Month: October 2025

Bye Bye META

I deleted my Facebook last week, and my only regret is that I had not done it sooner. I have known for awhile that Mark Zuckerburg is not a good person, but after reading Careless People, I realized how evil that Zuck really is. I want no part in enriching this billionaire man child who has truly made this country significantly worse.

A December 23, 2022 BBC article reported that settled the Cambridge Analytica scandal for $725 million. The Cambridge Analytic scandal involved a now-defunct consulting firm that worked for Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, and they used personal information from millions of accounts for the purposes of voter profiling and targeting. The Guardian reported on March 17, 2018 that they “exploited Facebook to harvest millions of people’s profiles. And built models to exploit what we knew about them and target their inner demons. That was the basis the entire company was built on.”

Back when this happened, I felt cynical about the whole scandal. Of course, they are tracking me and doing weird shit with my data. Every app is doing this.

Not my most principled stance.

On September 29, 2022, PBS reported that Amnesty International released a new report that detailed how Meta’s algorithms “proactively amplified and promoted content” on Facebook, inciting “violent hatred” against the Rohingya in Myanmar from early 2012 to 2017. According to the article, “despite years of warnings . . . [Facebook] not only failed to remove violent hate speech and disinformation against the Rohingya, it actively spread and amplified it until it culminated in the 2017 massacre.”

According to an August 25, 2023 report, Amnesty International detailed the following:

Beginning in August 2017, the Myanmar security forces undertook a brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar’s Rakhine State. They unlawfully killed thousands of Rohingya, including young children; raped and committed other sexual violence against Rohingya women and girls; tortured Rohingya men and boys in detention sites; and burned down hundreds of Rohingya villages. The violence pushed over 700,000 Rohingya — more than half the Rohingya population living in northern Rakhine State at the beginning of the crisis — into neighbouring Bangladesh. 

I honestly did not know the extent of Facebook’s role in this, but ignorance is no excuse.

Trump 2.0

Trump’s re-election was the final nail in the coffin for me when it came to Meta. Zuck went full Maga, along with all the other billionaires. You’d think with all that money that these billionaires could afford the best lawyers money could buy who could fight against the Trump admin and any unlawful requests. Turns out, the billionaires in this capitalist hellscape country quickly and willingly showed their soft bellies to the Trump admin without much of a fight.

For Trump’s 2024 re-election, Zuck donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund after he went to Mar A Largo in November to kiss his ring, the BBC reported on December 12, 2024. Not long after, NPR reported on January 6, 2025 that Dana White, UFC president and staunch Trump supporter, joined the board of Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta. The same Dana White that spoke at the Republican National Convention who appeared in Trump’s first TikTok video and joined Trump on stage at his victory party.

IDIOCRACY WAS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE A TRUE STORY. Sorry, the internal screaming in my head oftentimes escapes.

In more recent news, Meta caved to pressure from the Trump admin and removed an ICE-tracking Facebook page in Chicago at the request of the Justice Department, according to an October 15, 2025 CBS News article. Meta said in a statement that the group “was removed for violating our policies against coordinated harm.”

Mmmkay, Zuck. I’m sure that’s really the reason, and not that all the tech giants have fully capitulated to the Trump admin. Sure, buddy.

Social media, in general, jumped the shark a long time ago. All of them can tweak their algorithms to manipulate their users by the propaganda they push. Now with AI, it’s just slop in all of our feeds and bots in the comment sections. I cannot tolerate watching people keep falling for obviously fake photos and videos. Plus, a majority of people rely on AI, ChatGPT, whatever, to think for them, and nobody knows how to properly research anything anymore.

It’s like we are all getting dumber and dumber, and I want off this sinking ship.

My goals now:

  • Less social media, more social interactions with actual humans.
  • Reading books, not comment sections.
  • Less fighting dumb people online, more blocking.

I cannot change others but I can change myself. One step at a time.

Five Year Mark

Last week, on October 2, I hit the 5-year mark since my former oncologist told me that my cancer had now come back as stage 4. Five years since my life forever changed because that day was a before and an after event. There was before stage 4 and then there was just stage 4.

When that day arrived, it was a mix of emotions for me. First, I am obviously grateful to still be here and have not experienced any progression yet. I also felt a bit of grief and sadness. I kept thinking about the friends who I have lost who never got to make it to the 5-year mark because why me and not them? I know they wouldn’t want me to think that way but it’s hard not to when you’ve seen so many amazing women have their lives cut short by this disease.

I miss who I used to be. I mourn that life, specifically the body that I used to have. I ran marathons and half marathons. I went to the gym and lifted. I was as strong and I saw my runner friends often, every weekend on our group runs.

At the same time, I am also proud of the person who I used to be. I think deep down, I always knew that cancer wouldn’t be done with me, so I ran. I ran and ran and ran. I gave this disease something to chase, and I have a wall full of medals from races to show that I did something pretty fucking awesome in between stage 1 and stage 4. Cancer can’t take that from me.

I ended up throwing a party for family and friends this past Sunday. I threw the party together kind of at the last moment, but it worked. When I found out my uncle, who requires the use of a walker or scooter, I reached out to my friends to find a handicapped accessible place. My friend, who works at a brewery downtown, suggested Helltown Brewery, and they said yes! Helltown Brewery in the Strip is fantastic, and I strongly recommend the place.

Prior to the party, I was a big bundle of nerves. Back in high school, I tried to throw a party for my work friends and nobody came. My stepmom had bought all these snacks and drinks for my party that never happened, and it freaking crushed me. I sobbed hard for like a solid hour, and afterwards, developed a phobia about throwing parties. (When I came back to Kansas City recently for a visit, the same work friends that broke my heart in high school all came to see me. We aren’t teenagers anymore, of course.)

They came! My fears were unfounded. Not everybody could make it, which I completely understood. I gave people a month and a half warning, and that’s short notice for most people to make any travel plans, etc.

My dad’s family travelled up from Indiana and Kentucky to attend, and my mom’s cousin flew in from Texas to surprise me. It meant so much that they came up to celebrate my 5-year mark. I adore my dad’s side of the family.

My friend Christine found a “Not Dead Yet” headband for me, which made me squeal.

It was a great time, and my friends knew that if they left early, my introverted ass would not mind at all. I was hoping that the party would be fully wrapped up by hour three, haha.

Given my complicated relationship with my dad, step-family and most of my mom’s side of the family, I often feel like I don’t matter or even belong. My five-year party showed that I actually do matter and that my extended family do care. They came and were all happy that I am still here and kicking! I am loved and I do matter.

Take that, cancer.