It’s unbelievable.
After everything we witnessed from 2017-2020 – the ineptitude, the criminality, the lack of respect, the racism and sexism and, oh yeah, the needless deaths of 800,000 Americans – it’s unfathomable that half of this country could vote again for that malignant, mentally addled, morally vacant, adjudicated rapist and felon instead of for the competent, intelligent, honest woman of color.
But that’s where we are now. As I write this, on the night before the Orange Fistula’s inauguration, I know I’m not the only one looking ahead at the next four (or more) years with absolute dread.
Equally distressing is the pace at which the billionaire tech boys Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg – once self-proclaimed champions of free speech, democracy, and “bringing people together” – bent their knees, kissed Trump’s ring, and became facilitators of fascism.
Amazon’s Jeff Bezos refused to allow his Washington Post editorial board to publish an op-ed in support of Kamala Harris. He has since donated $1 million to Shitler’s inauguration. He also refused to run Ann Telnaes’ editorial cartoon criticizing Bezos’ kowtowing to the felonious fascist. (Telnaes, a 20-year veteran, says it’s the first time her work has been censored. She resigned as a result.)
If you’re not living under a rock, you already know how Elon Musk of Twitter (yes, I deadname the platform, just as he deadnames his Trans offspring), donated millions to Trump’s campaign. He has since appointed himself co-president elect as the return on his investment.
So, I guess we shouldn’t be surprised that Zuckerberg, long known to be the most cowardly and cringe-inducing of the lot, has recently joined the pack. After meeting Trump around Thanksgiving, and then giving $1 million to the inauguration, he recently announced massive, right-wing changes at Facebook/Meta.
Meta will eliminate third-party fact checkers (because of perceived liberal “political bias” and “partisan censorship”) and roll back content moderation.
It’s appointing far-right members to its board, relocating what’s left of Meta’s offices from California to Texas to combat the appearance of partisan censorship (because, gosh, there’s no political bias in Texas!) and – most distressing – ending DEI initiatives within the organization.
Most appallingly, to please and appease the Far Right, Facebook has cancelled its policies protecting LGBTQ, people of color, and other marginalized groups on its platforms.
In other words, you get to call me a “faggot” on Facebook now and face zero consequences. But if I call a MAGA anti-vax conspiracy theorist an idiot, I’ll land in Facebook Jail, or worse, or thrown off the platform.
It’s truly a scary new world on social media. Apparently “free speech” now only applies to/protects words (like insults) and conspiracies that Trump and MAGA want you to hear. Nowadays, things like science and facts and truth are left-wing partisan propaganda.
For me, this the last straw.
On Jan. 31, I'm deleting all my Meta accounts – Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and Messenger.
Is Zuck courting MAGA? Is he afraid of Trump’s past threats of jail time? Do I give a shit?
As Nine Simone sings, you have to leave the table when love is no longer being served! So I’m out of there. Farewell Facebook and #FuckZuck
***
It will be easier to say goodbye to some of Meta’s platforms than others.
Being more verbal than visual, I never really mastered Instagram. Threads was fun for a quick minute. But it was quickly overrun by porn bots and MAGA morons, and now looks much like the platform it was trying to emulate.
Frankly, I’ve always felt safer user text instead of Messenger (although that may be a false sense of security!).
Leaving Facebook, however, will be much more difficult. After 20 years, I’m more than a bit addicted (all the more reason to bid adieu). I don’t expect my withdrawal to be painless. Facebook is in my DNA at this point!
Checking Facebook – responding to notifications, posting updates, sending birthday greetings – has long been a morning ritual for well over a decade. I’m made tons of virtual and real Friends and have a lot of memories stored there.
***
A latecomer to the party, I joined Facebook around 2007. My good friend, the late actor/director/playwright Jeffrey Hartgraves, insisted it was a necessity to (a) to stay in touch with all the friends I’d recently left behind in San Francisco, and (b) promote the upcoming 2009 production of his San Francisco stage smash Carved in Stone, which I co-produced and in which I reprised the role of Quentin Crisp.
And It worked! Thanks to Facebook, our LA engagement stretched to three months! It was very easy to reach out to groups of people, share reviews, offer discounts, sell tickets. The sky was the limit in those days. And all for free!
And let’s face it. My streaming series Old Dogs & New Tricks (2011-2020) would never have found its enthusiastic audience, much less its crowdfunded budget, if not for my endless, non-stop efforts to share the word about the show on that platform.
During the run of ODNT, I was on Facebook from the moment I woke up until I turned off the lights for sleep, each and every day.
Most recently, it assisted me in selling more than a few of my books.
Then there are the hundreds of Friends I made, who came out of nowhere to support me during 2016’s “Brady Debacle.”
But long before Trump and my public smackdown of his bitch Thindy Brady, Facebook already had changed. Zuckerberg’s greed had kicked in. Big time.
We could no longer reach our show’s fans for free. Our posts were buried unless we paid to promote them (which we very rarely did).
Then Zuckerberg wanted to his platform to be the new go-to for streaming video, so our show’s YouTube clips were “shadow-banned” and barely seen.
And once Trump came onto the political scene, social media became less about fun engagement about what your friends were up to, and much more about the outpouring of angry outrage (from both sides).
Facebook quickly learned it gets much more engagement (and thus, more profit) from angry users than from happy, blessed-out ones.
In other words, folks are more likely to click and comment on content that pisses them off than they will on posts that please them. [See my earlier blog on this topic, F#@k Facebook]
Today, Facebook is barely fun at all. My newsfeed is so filled with ads from pages and groups I don’t follow (and have absolutely zero interest in). I barely see my Friends’ posts at all as a result – perhaps because my friends aren’t paying Zuckerberg to let me see them!
I know it will be an adjustment. But it’s one willing to make. One I must make. I was happy in the days before Facebook. I will, eventually, be happy in my days after Facebook.
***
But what about all those memories stored there? I’ve used the platform as a virtual scrapbook of life events and career highlights for a long time now.
Well, if you’d like to leave Meta, too, there are ways to save all your photos, videos and more before you do.
One option is to download your data. Go to your Facebook settings, navigate to "Your information," and click "Download your information"; you can then select which data types you want to download and initiate the download process.
You'll eventually receive a ZIP file that contains folders with files, including any images and videos you've requested.
But be sure to deselect everything but posts, videos, and photos! (I made the mistake of not deselecting everything when I downloaded data two years ago, and received more data than I needed or could store!)
A more old-school is using a service such as Pastbook.com (just one of many similar services). They’ll access all your photos from the past 10 years (or longer) and print them in a high-quality hardcover coffee-table type book. You can pick and choose which photos to include or delete, and which years to highlight (or not). I just ordered one with my photos from past ten years, and it was under $70! We're so impressed, we're going to order one covering the Old Dogs & New Tricks years before pulling the Meta plug.
You know what? I miss keeping and having scrapbooks anyway!
***
I’m trying to not be self-righteous about my decision. I don’t expect flocks to follow my example, and I’m not going to shame anyone who doesn’t or can’t disconnect from their Friends.
But this choice is right for me.
Because, over the past decade, I’ve learned I can become addicted to self-righteous outrage. The years since 2016 have shown me that part of my psyche actually thrives on drama and toxic anger. (Perhaps an occupational hazard of being an actor?)
I mentally exhausted myself during the last Trump administration, arguing with idiots on social media. And I didn’t change a single mind! (Did you?) I don’t think I can take another round.
I’m looking for smarter ways to resist.
In addition to leaving Meta behind, I’m also avoiding legacy networks, cable news, and mainstream media. I'm now getting my information from independent sources like NPR and Democracy Now! or trustworthy media outlets from outside the United States of Amnesia, like BBC News.
***
So. What will I do with all the free time I usually squandered on Facebook?
I was a prolific reader in my 20s and 30s, with a book always in hand or within reach, and a towering to-be-read stack on my nightstand. I’d love to get back always having a book (or three) occupying my imagination.
I'll also be taking all those fleeting, pithy zingers, one-liners and general bitching and grousing I used to post immediately on Facebook and go deeper, developing them instead into more thought-provoking blogs here on my website.
You can still react to and comment on my posts here, just like on Facebook, and I promise to reply and discuss! Please set yourself up to receive notifications of new blogs as they arrive.
I’m also enjoying the stress-free Bluesky, and hope you will join me there at @leonacord.bsky.social
I also hope you’ll Subscribe to my YouTube channel at @LeonAcord where I plan to post more shorts and vlogs, as well as clips from upcoming film projects.
So I hope you’ll please follow my blog to read about my whitdrawal and occasional cold sweats! And please stay in touch.
***
Finally, the question I get the most. Would I ever return to Facebook?
Well… If Zuckerberg ever sold the platform to an actual human being, then, yes, I I would.
But I don’t see that happening.
Meanwhile, may we all find the strength and resolve we will need for the nightmare-ish years ahead.
May God help us all us.
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Burgeoning curmudgeon (or is that queer-mudgeon?) Leon Acord takes on current events (MAGA, cancel culture), modern-day life (precocious parents, technology), pop culture (theatre critics, closeted actors), and more in Expletives Not Deleted, his collection of bitchy yet bubbly essays, all written in the same acerbic voice that made his memoir SUB-LEBRITY a five-star Amazon bestseller.
Buy it HERE