A Little Bird Me Told Me So

Once upon a time there was a bird who sent a message to a human.  That human sent a message back, and then to other humans with the help of the bird.  

📷 Lane Jackman on unsplash

Soon birds were flying everywhere, sending so-and-so and you-know-who a message about this-and-that and so-called-breaking-news.

All was a flutter, as one human tried to run the bird business, then passed it on to another human, and so on.

📷 sdm2019 on pixabay

For years the birds were busy, flying high and low, with experts, posers, and common humans sharing their opinions, their views, sometimes sharing something worthwhile, or even nice!

If a human didn’t like a particular other human, they could ask the bird to stop them from seeing the message.  Many humans could actually block or mute those humans they didn’t want to bother with.  All seemed fairly well.

Until…..

One day a certain human manager took over, bragging about how he could control all speech, and he even dared to call it “free” speech.  He had kept throwing ideas about what he would do with the bird messengers.  Many birds were dismissed, as the new manager stopped feeding them just like that!  The rest of the birds got a bit nervous, as did the humans who relied on them for their messages to be sent and received, so they went hunting for safer communities.

Out of the blue, the new manager decided he wanted money from as many of these humans as he could get, and in what can be seen as a projection of his own egomania, he decided to charge eight dollars for a special mark to be put on their message, so they could appear significant.  But this was the same mark that was used all along bestowed to verified people, like government officials, reporters, companies, so the public would know they were the real deal.  

📷 flockine on pixabay

But now the new manager decided to sell the mark to anyone.  Feathers started flying, cages were rattling, eggs splattered (some was even dripping off the new manager’s face!)  People couldn’t tell who was real anymore.  Bad actors came aboard with their purchased mark, and pretended to be the real verified humans.  Some of their messages were funny, some dirty, cruel, some totally misleading.  But there it was - total chaos. That was “free” speech for a price.

The fate of the birds is yet to be seen.  Beware:  birds of a feather sometimes can’t flock together!                  Theresa M

A bird does not sing because it has an answer.

A bird sings because it has a song. - Chinese Proverb

📷 GLady on pixabay