I’m Dolly, a Gen Xer, and except for a stray comment or two, this is my first post. On most social media, I use creepy dolls as my avatars, which originated way back in the days of MySpace (!) when I was a young mother blogging mostly about parenting and relationships.

At first, I chose a creepy doll because I wanted to avoid the unwelcome attention I received at times from guys online. Now it’s just taken a life of its own and become “my thing.” Friends and family send me creepy doll photos, memes, and articles all the time. Please feel free to do the same!

Here I am with my high-tech sign. At my stage in life, I would no longer receive “unwelcome attention” but now I tend to avoid photos on the Internet for other reasons, sorry. It’s one of my charming privacy quirks.

Steem has been mentioned a few times on Twitter accounts I follow, but I think I saw it mentioned by @suzi3d first.

What makes me tick? I love to learn

My interests in being here, both in reading and writing, are very diverse. I love to learn about new things. For example, I know next to nothing about blockchain or cryptocurrency but am interested to learn. I’m especially interested in Manna (the cryptocurrency based on the idea of providing a universal basic income – money is a social construct, right? Very few people have so much of it, because the rest of us agree that they do.) Can’t wait to see how Manna progresses and how other cryptocurrencies might change the world.

What are my interests these days?

Privacy

I’m very interested in learning more about Internet privacy – and privacy in general. The surveillance state is frightening in ways we haven’t even begun to understand. I’m interested in learning how to fight for our privacy and restore it.

Truth and Transparency

Another topic very important to me is truth and transparency. I’m therefore a big Wikileaks supporter. How are we, regular ol’ people, going to protect and support the whistle-blowers and others who represent the last bastion between us and a global militarized corporate all-controlling state?

And the Biggie: Fighting Propaganda

So…all these interests converge around the problem that concerns me the very most these days: On every wave of the political spectrum, the majority of people have a rigid “team mentality” and seemingly are swayed by propaganda and whatever misinformation is presented to them by someone they think is on “their team.”

How do we fight that? How do we change the world, given that the majority of people are “followers” and not independent critical thinkers? They believe what their chosen authorities tell them to believe. How do we help people learn to evaluate claims and think for themselves?

In the US, Trump supporters believe Trump is going to drain the swamp, despite all indications to the contrary; supporters of the Democrat Establishment believe that the Dems will give them Medicare for all, if only they can vote in “better candidates next time” (good luck with that).

Another example: The stuff about “Russia, Russia, Russia” simply doesn’t have any evidence to support it, and yet the majority of Americans seem to think Russia “hacked the election” (whatever the heck that would mean) and poisoned the Skripals in the UK with a novichok – even with no evidence and even though these claims don’t stand up to even the slightest scrutiny and/or common sense.

So my passion currently lies in exploring how to combat propaganda and promote critical thinking, and incidentally, how to motivate 325 million basically decent human beings to stop their government from being the World’s Evil Empire. Before they can take action, they need to see there’s a problem.

Thanks for reading! I’m glad to be here and look forward to sharing ideas and learning from you.