I guess I knew it would happen eventually: I have officially entered the realm of the cynic, that curious place between fantasy and reality that even Rod Sterling would find uncomfortable.
It started with my telephone. That cool invention of Alexander Graham Bell that we now carry around in our pockets has become pretty much useless for communication. I rarely answer a call, since most are from heavily accented guys from Hyderabad, claiming to be from Social Security, or, now, friendly AI voices that are obviously not real people, just automated con-jobs trying to fool the unsuspecting into relinquishing their banking information.
We all know what happens then.
I find I get so many of these, even with alleged “spam-blocker” software, that I rarely answer my phone without a text message from whoever wants to call arriving first. That’s the new phone etiquette in the 2020s!
My text messages are filled with people claiming to be with the IRS, or the Texas Motor Vehicle Department, or “insert name here,” so I am starting to bulk delete them on a twice-daily basis. Many of them are from politicians, some of whom I support, all trying to get me to respond to a survey or petition, which in reality is just another fundraising technique.
If online surveys really worked, we wouldn’t be in the mess we are in right now. Instead, what we think is our voice is really just us shouting into the wind while someone has their hand in our pocket.
I suppose this is my penance for helping to create internet marketing back in the 1990s in the infancy of the web. My company created the first websites for major corporations like Trammel Crow Companies and Wyndam Hotels and a host of other businesses that all sought to have a “web presence.” And since our company was one of the early ones doing that kind of work, we got very busy.
Later, we learned to gather data from visitors, and then someone developed the “cookie,” which resided on the client’s machine and gave marketers all the data they needed to aggressively push products to the consumer.
I always found it creepy and still do.
Now email has become nothing but a cesspool of advertising and spam, so much so that some folks rarely open their mail. We, as a society, have taken one of the most powerful tools in history and turned it into a haven for dishonest hackers and con men.
And that brings me to the whole con-man thing.
The greatest con man since Charles Ponzi sits in the White House, blathering and boasting in an incoherent word salad, and, because we have become so inundated with lies and hyperbole, our news organizations hang on his every word. They amplify his gibberish and cloak it in the trappings of relevancy when, in reality, it means nothing.
It’s no wonder our country is being run by con men; we have become so used to them that it only seems natural.
Well, here’s the truth: It’s not natural and it is not normal.
We find ourselves being scammed at every turn, and truth and fiction are harder to separate than ever. AI promises to make that even worse.
If you feel the same way, then welcome to the nation of Cynicstan.
Please hold for a short survey.
Hardy Haberman is a longtime local LGBT activist and a board member of the Woodhull Freedom Alliance. His blog is at DungeonDiary.blogspot.com.