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Oppositional Defiance's avatar

I have to be on there now for a job search. I try to find the job listings quickly and avoid the smarminess, but I can't but help doomscroll through humiliating tales of rejection, but always with a perky spin, like "here's what I learned." Just vile.

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Robert W. Enzenauer, MD's avatar

I have been blocked on LinkedIn for more than 6 months - my offense - violating community standard, and I only posted articles about adverse events from COVID jabs. And I don't think that there is any way to get "back in" so I have given up. I was BLOCKED on Facebook March 2020, for suggesting COVID was likely lab accident or lab incompetence. FB said disinformation. I REMOVED my Facebook presence. But I can't get BACK onto Linked In to remove my presence. DOC ENZ, Robert W. Enzenauer, MD, BG Retired

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Robert W. Enzenauer, MD's avatar

I was blocked on Facebook March 2020 for suggesting that COVID was most likely a lab accident or lab incompetence. I removed my presence from Facebook. I am blocked from LinkedIn for "violating community standards" - my offense, merely posting articles about adverse COVID jab adverse effects. I can't even log in to remove my presence. DOC ENZ, Robert W. Enzenauer, MD, MPH, BG Retired

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Lulu's avatar

It will never change. LI is inherently tied to shameless self promotion even if/when it's dressed up as supporting some greater good.

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michael dragon's avatar

Blessings to the warriors. 🙌

Prayers for everyone fighting to stop the iatrogenocide. 🙏

Huzzah for everyone building the parallel society our hearts know is possible.

I LOVE THOSE THREE SENTENCES!!! thank you thank you thank you

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Carl Eric Scott's avatar

Here, here! And I love that painting's symbolism!

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Carl Eric Scott's avatar

What's the name of the artist?

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Dave Raver's avatar

Toby, you obviously don't really need to be on LinkedIn, because you don't see that there is indeed a smattering of diverse discourse and some critique of capital. Although he's been quiet lately, CEO Dan Price famously posted multiple times about his self-imposed meager salary while pointing out he's the only such CEO doing that.

And LinkedIn is not a club of one billion bougie winners. You don't need to be here, but I do, because I haven't had a full-time job in over two years and this is the place to be right now. My feed is full of job seekers and they keep fucking coming. When someone posts a story of the humiliation of a job seeker by a recruiter, or of an employee by a manager, the "winners" commiserate together in the comments against management/the powerful.

Not your fault, as an academic, that you don't see this virtual world as I do.

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Cary's avatar
Mar 8Edited

My experience is largely the same as yours. Been hired for a job and found people through LinkedIn over the years. The only people I know who are highly active are HR and marketing types. It's just Facebook but to get your CV/resume out there and find industry relevant PR without wading through as many cat and flash mob videos. It's really just a mash up of the old job boards like Monster or Indeed and trade journals, which use the same the grass is always green language.

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Toby Rogers's avatar

I'm looking for a counter-hegemonic version of LinkedIn. I'm picturing a site where people post their wins (and occasional losses) only insofar as they are engaged in the struggle to overthrow capital and the state.

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Toby Rogers's avatar

One could argue that I’m making a category error. There is a need for a marketplace between employers and employees and LinkedIn provides it. But where it gets creepy is that LinkedIn then copied Facebook and turned itself into a social network — under the watchful gaze of your employer. So the unwritten discursive norms that have developed on LinkedIn involve the performance of fealty to the corporate state under the guise of connecting with your friends. In theory it could be a forum for growth but in practice it’s a platform for pretending and gradually forgetting one’s values. And if one ever strays too far, Microsoft’s censors are there to ban anyone who challenges the corporate status quo. To me it feels like a digital prison and yet lots of people I adore and respect gladly participate in it and seem unaware of its dangers.

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David Wright's avatar

My very first post here was about my experience with LinkedIn! It’s a horrible place where the educated constantly reinforce ridiculous narratives.

Here’s what I wrote (if you’re interested):

https://open.substack.com/pub/pragmatastic/p/the-linkedin-purge?r=1t085n&utm_medium=ios

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FloxedAndFurious's avatar

Every time I see the Gumby "Stay Safe" Close I need to gorge on industrial strength antiemetics. When I was a kid, we had Godzilla. Now it's a ball with suction cup pricks. What a bore.

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currer's avatar

Has everyone seen Jeffery Sacks speech at the Munich Security Conference?

US foreign policy for the last thirty years. The truth.

Short version with transcript.

https://johnmenadue.com/jeffrey-sachs-explosive-address-at-the-eu-parliament-sends-shockwaves-across-europe/

Long version with transcript.

https://newsparadigm.substack.com/p/jeffrey-sachs-heroic-speech-at-geopolitics

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Rebel2Tyrants's avatar

I should probably get the hell off of linkedin.

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Toby Rogers's avatar

Yep, me too.

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AsaTBear's avatar

Thanks, Toby, for saying out loud what most of us think!

There are also a lot of fake job posting there to keep the HR folks busy at companies during down times, but other reasons.

I have my own company, but decided to apply for a role via LI as an experiment. I got a reply back a few days later saying I didn't fit their qualifcations, and they already found a person for it. Well, a few days later I see that role posted again and every few weeks it keeps popping up.

I learned later they do this for visibility. I use LI just for a way to keep my CV in one place as clients sometimes want to see it. #FULI

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Sunface Jack's avatar

I saw through LinkedIn many years ago and erased myself of that platform. It was a platform for the predator class and intellectual elite seeking glory. The credentialed class as another substacker wisely stated "The credentialed are optimized to slither up the greasy pole of the institutions by appealing to authority"

I was never sorry that I left it.

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Jan Koz's avatar

Thank you Toby for this very eye opening article!! I sincerely hope you are feeling better.

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