This opening is rather off topic from what is to follow but really, when has that stopped me? As I type this my brother Blaine G. Houserman is sleeping in a chair directly across from me in the shelter of this cool shoe box we call home.
Blaine decided to surprise Mother and visit during the festive holiday of July 4. Actually today is July 4 now that I ponder.
I shall now move forward to the topic of this particular piece which has nothing to do with parking in downtown Conneaut Lake. I can feel your sighs of relief as can the cats because some of them have indeed become airborne.
Several weeks ago I mentioned in passing that I've been put into “YouTube jail” for 90 days and I promised I would expound on that topic until you reach for some strong medicine.
First of all, many people on YouTube are literally having their channels removed from that platform because they discuss – GASP – alternative medicines. I know, I know, it's almost criminal of people to look outside of the pharmaceutical industrial complex to relieve ailments but many do go that route, including your humble (?) columnist.
I should begin by saying that my channel has NOTHING to do with alternative pain relief or medicines of any sort. My little platform consists mainly of my doing short videos throughout the week about various things that float to the forefront of my cluttered mind. These topics can range from cats to Mother to politics, depending on my ire or love level. (In other words, I don't fly on to the videos in a rage and rant incessantly all of the time. If something moves me to do so then I will but for the most part, it's basically a diary on film, more or less, which is called a “vlog” in terms of internet terminology.)
On the weekends I do a live trivia based game that might consist of honoring one of my “loungers” due to a birthday or I might focus on a holiday, etc., but the bottom line is that it's a trivia themed game. I do a lot of research for the games and I really enjoy it—to the max even. Recently I honored my father as his birthday was on June 1, 1919. That meant that I researched interesting tidbits that unfolded in that year or on June 1 of any year, etc. I also throw in things about the person's hobbies, etc. (This is under my actual name on YouTube just in case you are interested in such shenanigans.)
Moving along, back in March I did a video in which I MENTIONED in passing something about a product that I take for pain, anxiety and depression called Kratom. Rather than going into all of the details about this natural substance, I shall just ask you to do an internet search and type in “Kratom 101,” for one example. This has been demonized as of late because it will interfere with the profits of the above mentioned “Big Pharma” industry. They do not like competition as they want to keep us sick and in need of their products but I digress—I think.
So, I casually mentioned something about Kratom but the video was NOT based on said substance. I believe I said something about a good and trustworthy distributor that I had found and then I moved along to silly things, which is my custom. Mind you, this is LEGAL here in this state even though people in the federal govt are trying their best to make this a scheduled substance, yes, you read that right.
Time went by and sometime in May I was pressing buttons in order to go live when I was told that my live privileges had been taken away for 90 days. Turns out that this video went against the vague YouTube community standards or some such male bovine excrement, which resulted in my video being removed, my getting a strike and losing my live stream abilities for 90 days.
I think this punishment is a bit over the top and especially when my channel doesn't even focus on this product. Many people who had channels that talked about various oils or other natural remedies were removed entirely and thankfully my videos were not removed in their entirety so that was good news, I guess.
I did what many people have had to do which would be to contest this decision by filling out some form and sending it to YouTube. I had just LITERALLY hit send (and you know I only use literally in a literal manner) when I got the reply from YouTube. The reply said something along the lines that after giving this another careful review (evidently careful reviews can unfold in nano seconds) they were sticking to the original plan of punishing me wildly for my sin of mentioning something in passing.
YouTube and other platforms have taken to using something called “bots” to carry out the job of monitoring people, etc. A bot was more than likely responsible for “red flagging” my particular video which resulted in this insanity.
So we are not even dealing with living and breathing human beings when this happens. They also use some kind of technology that can tell if certain words are being used in the video or the description or in the title. This is all carried out by non-human-entities, for lack of a better description.
I found a way around this in terms of doing my live gigs on the weekend until I'm released from bondage but I'd rather not say what that is here in print. The only thing is now when I go live everything is in mirror image, which seems to be an ongoing problem with many on YouTube and also on Facebook live gigs.
Because of this, I have learned how to write in mirror image which is quite a challenge if I do say so myself but it is supposedly good for the brain and we all know I need to take all the help that is offered in that department.
I guess that sums it up here ladies and gents. I just remembered that I had told you about my being punished and that I would elaborate on it so I did.
YouTube which is owned by Google is a “YUGE” corporation and they are basically deciding who can see what and when. This is really nothing new as our government, for another example, is also run by corporate interests as is the news media but I shall save that rant for another time.
THE END (Interstate Crosscheck, AIPAC, “Erasing the Liberty” by Phil Tourney, “War is a Racket” by General Smedley Butler)