I see a lot of similar comments, but I liked yours so I'll address the themes here.

First, facebook is not the only problem. You're kidding yourself if you think it is. The list of technology companies that sucker their users are as long as the list of technology companies that sell 'the cloud'. Google, Yahoo, Microsoft etc.

Worse than this, the evil is not marketing. The real evil is the secret pact between the tech companies and the government's monopoly on the initiation of force, for the benefit of a minority of oligarch families. The elite's technology branch

The real evil is the patriot act, the capture of government, the capture of industry and the subversion of the constitution. All tech companies are a part of this, most willingly, some unwillingly or unwittingly and the only honest ones are forced to shut down.

The capture of the government and industry is nothing new, but it reached tremendous success in the 20th century. First they captured the congress and the judicial, then the executive, then the monetary system and then they really captured the executive with the JFK assassination. Don't forget where some of the recent oligarchs originated.

• Are you against marketing?
• are you for privacy?
• are you for honesty as a virtue?
• are you for Free Software?
• are you for the constitution?
• do you believe in free will? (or that you should act as if it exists)
• do you believe in the traditional family?
• are you religious?
• are you for sound money?
• are you an Austrian or a keynesian?
• do you believe that there really is a 2 party system in the USA?

Do you see it yet? if you rule out the vast majority of the population based on internet usage, you're out of whack. Firstly because that's not the real problem.

Also, you might have MUCH MORE in common with someone who uises fb daily than on someone who doesn't, based on your OTHER principles and virtues.

It's like saying, "I'll only hang out with people who are atheists.". That's not enough. In 10 years time that could still be all you have in common. Or they could change their minds.

Finally I would just like to remind people that not only is the USA responsible for millions of deaths around the world, it now tortures people.

If you refuse to interact with people who support these acts, how will you ever change their minds?

Oh and just for good measure. A fucking surveillance blimp. The internet of things is coming to spy on you from the sky 24/7. Is it not enough that you've captured the mass media? If you were to only hang out with people who share all your principles or most important beliefs, you would not hang out with anyone.

Furthermore, having intelligent debate with people who disagree with you (and are virtuous enough to have an intelligent debate) is the only way that you can make any sort of real progress in self discovery and discovery of the universe. If your ideas an principles are not challenged, if you don't go back to first principles to figure what what's really important, if you don't re-assess your beliefs in the face of new evidence, you'll never improve.

LOL what?

If you reject people with facebook and similar stuff and people don't share your principles, you've just rejected 99.9% of the human population. You must be a very lonely boy.

For those of us 'extremely social' people who you know actually have a few friends and get along with acquaintances, we can't go scorched earth on everyone.

It's not that we're not tempted, it's that the cost benefit analysis of a scorched earth policy sucks donkey balls. No matter how you slice it, being a shut-in is very sad.

Learn from the past. Iraqui defectors swore up and down that there were massive nuclear programs. They were physicists, they were believable, they testified in secret, in public, on TV. None of it mattered, they were proven liars after we invaded.

Claims from defectors require extraordinary evidence, especially when what's coming out of their mouths is what the government or the intel agencies want to hear.

What's a terrorist act?

Are we counting the US drone program when they blow the shit out of a civilian wedding? Do we count the ~1,000,000 people the US killed in Iraq? Or the hundreds of thousands of kids they killed with sanctions?

He also forgot about symbols and punctuation.

I call it right now. This is the name of my future language: " "
(I'll give you a hint, it's ascii 255, nbsp for short, or non-breaking space)

However in this case you're not even bothering to judge their ends.

You have no problem with fear, intimidation, lies and fraud. Really. Coming from the people in the gang with the guns, who can lock you up or execute you.

Specifically in case you didn't know, government officials are corrupt and are quite frequently the bad guys. They hold a monopoly on the initiation of force and that's what they always use to back up their threats. Just do a search for asset forfeiture sometime, or swat raids, free speech zones, constitution free zones, no-fly list, patriot act, NDAA, federal reserve etc.

By the way, the ends don't justify the means.

To be honest that sounds fucking rapey as fuck.

The negative thinkers can turn into over-achievers. Thinking that if they're really productive, they will get promoted.

Unfortunately for them, once they realize this is not the case, they get angry, frustrated, cynical.

Meanwhile the positive thinkers become high performers, who achieve less individually and in any given week and realize that working as a group and motivating people is more important than individual contributions. They stay in the game longer and turn into good leaders. They get promoted while the negative thinkers leave in search of the recognition they've earned but don't seem to get anywhere.

I own and still use a verizon galaxy nexus. Unlocking was as simple as booting into the bios and choosing 'unlock bootloader'. Done. No software or hacking necessary.

You must be thinking of another phone. I've run many custom roms on this one.

Speak for yourself. I don't buy your claims to be able to speak for others.

and somehow twist it to interpret it as making the claim that it's limited to government?

You must be very very dumb.

Now I'm wondering why.