Covid Journal, Jan 29 2022 ‘What The Truck’ Edition

Some Ideas on How GoFundMe Should Use Funds

I’m going to spitball guess that the Flu Klux Klan GoFundMe page is worth $8 million, give or take. Rumour has it that the account has been frozen until a ‘plan’ for dispersal of funds is forwarded to GoFundMe.

People associated with the truck convoy that descended on Ottawa this past weekend had so many positive things to do while seeing the sites:

• Violating the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
• Waving Nazi flags
• Shitting on the Terry Fox momument
• Destruction of property

We knew this was coming and many of the protesters joined the parade because they were under the impression that they might get reimbursed by the organizers and their GoFundMe campaign.

According to this web site, GoFundMe limits its ’causes’ to the following:

In the beginning of GoFundMe, there were no real restrictions on causes that people can request donations for. As the company has developed, they’ve placed certain restrictions. Typically GoFundMe is used to create awareness through social media and raise money for medical bills, funerals, trips and education costs. Tuition costs are one of the most popular causes on GoFundMe. One user raised $25,000 for a PhD program.

That’s … just … great.

So what category does desecration of graves or national monuments fall under?

Given the literal and figurative shit-storm that will likely blow back on GoFundMe, I have a few simple suggestions: continue to freeze the account; enter a public relations campaign with the city of Ottawa and the federal government like they’ve never engaged before; and take ALL of the funds raised and allocate them to the following causes (just ideas, bear with me):

• A legitimate fund to cover the costs related to families of victims of Covid (you know, to cover costs like funeral arrangements, legal fees and more)
• Pay ALL nurses across Canada a ‘thanks for going to work’ bonus. It wouldn’t be much, but it’d be a nice thank you.
• Cleaning up after the mess caused by these juveniles
• An education campaign related to the mRNA vaccine and ITS SAFETY
• New monuments dedicated to the victims of Covid

To be honest, I suggest that GoFundMe should even kick in a few extra million to round out some of the suggestions.

As I said, just a few ideas …

Spotify Fails As Well

Joe Rogan and others have been accused of contributing to some of the mass-misinformation campaigns.

Time will tell if they’re right or wrong. I realize now that I’m just not qualified to pass judgement.

But the MARKET has spoken after the fallout with Neil Young about Spotify and the people that use it.

It seems like Neil Young is more about Pot of Gold than Heart of Gold.

When Neil Young stimulated an avalanche of artists bailing from Spotify, the company lost more than $4 billion in market value. That’s more than 10 PERCENT of the company’s market cap of $37 billion.

I’d be pretty pissed off if I were a shareholder. Maybe there will even be a class-action lawsuit against the company’s management for having brought this unwanted situation to their doorsteps.

But again, what do I know?

Well, I’ve observed that more artists (Joni Mitchell, Danny Michel, many others) have pulled their music libraries from Spotify.

Also, when you scratch the surface, it’s easy to understand that Spotify isn’t treating artists very, at least, as far as artists are concerned. There are millions of stories out there about how Spotify is ripping them off.

Can imagine wholesalers like Johnson and Johnson only getting $0.00084 per item sold at a WalMart? This is straw that Spotify is trying to spin into gold, but ultimately, they’re only interested in possesssion and not sharing.

So, join the ranks and #UninstallSpotify. It feels good to wipe that stuff off your (digital) shoes, to paraphrase the Rolling Stones.

And there a LOADS of other options out there.

As companies like GoFundMe and Spotify unravel in the wake of Covid-related misinformation and other challenges, tech advisors and investors are going to have to seriously reconsider their options.

It’s not bullying from a bunch of ‘woke consumers’, it’s a simple request to be treated fairly and decently.