If we tolerate tyranny and “fake fines” then we deserve what we get
Back in early 2017 I had yet to become a fully qualified “right-wing extremist conspiracy theorist and QAnon cult influencer” (i.e. analyst of the criminal mass media’s commie propaganda, including character assassination of critics). I was heading down to the Canary Islands for a family vacation, and I had one of those moments of moral clarity. I decided I had to delete my LinkedIn account because I no longer wished to be associated with an entity that went against my values. This was even before the censorship and deplatforming got going!
I was a heavy user of LinkedIn’s discussion groups and news feed. I had put an enormous effort into growing my professional network with endless conferences, coffee chats, and calls. It made me nervous to let go of all that, and cut myself loose from a possibly significant source of income. You know what? I never missed them. I never think about LinkedIn. The idea of regret is laughable. My worries had no foundation whatsoever. Yet I put a stake in the ground about what I stood for, and that served me well when things got tougher.
PayPal have committed commercial suicide by (temporarily) imposing a policy where they can “fine” you $2500 for their “costs” of policing “misinformation”. It is a trial balloon for social credit scores and total information control. My justification for keeping my PayPal account has been to use the enemy’s systems against them; me being funded is a good thing. That’s now over. I also was waiting to notch up another deplatforming (in addition to Barnes & Noble, Libro.fm, Walmart Kobo, Bandcamp, Audible, GetResponse, ActiveCampaign, Patreon, Medium, Amazon, ConvertKit, YouTube, Twitter, and Mailchimp). That’s no longer relevant.
PayPal are now far too dangerous to do business with, as they can suddenly decide to empty your bank account and pay it to themselves. This also crosses a “red line” in terms of business ethics, making them into plaintiff, judge, and jury. It is “trial by administration”, and we have to put an end to this lawfare against the public. As it happens I don’t expect them to last beyond the looming financial reset, so the actual loss and cost to me is minimal. I now make enough from SubscribeStar and Substack to live off. As we are in an age of radical transparency, it is about $30k per annum from each, so you know. A fraction of what I can (and did) make in the corporate world.
I had four PayPal accounts: personal, business, book sales, art sales. These are now all closed, although I am waiting for the 30 day retention period to expire. I will never go back as long as this company is run by and answers to tyrants. The actual process of closing my accounts has been a painful nightmare. For instance just logging in…
Or being forced to go through endless contortions that ought to be their business process to complete…
Or just removing a payment…
Maybe I can remove my bank account so it is no longer linked?
I think you will agree that this falls well below an acceptable standard, and I urge you to consider doing the same, and to dump them, even if it has some inconvenience to you. It is time for us to collectively move on, as well as to make our voices (and moral values) heard — loudly. After all, there is a bit of a history of revolt against the greedy and corrupt money changers…
PS — I recommend Donorbox if you are a fundraiser, although I need to reconfigure mine now I cannot do payouts via PayPal. The upcoming GabPay looks interesting. All of the middlemen taking a cut are going to be obsoleted by crypto in the near future anyway. It might be a good time to order your Ledger Nano X and become your own bank. The user experience is awful, the support is poor, but the freedom is terrific. Compromising for convenience is too costly.
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