Hey, Eric, I’m going to try to extend the benefit of the doubt, but on the other hand, it’s a challenge given this increasingly widespread phenomenon. This probably doesn’t apply to you, yet many seem to have not noticed that Agism is Illegal just like gender, race, and orientation discrimination; yet it is increasingly pervasive and in everyday situations perversely deemed acceptable. Like racism, gender bias, or gay discrimination, agism’s effects are most deeply insidious when cloaked in the guise of little everyday situations, decisions, policies, and priorities. The “mood” I chose for the comments below was something like “intentionally provocative” or “optimistically provocative” to make it 100% clear that I’m making a double point with the post: 1.) such features as the ones request here are all too often pushed to the bottom of the priority stack and 2.) all too often it’s because, “those old people aren’t our primary market anyway.” Anyone who has done software for more than 4 or 5 years knows these two things to be true, and if using irony and hyperbole to make the point is “abusive” then progressives of all persuasions only stand to lose ground. Why are the mood comments omitted, by the way? Isn’t that a fairly important Context Signal for readers? In fact, isn’t the very purpose of mood comments to provide Context? In this case — just like black people get to talk about black issues, women about women’s issues, immigrants about immigration issues, gays about marriage equality issues — as a 50 year “old person” I’m thinking I have every right to address agism issues; in fact, every OBLIGATION to do so in the “little everyday situations” where agism is most felt by victims of instituationalized, revoltingly Acceptable Agism. Perhaps I’m simply in the camp of compatriots like @jew4palestine where my only infraction here is questioning the status quo. Wouldn’t you agree? Please do let me know, I’m very curious about this one. Is this really “abusive language” even when tagged as “intentionally thought provoking?” My bet is that I’m only in trouble for exposing what far too many 20 to 40 year-olds actually do think, today. It wouldn’t matter except that those perceptions drive behavior — illegal behavior — every day. I also wouldn’t be surprised to see these same agist people try to play some convoluted “reverse agism” tactic to try to defend their own hypocritical insecurities. If the glove don’t fit, we surely must acquit; but if the shoe fits, you’re probably wearing it. In other words, if you know you’re definitely not prone to any of these improper views about older people in the workplace and in the world in general, gentle reader, then there’s absolutely no reason to get your dander up, right? On the other hand, if any reader feels defensive right about now, what would that seem to indicate? Oh, and have a nice day. I have to get back to doing my Old People Work, now; you know, the kind where anyone over 40 and white is too lazy to do manual labor, doesn’t even know what a blog is, let alone Twitter, Qik, or the like, right? Sorry, I’ll stay out of sight and out of mind like a good boy, next time. ——– Original Message ——– From: moderation@getsatisfaction.com Subject: Your reply on Get Satisfaction was removed To: michael@silverton This reply has been removed by Seesmic: what are YOU looking at, anyway, old man? don’t you realize that old people are not supposed to use technology? why should we bother with font sizes? who cares about you, anyway, you’re OLD. in fact, if you use the newest stuff, you’re kind of a CREEP and scary to all us real people. i suppose you’ll want cell phones helpful for 80 year olds next. where will your whining demands ever end? “wah, wah, wah, we want adjustable fonts like the Kindle.” what do you mean you are the fastest growing demographic? don’t try to weasel out of this with mere facts. you are old, you suck, you should shut up and not be seen in public; and yet, you have the audacity to apply for a job with us real people in our 20s and 30s? what? you think we weren’t born yesterday? ROTFLMAO!!! just for this request, we are decreasing the font by 2 points, permanently. good luck, losers. seriously, though; development for this rapidly growing demographic is grossly under funded and under energized. truly, there are important cultural biases about which all software developers should become mindful http://alloldpeoplesuck.blogspot.com/ . well, not all of them, only the ones who want to be positioned to best profit from this exploding demographic so you see, actually, usability for diverse populations is directly relevant to product development roadmaps. Replies can be removed by company employees if they contain inappropriate content or private customer information. This was the reason given in this case: Seesmic: “Abusive language.”
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Posted to michael.silverton.palo-alto.ca.us
Labeled Abusive for using Hyperbole to Draw Attention to Rampant Agism. Really?
http://michael.silverton.palo-alto.ca.us/packets/?p=999
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Posted to michael.silverton.palo-alto.ca.us
On Democracy & Technology
http://michael.silverton.palo-alto.ca.us/packets/?p=959
Updating this old favorite topic, perhaps the best way that I can be of service to our little global community is to echo Amy and David Goodman; specifically, by continuing to raise awareness to the fact that the so-called mainstream media has inexorably evolved into a patently polarized & palpably polarizing Extreme Media. There is almost nothing mainstream left of the Big 3 or Big 5 broadcast news networks; they’re crumbling under the weight of their own supererogatory influence; the mainstream is becoming the old stream and the infinite recursion and recycling what was once passed off as “news” is immediately obvious to anyone looking at the latest Google News headlines, feature five thousand five hundred and fifty three versions of the exact same AP story. This, how can I put it gently, is not simply unsustainable as a communication or business model, it’s utterly absurd and broken. In fortunate contrast, emergent new stream internet journalism sites like Democracy Now, LinkTV, AlterNet, CurrentTV, and others clearly represent a rising tide of Democracy-powered perspectives, driving Technology. We are not just witnessing a technology-enabled Renaissance of Democracy expressed by way of our new video-mediated telepresence canvas, we are becoming — each and every one of us who so choose — essential Participants in, and co-Architects of this online digital age of enlightenment. Hyperbolic? Perhaps. Yet, it’s nearly impossible to not acknowledge the rise of an increasingly well-educated, and web-educated, grass-roots Populism of the Pen; Digital Pen, that is, etching out an evolving and adaptive, increasingly collectively-written, edited, and performed New Americanist canon. A participatory canon consisting of individual videos, web sites, blogs, instant messaging, texting, and the rapidly expanding twitterized cognosphere. If I were pile on with the advent of the coming overlapping Whispernets, at this point, I may lose the small handful of readers who are still here, at this point. So we’ll save that for later. In this New Americanist context, the significance of the Obama administration’s embrace of revolutionarily democratizing technology like peer-to-peer video, can not be overstated. By electing this president, We The People have opened a literal – not virtual, for this is the Real Deal – National Kitchen Table open discussion space. Now this point is crucial: WE did this. Not “the government” … not some shadowy “them” … WE are, you and I, shaping the fate of our democracy using the innovative technologies of our own making. Whether or not we choose to participate in this evolution, and to what degree we participate, is of course an entirely different matter; a matter of individual liberty that should never be co-opted or coerced. The take-away here is that the Obama Administration’s mature and pragmatic use of Social Media has already permanently altered the trajectory of not just uppercase American Democracy, but lowercase global democracy. Arguably, so far, this has been accomplished in one the most positive, peaceful, and non-violent ways imaginable. Openness, Transparency, Communication, Inclusion, and Freedom of Expression are some of the key watchwords of any vibrant democracy and these are values that technology can help to either expand or contract. Naturally, the potential bifurcation of values at this juncture is also a topic better suited for another post. Before I wrap up this little dropped packet of consciousness, I do think it’s noteworthy to call out one generally contrasting threat to the nascent democracy and technology renaissance that I see presently underway. It is a perspective argued through what I personally consider to be the old-stream, fear mongering rhetoric of the last of the radical right wing elitist extremists. Generally, the arguments consist of grossly oversimplified, dumbed down specters; shadows of filigrees of historical clichés: Tea Parties, Torches, and Pitchforks, oh my! These non-arguments strike me as crass, even doltish and manipulative kindergarten nursery rhymes that are indeed most effective with the segment of the population most prone to believing in nursery rhymes and superstitious old wives tales. Frankly, I don’t care if this sounds academic or egg-headed to some, it is empirically observable human behavior and therefore pragmatically important for us to realize just how many humans are directly moved to political action by such silly fairy tales. The cost of ignoring what we might otherwise consider pure silliness is far too high; we’ve learned this the hard way during the past several radical right wing elitist administrations. Radical right wing elitism is an elitism of superstition and easy-meme nursery rhyme; either one “gets” the fairy tales, or they don’t; and this creates a very dangerous black and white world of right wing elitist hegemony that can only ever drive deeper wedges between peoples and cultures. So it is very important to repeat and repeat and repeat the message that today’s technology-mediated grass-roots populism has nothing to do with torches and pitchforks. People simply want and need what every vibrant democracy always wants and needs: a voice, an informed vote, accurate and meaningful representation through frank, vibrant, un-edited, authentic People-2-Power-2-People communication. To my mind, that’s the intrinsic nature of today’s democracy and technology partnership; and now it is ours to leverage for the good or squander for the bad. So call it a big, messy, noisy, and often perplexing Global Online Public Piazza, or the Universal Citizen Cognition Space, or the Totally Awesome Kickin’ InterwebZ, or the OMG-WTF-Net, or whatever you want to call it. To the extent that we Keep Connecting and Empowering More and More People with these tools, it is the greatest technological opportunity for democracy that the world has ever seen. The question is, what are we going to DO with it? What are YOU going to do with it? We’ve already seen and read thousands of tercentennial-leaning Declarations of Independents published all over the web during the course of these first few decades of beta-testing the web. Perhaps what I’m personally looking forward to most, is the opportunity that technology now affords me for participating in what develops next. I look forward to learning from, and interacting with the product of literally billions of individual and small group efforts now underway. I look forward to being included with and encouraged by the rapidly accelerating numbers of insanely intelligent and broadly informed online autodidacts; who are increasingly liberated from the obsolete exclusivity of polarizing old stream narratives; who are finally in possession of the tools, skills, and aptitudes to lead the world forward toward A More Perfect Union – a more cohesive and peaceful democratic global union – marked by genuinely, materially increasing experiences of authentic Liberty and Justice for All.
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