Politics

Don’t Rent, Own

I’m compelled to write something about social media, personal websites, independence. This comes from reading all the bitching about how awful Facebook, Google, Twitter, AI and all the other Big Corp web is. The bitching, plus a longstanding aversion to using BigCorp for communicating.

I agree about the awfulness, but I don’t waste my time bitching about it. I use social media, but understand its limitations. Its basic limitation is, it’s not mine. I don’t own it. Rather, it owns me. Whatever I post at Facebook or other social media platforms is hoovered up by Big Corp so they can build a model of me and relentlessly sell shit to that discorporate model. They also sell my personal information to other Big Corps. They also can just shut me down whenever they feel like it. It’s also designed to be addictive, yay. All one big happy cycle of enshittification.

So, I have a personal website or two (or a dozen). It’s the only way to own my personal presence on the web. I can do pretty much any kind of website thing – blog posts, pages, images, apps, whatever.

www.kevinpadanhayes.com, where you’re reading this right now, or should be reading it, is my primary site, and it’s all mine. It’s almost entirely under my control – the domain name, which is my actual full name, the publishing platform, the web host, everything. Nothing on Big Corp’s servers. Costs me about $100 a year.

I see lots of my creative or small business friends who don’t have any real presence on the web, just a spot on Facebook or Instagram, and think to myself “They could do much better, they need their own place”. I see lots of my politically active friends doing the same and wonder “Why are they advocating for change on Big Corp’s website?”

Having your own place isn’t too hard. Yes, it’s technical, but it doesn’t have to be too technical, and people are available to advise – me being one of those people. It also isn’t free. Remember, if you aren’t paying for a service, you’re not a customer, you’re a product. You’re making money for Big Corp. And BigCorp is my word for those insane billionaires who are fucking everything up right now.

But it also doesn’t have to cost a bunch. I can set people up with their own WordPress website for less than $70 a year. Personal email with your own domain, less than $20/year. Domain name, $20/year. Total, less than $120/year. Simple, secure, performs well. Yes, you can do it cheaper or free, but I don’t advise doing that. You get what you pay for.

Now, I have little bandwidth to do this setting up, but I’m happy to give free advice and will probably write up a guide to doing it yourself. Here’s a work in progress describing the idea in more detail. I’m looking into offering it as a service, to a select group of people. I wouldn’t be making any money on the deal, as I’m not Big Corp and don’t have to relentlessly pursue profit. I also like doing this kind of work, it’s partly a hobby, honed by extensive paid work experience.

Comments are welcome, either emailing me at moc.seyahnadapnivekobfsctd-4c190d@nivek or commenting when this post gets posted at Facebook Big Corp. If you’d like me to make you an offer for having your own place on the web or just advise you based on my experience, let me know.

Buffalo Mayor

Well now, Buffalo’s gearing up for its first real Mayoral election in many years. The Byron Brown era is finally over, and not a moment too soon. It was the very definition of what I call “petrified politics”. Nothing moved. Nothing new happened. All the same players in all the same places, except every so often they changed chairs, as when whatsisname Higgins retired, a bunch of local pols moved up a step. Whoop de fuckin’ do.

I try not to be cynical, it discourages the young people, who don’t need any extra discouragement from cranky old Kevin. But man it can be hard in this town of petrified politics.

I can say without reservation – I’m not seeing anyone yet who’s expressing interest in running for Mayor who’s the slightest bit outside the box of politics as usual. All pandering to their particular voting or power groups. All without anything approaching a new idea.

All boring, to be honest, and there’s nothing more worthless than a boring politician. Show us some skin! Stand up for something! Piss somebody off! You only live once. My favorite politicians were quite happy to poke someone in the eye now and then. We don’t need wimps or overly cautious types.

Note: For the newbies and out of towners, Buffalo’s a one-party town, Democratic, and we’ll be having primaries in June 2025. In many years, that’s the whole ball game, you win the Dem primary, you’re in. It might be different this time around, but the June primary will be the first act in this political show. So the candidates are stepping up right around now.

More later . . .