinite pile of “stuff’ out of the ether
is generally not worth a dime to any of us,
literally. I wouldn’t pay a dime for most
of it, because there’s always something
else available for free (even if it’s increas
ingly dubious). Would you pay anything,
ever, when there's too much already to ab
sorb? No, you probably wouldn’t (which
is why local journalism across America is
in the process of dying). The only reason
it’s free on Facebook is because you and
I are good sales products that can be pur
chased in bulk like we’re items in a vast
warehouse of Sam’s products. I fit into all
sorts of sub categories based on my demo
graphic information and click history, just
like you.
The online information available to us
for free is essentially — at least in eco
nomic terms — chum in the water existing
to draw shark bites (clicks). The Internet's
economic engine is not quality driven.
Therefore, locally oriented and monetarily
self-sustaining information is pushed out
more and more. This will have more and
more impact on society in coming years.
OK, that’s preachy and self serving from
the local newspaper editor. Yes, yes, you
got me. But I also say all this to tell you
my inner dialogue whenever I get really
angry about anything online. Yes, there
are actual injustices and there are plenty
of things worthy of legitimate outrage.
But often times. I’m just infuriated by the
attitude of others. It’s the snarky tone, the
overtly cruel post or some keyboard mob’s
elation over belittlement that makes me
want to react with blistering rage on the
keyboard. I have typed numerous Face-
book comments over the years full of
righteous indignation at others for their
attitudes. I have hit send on a few. I usu
ally immediately delete them, because I
almost instantaneously feel overwhelmed
by a secondary emotion that presents itself
in a more cutting form. I ask myself: “Are
you seriously a sucker?”
First off, have you ever shouted some
one out of their opinion? And have you
ever been shouted out of an opinion? It
doesn’t ever work that way, does it? An
other person’s fury at our viewpoint just
makes us double down on the opinion.
When I think of this truth, I remember
that online character annihilation ping-
pong matches are simply more cheap
energy for the big-money players in the
Internet economy. When I’m lured into
this, it feels like I’ve played the fool for a
bigger force, just as they wanted it. They
don’t care if I’m right or wrong. The In
ternet engines just want me emotional
and clicking. All the algorithms are set
up exactly this way. What's more, have
you ever noticed that as you scroll down
a Facebook feed that it feels mostly bor
ing, but then you get these periodic rein
forcements, these emotional hits? It’s like
a slot machine. It hits just enough to keep
you there, pulling the lever. This is simple
mouse/food pellet psychology. There is a
strategy behind this.
I’m in the big casino just like you. Writ
ing a weekly column often makes me feel
terribly annoyed with myself, as if I’m
declaring some wisdom or knowledge
and speaking from some place of smug
self satisfaction. But I’m truly winging
this most weeks and don’t have the chops
or know-how to match wits with anyone
who knows their stuff on most of the sub
jects I tackle. But I'm increasingly aware
that I'm in an elaborate casino where the
house’s eyes are watching me (and you)
and recording action upon action into an
actual server. So, I find it important to get
my mind out of that casino as much as I
can. And that casino will be a madhouse in
2020. won’t it? No doubt, we’ll focus on
red-blue wins and losses, but I think there
are other wins and losses in our society
that need our attention, too. Wonder if you
feel the same.
Zach Mitcham is editor of The Madison
County Journal. He can be reached at
zach @ mainstreetnews. com.
Collins is right on legal immigration
Rep. Doug Collins may be on the wrong
side of history in his defense of President
Trump, but he is right about one thing:
The U.S. needs a workable immigration
system if it wants to have continued eco
nomic growth.
Collins is something of an outlier
among Republicans in that he isn’t a rabid
anti-immigrant mouthpiece for far-right
nativist. Although the movement against
immigrants began by focusing on efforts
to stop illegal immigration, the Trump Ad
ministration is trying to curtail all immi
gration, both legal and illegal.
The reasons for that is political and
driven by demographics. As immigra
tion — legal and illegal — has diversified
the nation’s ethnic makeup, those nativist
sentiments, once confided to the fringes
of political discourse, have risen into the
mainstream among Republicans.
Some of that is due to how conservative
media outlets have ginned-up anti-immi
grant rhetoric. Perhaps one of the most
outspoken anti-immigrant voices on the
right comes from Fox News commentator
Laura Ingrham, who has not been shy in
wanting to slam the door closed to all im
migrants.
Her most famous quote in 2018: “In
some parts of the country, it does seem like
the America we know and love don’t exist
anymore. Massive demographic changes
have been foisted upon the American peo
ple. And they 're changes that none of us
ever voted for and most of us don’t like.”
What she’s really saying is this: There
are too many Asian and Hispanic people
on the streets and white Americans don’t
like it. Close the door, keep America
white.
• ••
This bait-and-switch political move —
speak against illegal immigration as the
gateway to shut down all immigration —
From the
publisher
mike
@mainstreet
news.com
By Mike Buffington
goes back to the early days of the Trump
Administration and two of his key advi
sors: Steve Miller and Steve Bannon.
It was Bannon who engineered the
Trump strategy to ramp up his anti-im
migrant, xenophobic rhetoric in 2016 in
an effort to scare Americans about immi
gration. It was that rhetoric — much of it
misleading and factually wrong — which
eventually got Trump into the White
House.
Bannon has since left the administra
tion, but Miller has stayed. Behind the
scenes, Miller has thrown wrenches into
the nation’s legal immigration system in
an effort to slow it down and dismantle as
much of it as possible. A lot of Trump’s
controversial anti-immigration plans have
come from Miller, who has long been an
anti-immigrant firebrand and white nativ
ist.
“Immigration” is really a shorthand term
that encompasses a large number of legal
immigrant categories. Legal immigrants
include refugees, people who are fleeing
persecution in their native countries; green
card immigrants who come here to work;
family-based immigrants who get permis
sion to live and work in the U.S. because
other family members are already here:
the H-1B, H-2A and H-2B visa programs
for specific workers; temporary protected
status workers who have permission to
live and work in the U.S. on a temporary
basis; and there are several other kinds of
immigrants as well, including the DACA
program that protects those who were
brought to the U.S. illegally as children.
All of that has come under fire over the
last three years as the Trump Administra
tion has changed the rules of the legal im
migration process. As a result, the backlog
for legal immigration has grown as the
gears have become gummed up.
•••
As Collins suggested in a speech last
weekend to the local GOP faithful, the
nation’s immigration system is broken.
But what Collins didn’t say is that much
of what’s wrong with legal immigration
today is because of Trump’s policies that
have been designed to break the system on
purpose.
Still, Collins’ call to allow more legal
immigration is unusual among Republi
cans. That kind of thinking doesn’t fly in
some places, but here in the 9th District,
a lot of industries depend on immigrant
labor. Collins pointed to the need of the
poultry industry for labor here, but the
construction industry also needs more le
gal immigrant workers.
Most Americans probably agree with
Collins that legal immigration is good
for the U.S. economy, but such moderate
views aren’t in control today. Because
Trump wants to play to his right-wing po
litical base, he is unlikely to support any
measure that would allow more legal im
migrants into the country.
Cynics might say that Collins is being
a little disingenuous in his stand on im
migration: If he really wanted to push
for more legal immigration, he'd have to
acknowledge that the Trump Administra
tion has undermined it. He hasn’t — and
See Buffington, page 5A
Close to
Home
margie@
mainstreet
news.com
By Margie Richards
The lessons of
‘Mr. Rogers’
Once upon a time, there was Mr. Rogers’
neighborhood. It was always a beautiful
day there and neighbors were always wel
comed with open arms.
In this neighborhood, were great lessons,
not just for children, but for adults. After
all. adults were once children, too. In Mr.
Rogers' world, he worked to look at each
person as the child they once were (and still
are, somewhere inside).
He practiced kindness and to practice it,
he had to work at it. That doesn’t mean that
he didn’t have a natural bent toward kind
ness, I am sure he did.
But he had to hone that instinct, pray
about it and then consciously practice it,
every day. He certainly faced resistance to
it — the world is not easily divested of its
anger and suspicion — but he never let that
stop him from trying.
It was easier with children, who are still
so innocent, who haven’t yet developed
their individual prejudices and fear of dif
ferences.
When I heard about “It’s a Beautiful Day
in the Neighborhood,” the new movie about
Mr. Rogers starring Tom Hanks, I knew I
needed to see it. I didn’t just want to see
it; I really needed to go. It was like hav
ing a deep thirst I needed to quench. And
it didn’t hurt that the friendly face of Tom
Hanks was there to portray the venerable
personality.
The movie is done in an ingenuous way
and I won’t give away the plot. It is loosely
based on a 1998 article in Esquire maga
zine.
The Esquire story was written by Tom
Junrod, who set out to do a profile on Rog
ers and ended up having a life-changing
experience. To say he was skeptical of the
placid gentle gaze of Fred Rogers is an un
derstatement. He wanted to know the man
behind “the character” Rogers betrayed on
his children’s TV show. What he found was
that there was no character, there was just
a man determined to grace a hard world
with kindness, both for the children he ad
dressed on TV every day and for the adults
he encountered along the way. After all. as
Rogers said, every adult was once a child,
too.
It’s a good lesson to remember.
The movie does not portray Junrod him
self, but his representative character, named
Lloyd Vogel in the movie, is facing similar
demons and his exposure to Rogers is a cat
alyst for enlightenment and change.
Rogers' wife, both as her character in the
movie and in real life, says her husband
was no saint.
Thank goodness. It is better that he failed
sometimes, better that he worked at doing
the right thing, that he fought with his hu
man self and dealt with his failings, just
See Richards, page 5A
The Madison
County Journal
(Merged with The Danielsville Monitor
and The Comer News, January 2006)
P.O. Box 658
Hwy. 29 South
Danielsville, Georgia 30633
Phone: 800-795-2581
E-mail: zach@mainstreetnews.com
ZACH MITCHAM, Editor
MARGIE RICHARDS, Reporter/Office Manager
MIKE BUFFINGTON, Co-publisher
SCOTT BUFFINGTON, Co-publisher
FRANK GILLISPIE (deceased), Founder of The Journal.
JERE AYERS (deceased), former owner
of The Danielsville Monitor and The Comer News
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