So You Tell Me Just Get off Facebook — Here’s the Problem with That

Last week, I was voice texting with a friend about her son’s serious issues with anxiety and depression.

A few minutes later, I went into Facebook and was served THIS (in fact, I couldn’t even X out of it):

It’s a mixed bag, isn’t it?

Those dubious “connections” come at a cost. The constant barrage of Big Brother assaults just get more creepy, and sobering.  

For many years, we happily went onto Facebook and posted our cat pics, our family updates, the details of our lives. As an advertiser, 12 years ago, I found it valuable to learn who my audience was.

They were mostly 50-ish-year-old women who were into holistic health, with far higher education than average. (Congrats — apparently you’re pretty amazing, you’re so “above average” on so many different metrics. Yes, Facebook tells us about you. They even told me your median household income. I wish I was kidding. I do not actually have any idea how they would know that.)

Well, now we see the dark side of all this. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want Facebook’s help, with depression or anxiety. They’re helping cause it.

Per FTC guidelines, please assume links on this newsletter may be affiliate links that benefit us, though if so, the price is not marked up. Thank you for supporting our mission.

Where Are the Alternatives, for Business Owners?

To those hundreds of you who tell me, “Just get off Facebook!”:

That’s a great thought, and trust me, I would love to. But imagine you’re a public figure, and you employ 13 people, and you’ve worked for 16 years to provide fabulous service and products for people.

What do you do? To keep your small business serving your content to the people who want it? Fact is, you HAVE to go where the people are. Or you have to fold. It’s really that simple. 

Especially now, in the stay-home internet economy — let’s think through the options, shall we?

• Put up a billboard? The people driving past a billboard are 98% NOT the people who like what I offer. Facebook and other Big Tech companies show my ads to people who’ve expressed interest on those subjects.

• Take out an ad in the newspaper? Nobody reads print media any more. Oh, and, mainstream media outlets reject and censor content like mine, in any case.

• Other social media platforms? To my knowledge, no comparable alternative online platforms exist yet for business owners — at least not ones that would further marginalize me as a right-wing dissident. (Which I am not, by the way. Sure, I will fight to the end for truth … but “right wing?” Not really. I talked about this in my post called Help! I’m Politically Marooned!)

GOOGLE? (It Intentionally Keeps You from Finding Me)

Google is no better than Facebook. In fact, in the three years pre-COVID, you may not know that Google choked out of the search results over 90% of the “organic” (search) traffic to my site.

My GreenSmoothieGirl site used to get 2 million visitors a year, from mostly Google search results. But starting in 2018, it just got choked down to nothing … before you ever heard the C-word.

You should realize that Google actively keeps content on how to be healthy away from you. You’ll be served rosy, positive content on every kind of pharmaceutical product imaginable.

I wasn’t the only one whose online “organic search” traffic tanked. It was happening to everyone in the “natural health” space. 

My colleagues and I compared notes. We had conferences about it. We hired SEO auditors, quite expensively I might add, and we did everything they said — spending tens of thousands of dollars, or more — and our traffic never came back.

They told us, for instance, that we should get a “board” of MDs and PhDs to co-author our content with us. Because Google doesn’t think you can know anything about health or nutrition, if you didn’t go to medical school. 

And I did that. All 12 MD / PhD friends I asked gladly said yes, and signed on as co-authors of my content. But our organic search traffic never came back, not even a little bit.

People don’t seem to understand this. And it has massive importance if you’re using Google to find content relevant to your health.

For instance, just try to go learn about the horrific side effects from Botox. I knew little about it, but then a lady didn’t show up to my Swiss retreat several years ago. Her face had melted after a Botox injection, and she was suffering paralyzing migraines.

I googled and couldn’t find a darn thing. You can try it. You realize that Google arranges the search results, based on the data they have on you, I’m sure. Your search results might be different than mine.

Finally, I found a huge Facebook group (believe it or not) where 25K women shared stories of the grotesque injuries – especially long-term neurological problems, that they experienced after their “safe-n-effective” Botox injections. 

The group was called Botox Dysport (Side Effect) Support, but Facebook doesn’t put new content in my feed. And, several people have told me they cannot find the group, by searching on Facebook for it. Basically, I would have to be in it, and add you, or you’ll never see that, either.

Don’t join that group unless you’re prepared for total horror.

Kind of like the Died Suddenly Worldwide group, which Facebook keeps deleting. (It reinvents itself and gets to hundreds of thousands of members before it gets deleted again.)

Telegram Is a Dumpster Fire; Gab Is an Echo Chamber

I went to Telegram immediately in March 2020. I have a group there. Feel free to join.

It may work for you, but for people who make their living online, Telegram is a dumpster fire.

It doesn’t help my business whatsoever, and it’s “bot hell.” (We’ve blocked 1,500 bots in the last two years.)

People impersonate me, every day, in there. A group impersonating Dr. Peter McCullough has 10x as many people following, than Dr. McCullough’s real group.

Also, there’s no legit advertising, and it offers maybe 1% of 1% of the functionality of Facebook. Where we lead a number of communities, including my Alt-Investment/Crypto mastermind, and our thousands of detoxers.

Gab? Everyone there is the right-wing, preaching to the choir in their echo chamber.

TikTok? Some of my colleagues are on there, but it’s the Chinese surveillance-of-the-whole-world tool, rounding up all our kids especially.

Twitter? Hmm, IDK how to use it. I’ve ventured on there since Elon Musk claimed it would return to free speech. I’m cautiously optimistic (follow me on Twitter here).

The Alternatives Get Destroyed, Swooped Up, or Compromised

You’re probably thinking I’m going to tell you what the answer is, how to get clear of Big Tech.

I have a friend who has spent countless hours in a group of people trying to detach from the Borg, and get off Big Tech, and go to alternatives.

Here’s my issue with that, besides that my staff is so interconnected and functionally dependent on this web of Big Tech companies, it seems like it would create catastrophe if we tried to migrate off.

(Approximately no one who works for me wants to endeavor that migration.)

The startup companies trying to compete with the Big Boys are being actively sought out and either destroyed, or bought up (just as we’ve seen this happen in the nutritional supplement industry).  

In my opinion, ALL the platforms will eventually leverage your info to sell; that’s their whole business model. Why would someone invest in a robust search engine, if not to sell data to advertisers?

Think DuckDuckGo, who, four years ago, everybody thought was a great alternative search engine. Now they’re totally collecting your data, and using it, for the benefit of advertisers–and also the government.

You should go on DuckDuckGo’s site and look at who the investors/partners are. It’s a Who’s Who of the bad guys.

It’s like we’re all addicted to crack. They put it into our food without our knowledge in larger and larger doses, and there’s no rehab clinic or program to get off it.

Substack — A Bright Light in the Darkness

I will say, Substack (so far) is a refuge, where I publish this as we speak, and I hope you’re subscribed, so my content comes to your Inbox twice a week.

I don’t know how long it will survive, as everybody who has something important to say, in the fight for freedom, is here.

I know some of you are thinking, “It’s probably a way to surveil those of us in The Resistance” — but, I don’t think so. There’s too much truth on this platform, that enemies of freedom want buried. Many people are waking up, and taking action, thanks to Substack.

I’m here until then, and God bless whoever owns this company. I’ve been canceled by PayPal, Venmo, and Square — but currently, Stripe allows content providers on Substack to be paid for their content. (Good content involves a lot of research and work.)

Substack sends you my new blog posts each time I publish, by email.

Another bright spot: John and I use the SwissCows anonymous search engine. I don’t know if one day we won’t have an alternative, but for now, we don’t find they’re sifting out all the content we WANT, from their search results.

Subscribe here for $10/mo, if you find my work valuable. Thank you for your support, which we depend on and greatly appreciate! And, please assume that some of the links I may share, compensate my small business.