May 1, 2017, - 12:46 am
“The Circle”: Timely Flick Shows the Dangers of Facebook We Keep Ignoring
“The Circle” (Rated PG-13), which debuted in theaters this weekend, is a timely movie, so it’s a shame that it bombed at the box office. I recommend it, and here’s why . . . .
Just a couple of weeks ago, Facebook sachem Mark Zuckerberg announced he’s developing a plan to read your mind and mine. If we’ll let him. He’s developing software and technology to type 100 words per minute without the user’s fingers ever striking a key. As I read the media coverage on Facebook’s “direct brain interface,” I wondered what kind of idiot would give Facebook access to his or her brain and thoughts.
But then I answered the question as quickly as I thought it up. We already know that millions of morons without critical thinking skills populate social media (on both sides of the ideological divide, by the way–see the many blind Sean Hannity fans for Exhibit A). They’re the same people who whine about the NSA and the government invading terrorists’ privacy–the same people who, while they whine about privacy–continue to post their locations, their regular hangouts, notices about when they aren’t at home, and so on. These people want to bare all to the world–to zillions of total strangers. They want us to know every detail about the most private things (including sexual behavior), they post their suicides online, and they just want to be famous for any reason or no reason at all. They are the same people who make snuff films, like they did of that poor old Black man who was picking up cans for money on Easter Sunday.
And they are the same people who will give Mark Zuckerberg access to their brains and their thoughts. It would be something if there were just a handful of them. But they are now the “normal” ones. We, who have edit buttons and scruples, are the aberrations, the weirdos, stuck in the mud and no fun.
And that’s why The Circle, which may seem over the top, really isn’t. It’s sadly so spot on about the willingness we individually have to allow social media Big Brother, like Facebook, to take over our lives. And spot on about the willingness we collectively have to allow organizations like Facebook to control society in a way government could only fantasize about.
Publicists for the studio, STX Entertainment, didn’t screen The Circle for critics. At least, not in the Detroit area. But they should have. I went to see it on my own at an early showing, Thursday Night. And I thought it was pretty good. It captures exactly why you should fear Facebook and why I already do and have for some time. As in real life, The Circle shows us a world of morons ready to allow a Facebook-esque social media network (called “The Circle”) to take over everything.
The movie begins with Emma Watson (who proudly marched in the annoying p-hat women’s marches of the unhinged left), looking for a full-time job. She wants to support herself and get her severely ill and disabled father healthcare (which you wonder why Watson’s real-life hero Obama didn’t get him, given that he claimed ObamaCare would cover it all). After getting an entry-level job at The Circle, Watson is at first skeptical of her co-workers’ projects, such as inserting chips into children’s bones in order to track them. She laughs when she’s told this is to “keep kids safe from kidnappers.” But, soon, she buys into the entire The Circle plot to take over, er . . . to “better” the world.
Watson is caught on camera after stealing a kayak and nearly drowning in the water in the middle of the night. But The Circle’s universal cameras catch her on film and the Coast Guard is instantly there to save her. She tells the employees of The Circle that she was “selfish” for kayaking in private and not sharing even her most private moments with the world. So she agrees to be on video 24/7. And then she is drunk with the worldwide fame it gets her. And she allows The Circle to monitor her blood, her body, her health, and her parents (who then get caught having sex on camera, when they thought they were in private).
Soon, Watson is giving her boss (Tom Hanks is this film’s older version of Zuckerberg) the idea that The Circle should require all its members to register to vote and participate in elections. Then, she wants all registered voters to become members of The Circle. And next, she wants The Circle to run the elections of the world’s countries. This, we’re told, would create full participation in elections and rid the world of despotic rulers and dictators.
Again, if you think this is over the top, don’t put it past Facebook to have this same agenda. It sounds a little too much like this generation’s “Motor Voter Bill,” which Democrats used to automatically register to vote every dumbass with a driver’s license. Do you really want every American on Facebook voting in our elections? It’s the worst election idea EVER . . . unless you’re a liberal Democrat.
Facebook is so thirsty for live video “performances” to garner more eyeballs and ad revenue that it’s already generated the aforementioned live suicides and snuff films. Facebook had to know this would happen, and, yet, those things keep happening with yet another Facebook Live murder late last week. Though it was made well before the recent snuff films, The Circle shows us the potential of Facebook and other social media to encourage and cause tragic deaths, as the envelope keeps being pushed.
Facebook’s algorithm is so weak, it doesn’t detect these things–the live on-line snuff films that stay on the site as long as two hours. Yet, Facebook has repeatedly blocked me for consecutive 30-day blocks because I posted something innocent and tame BUT conservative. Or because someone on a Facebook group of which I’m an administrator, posted a picture of beautiful Israeli women soldiers wearing their guns (yes, I really got blocked from Facebook for 30 days for that). Yet, Facebook officials, including one of John Kerry’s former top spokeschicks (Facebook is filled with legions of formerly top Dems and libs) yelled at me, when I asked them why they refused to ban or at least block and open neo-Nazi who called on me to be killed and said he was coming for me.
And you want this company to have access to your mind for easier typing? Sadly, like I said, millions will willingly, eagerly give Zuckerberg that opportunity. They clearly don’t mind being Zucked and are too brainless and stupid to realize what is happening.
That’s essentially the message of The Circle. And it makes the point well.
***
BTW, when I reviewed this on my Friday appearance on Larry The Cable Guy’s SiriusXM show, Larry said that, given all this Big Brother stuff, he didn’t understand why people would send their DNA to Ancestry.com. And he has a point. I saw an episode of CBS “48 Hours” just over a week ago, detailing the story of Michael Usry Jr., a man who was accused of murder after police and prosecutors subpoenaed his DNA from Ancestry. That would’ve been a good thing . . . if he were actually the murderer. But in fact, though his DNA was a close match, he was not the murderer, and he had to fight–at great cost–to exonerate himself.
TWO-AND-A-HALF REAGANS
Watch the trailer . . .
Tags: Emma Watson, Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, The Circle, Tom Hanks
I despise Mark Zuckerberg with the heat of 1,000 suns.
DS_ROCKS! on May 1, 2017 at 1:01 am