I’ve been noticing for years, as so many others have as well, that the online world is being transformed into something quite unrecognizable.
I noticed this incremental shift long before the “Fact Checking” era began, but not long after I got removed from the blogging platform I’d been blogging at for years, before I started this blog.
It was mere annoyance at first, at the little things. Why can’t I find recipes anymore by independent bloggers? I thought DuckDuckGo was supposed to be a more neutral search engine. Why is it all becoming so commercialized and institutionalized? So many ads, so much repetition, so few unique voices. If I didn’t know the exact name of the specific bloggers’ recipes I wanted to find the only links that come up in my searches are for the ‘big name’ mainstream mega-platforms, like Betty Crocker, Saveur, Food Network, listed over and over again. The original content creators that made the web what it is are being systematically squeezed out.
And it’s not just about controversial content, as Truthstream Media is pointing out in this new video. Mel aptly describes it as the latest Potemkin Village.
This morning I got this message (below) in my inbox. Now, it’s been some years since I’ve blogged for GRIT, and that stint didn’t last long even back then, because the stupid rules were already starting in at that point, and changing constantly, and I found it too annoying to try to keep up with them, considering it was supposed to be a labor of love (ie, no one’s getting paid for all the free content we provide).
Now it seems they don’t even want free content anymore from mere bloggers.
Dear GRIT blogger:
During the past 10 years, you have offered your know-how generously, supplying millions of readers with the actionable advice that has enabled so many households and farms to turn country living dreams into reality. The work you do — and the wisdom you transfer to the digital page — underpin more resilient, connected communities. Also during the past decade, the Internet evolved immensely.
When we started the GRIT blogging program, we were on a mission to supply a rapidly growing online readership with timely — even daily — information, free of the page and time constraints faced by the print edition of the magazine. We also were largely free of rules; blogging was in its “Wild West” period. As online writing evolved, search engines placed increasingly complex, and ever-changing, “web rules” around what content is featured in search results. Meanwhile, blogging as a format and cultural phenomenon underwent its own transitions. These factors have led us to make a tough decision.
No more bloggers at GRIT.
Looks to me like the WorldWideWeb is being Walmarted. I believe in business parlance that’s called Vertical Integration.
Anyone else finding it terribly annoying?
Kensho Homestead 
definitely will. i found one place i can download old books but as i say they are sometimes censored and missing pages. missing details. pictures information that i KNOW should be there as i had read the book or seen it before. but it is a good start. i go here for looking for info now. some ancient texts and books outside the social norm. i hope this link works. the one i copied if i did it right.
the topic i looked for was ‘herbal medicine’ you can look for old audio. old video and old books it is an archive system censored probably but not as bad as some places. it is my ‘go to’ place right now until i find a better. i hope you can access it. some are lending libraries and want you to log in. i never ever do that and i only access ones i can download to pdf and print. I have taken to printing whatever i want that i find good now. i don’t rely on pdf or saving to my disc. or computer. those can be locked or removed at any time. I am sure that will be next. Social crediting restricted computing. who knows what these creatures in human clothing will dream up next!
if you know of some that can be accessed i would appreciate having the info so i can book mark it. or write down the site so it can’t be taken by the ‘shadow’ AI.
https://archive.org/search.php?query=herbal+medicine&and%5B%5D=languageSorter%3A%22English%22&and%5B%5D=mediatype%3A%22texts%22&and%5B%5D=lending___status%3A%22is_readable%22
another source i have found for some info of all kinds….is https://www.gutenberg.org/
their books can all be downloaded.
i have been hitting the antique stores looking for books. buying what i can find of use. Garage sales and a few i have found on ebay. old vet books.
I have been trying my best to come up with my own medicines. my own remedies. plus taking care of my animals myself without a vet to the best of my ability. I don’t trust those people anymore. plus. i prefer to take care of myself and my own. living by my hand instead of a hand out. just my personal oddity.
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Essentially, the cyberspace realm (commonly known as the internet) has become a new form of televised programming, replacing the old TV programming that past generations have been accustomed to. They knew the power the web can offer for masses of people that access it, so they quickly stepped in to make sure that it goes *their* way. Hence the heightened censorship and disinformation we see online, especially on large virtual platforms like YouTube. And since they bankrolled and created the internet/World Wide Web (look into DARPA, which is military intelligence), that indicates what’s going on today has all been considered by its creators from the very start of this modern technological age in the 1990s.
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I suppose we can hope for the next generation of Luddites who will go “Amish” but without the promise of a Savior. Thanks for stopping by, appreciate your comment!
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Oh, my, yes!!! The changes have been going on for a long time.
I do research out of the pure enjoyment of learning things in depth. Before we had to get rid of most of it in order to afford movers, our home library was filled with all sorts of reference and research information for a wide range of topics. Once we got online in the mid 90’s, I discovered search engines and it was so awesome! You’d actually get the results based on keywords, and sometimes some very interesting things would pop up, sending me off on a tangential path of new discovery. Then Google came on the scene and it actually did get better for a while.
Then searches started to be based on increasingly targeted algorithms. I would, for example, find myself searching for a news article I remembered reading. I remembered the exact headline, sometimes the publisher and even the date, and they just wouldn’t come up.
Now, I’ll do a keyword search on DuckDuckGo (I haven’t used Google in years) and sometimes the exact opposite of what I’m looking for would show up. It doesn’t matter how carefully or precisely I use keywords. What I’m looking for, I’m apparently not allowed to see.
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Yup! Local information is particularly difficult too. If you’re not on the big social media you can’t even search simple things about your local area, like the weather incidents. I was trying to find out all the folks who had tornadoes through our area a few weeks ago and was trafficked into the weather on other continents! It was only once a asked a friend who is on FB all the surrounding neighbors who got hit this time that I was able to get any info. Yikes.
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i am with you in that. i have noticed for the past 3 years or so that the web was being washed out! whited out you might say. Down the rabbit hole or so the book 1984 says. i do a lot of herbal work. study treatments. cures. with natural wild foods and wild weeds….only now i can’t find anything other then the mainstream paid liars info. When i did a search 3 years ago i could find what i was looking for. now i can find the name and the official narrative telling me how dangerous those herbs are. Find a site that shows me the preparation and what parts to use? no! eliminated down the rabbit hole.
It got much worse since 2020 big brother take over of the world. It is now impossible to find anything!! and I do mean ANYTHING! products i want to find and can’t find anymore. or i can find just the walmart cheap chinese crap. All other websites are cut off. Shadow banned I think they call. nice name for censorship and elimination of all knowledge.
Libraries are dropping certain books as well. I tried to go to a little library we have and was told the book i am looking for is no longer available at their location. I asked why and they said it was obsolete and considered dangerous. the lady i talked to said exactly that with a straight face!! Amazing she didn’t throw up after saying it. I think i found what i am looking for on ebay. a used copy of the book. Others are completely out of print. Try to find on amazon certain books and you will find they are wildly expensive or ‘obsolete’ no longer available. products. herbs. cures. treatments.
anything that would provide knowledge is being erased! Online versions. edited. i have some old antique books and i compared them to a copy online and it has been edited. the online version. it doesn’t match mine.
I regret that i didn’t copy, download and or print what i wanted years ago when i had the chance. i just never thought they could really truly take down the web as an information source. They found a way to do it. Works perfect for keeping the peasants ignorant. Back to the dark ages and the era of feudal serfs. That is their plan for the great reset.
looks like they are getting it done quite easily. no protests no resistance.
book mark or write down websites because if you don’t know it you will never find it through any search engine. only the official paid lie and its many liars will be found. Alternative news, medicine, ect. erased from existence. Oh they allow their site to remain in darkness but it won’t matter much when very few can find them.
Welcome to 1984 only worse. more like the beginning of the hunger games!
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I noticed that too with the herbal cure info—they want us getting all our recipes from Betty Crocker that’s full of their convenience products and our wellness info from the vitamin manufacturers who just happen, very often, to be in business with Big Pharma. I’m always on the lookout for old books on these subjects. If you ever find any you’d recommend please do share!
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Not as annoying since I scrapped my Facebook account. Advertisers shell out major bucks to be at the head of the line, and in the end, the internet has become BIG business, so, like TV, advertising not only gobbles up all the band width, they are starting to dictate the rules. Remember when cable TV first came out back in the late 60’s/early 70’s, and was touted as “TV without commercials because you pay the bills through subscription fees”? Now you still pay out the ass AND put up with commercials. The net may be a different platform, but the business paradigm is exactly the same.
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A version of bait & switch, like so much else. Everything’s a racket.
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