Marking #ForceTheVote’s First Anniversary

The image taken was from the website ForceTheVote.org.

Saturday, December 11, 2021, marks the first anniversary of the #ForceTheVote discussion that broke out online but was much discussed in leftist circles. What is it about, and is it still relevant today? This post serves to answer the first part of the question, but the answer to the second part of the question is a resounding yes.

I have written this post because this topic has been on my mind for an entire year. Also, establishing a universal health care system for the United States has been my goal for much longer. That said, I want to recount a bit of history. Even if what I discuss might not sound all that important, people’s motivations are. And what I have seen in this discussion points to a major problem in Western politicians and our society at large.

I was there for most of the Twitter drama surrounding #ForceTheVote. At the time, I decided to grab as many screenshots of tweets as I could. Unfortunately, I lost them all because my stupid computer hard drive crashed in the middle of January 2021. I had to purchase another PC and take only the most relevant screenshots.

There is a lot to discuss since much has happened in a year, and the discussion about #ForceTheVote has not gone away. I am going to break this up into a few posts and use this one to give you some background Information on #ForceTheVote.

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Progressives: Don’t Turn on Each Other Because of Alex Jones (Part 3)

Alex Jones (on the left) crashed an interview that Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida, on the right) was giving reporters on September 5, 2018. Taken from a screenshot (video).

In Part 2 of this series, I talked about the incidents that happened since Alex Jones was banned from various platforms. I also talked about how I felt about Jones being targeted. Additionally, since I found out that the U.S. government (and the European Union) was involved, it made me think deeper about the issue of online censorship.

Now, it’s been over a month since I last visited this series, but a lot more has happened on this front. Before I can get into the nitty-gritty, I will need to talk about a few of these developments.

Progressives: Don’t Turn on Each Other Because of Alex Jones (Part 2)

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey recently talked to NBC News’ Lester Holt about Twitter’s decision to put Alex Jones in a week-long timeout. Twitter’s movements in this arena will have long-term implications, and most of them will be bad for progressives.

In Part 1 of this series, I talked about the fallout from Alex Jones’ dismissal from certain platforms and the effect it has had on progressives. In particular, a fight has been raging about the concept of free speech and whether or not there are limits to it. As a result, a number of progressives have turned on each other, at least in this arena. As the title of these posts suggests, I have a problem with that because progressives need to stick together.

I am also troubled by the way people are going about this argument. While both sides in this debate have valid points, one side has stronger ones, but even people on that side have made a series of argumentative missteps. In sniping at each other, progressives in this fight have subverted their own arguments to a degree.

Now, one is certain: Alex Jones’ banishment is the start of a widescale sweep and things will get worse before they get better. That said, I would like to revisit my thoughts on his banishment and talk about the effect it can have on many others.

Alex Jones: Is His Banishment an Issue of Free Speech?

Original image by Michael Zimmermann [CC BY-SA 4.0 ], from Wikimedia Commons

No, Alex Jones’ banishment from a host of platforms is not about free speech, but it has started on interesting conversation among progressives.

Health and Internet News I Missed (April 25, 2017)

Hello, Readers! As promised, here is the Health and Internet news I missed this week.

We Need Some New Internet Rules!

This is a busy news week, y’all, but I wanted to rant about the Internet for a bit.

This is a two-part complaint concerning the new rollbacks the Republicans passed and Trump signed and the internet problems I’m experiencing.

News Roundup (Week of Apr. 2-8, 2017)

Hello, readers! Before I get into this week’s News Roundup, I wanted to say something.

Normally, I would publish a Write Anything Wednesday post, but I did not last Wednesday. I was sapped all week, but I managed to do a Famous Sayings post.

Also, I started doing extensive research for a couple of posts I wanted to publish last week, but that took me down another rabbit hole. As it turns out, the subject matter I wanted to talk about is connected — and in a way, it was preempted — by Thursday’s events.

That story is covered in this post, but I would like to make another post concerning the topic and how I feel about the news coverage surrounding it. I might have some unpopular opinions on the matter, but they are worth expression and consideration. The same is true for the connected posts I wanted to publish earlier.

Additionally, I would like to make some more posts covering the news items I have missed over the weeks. All weeks are busy and it’s hard to decide which stories to discuss. It’s also time consuming to find the stories and summarize them in my own words. That is partly my fault since I like to a thorough job with everything and inform my readers, so …

How I Came Up with My Username (WAW)

What does this image have to do with anything? I used it on YouTube once. And I would rather this be the top image.

For my second entry for Write Anything Wednesday, I have decided to share a story. This was inspired by vinneve, who asked me the question days ago.

About 7 years ago, I was thinking of a name to use for a DeviantArt account — when it was still written as deviantART — and possibly for YouTube. I wanted the name to be something unique and something that I wouldn’t mind using year after year.

Just how did I come up with Shmaltz and Menudo, though? I combined two terms that were “out there” in terms of daily usage — in my life and mainstream America. I first heard of the term “schmaltzy” when a film critic was basically panning the movie “Pay It Forward.” I had to look that up. The term “Menudo” was only familiar to me because of the now-defunct Puerto-Rican “boy band” that allowed Ricky Martin to jump into show business. I looked up both terms (for schmaltz and Menudo) before finally settling on this name.

Well, as you can see, I never used that name for DeviantArt and it took me awhile to use it for YouTube. Why is that? Snap decisions in regard to the former site and technicalities on the latter.