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All we hear about these days from mass media outlets is about how much money you can make on the web. All of today's ad money goes to pluggin' a corporate website. From The Gap Store Online where you can spend your money to Pepsi World which is just more ads. But the Internet is about information, Right? Not about money or corporate identity. When your online looking for literary criticism about Toni Morrison you shouldn't be bombarded with another interview with Oprah Winfrey about her movie, Beloved.
But let us also face facts, in the world of mass media the people who are willing to spend the money are the people who's sites are going to get talked about. That money comes from corporations pluggin' a product or image.
Hence, the Corporate Websites Suck Button (oh, yes another button campaign only with a twist). So here's what you can do to help link together original, independent web content. Download the Corporate Websites Suck Banner and the HTML code on the right. Then link the banner to a non-corporate site that you believe people should know about. It can be your friend's site, your personal journal, computer hacks, a non-profit organization, art work, your kid's garage rock band, or the local high school.
Whatever it's your choice, if you don't have a site you'd like to help plug, than link the banner back to this page so others can know that you're making a statement against corporate sites and they can join in.
This is our way to stand up and say the Internet is not just a corporate slogan.
But aren't corporate sites just as valid in certain respects as other sites that aren't huge and have a stake in the Dow Jones or Nasdaq?
Of course they are. But they aren't the ONLY source of valid information. People should be able to choose wisely between any sources of information. The problem is there's no level playing field. I don't have the money to place a 30-sec ad on TV during Super Bowl Sunday (or any other day of the year for that matter) to drive people to my site. But because someone else can they all of a sudden are a "valid source of truthful information."
The point is to help spread the word to as many people as we can. I'm not anti-corporate. If I were I'd have no means of living. I'm anti-ignorance.
No, not all corporate websites suck, nor do all c ompanies suck. That is, don't take this to heart. It's just a "catch phrase" to help get attention to what we're trying to do. I debated if I should put this banner up
since too many people will probably read it as a "this is a universal truth" when really this is just a "hey check this out, our work counts too!"
Tell me what you think or tell me about your site at suck@weinstein.org. Your site will get posted here for all to see.
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Support Independent Content
HTML CODE:
<a href="http://www.site-your-linking-to.com">
<img src="suck.gif" alt="Corporate Websites Suck" border="0"></a>
<br><font size=-2>
<a href="http://www.weinstein.org/suck/index.html">
Support Independent Content</a></font>
Sites that Support Independent Content
http://www.weinstein.org/
http://www.unamerican.com/
http://www.webzine98.com/
http://www.webzine99.com/
http://www.webzine2000.com/
http://www.zinecities.com/
http://www.bjord.org/
http://blort.meepzorp.com/
http:///www.newgrounds.com/
http:///www.webzine.ws/
http:///www.timstract.com/
http:///www.socialoutcasts.net/
http://www.explodingcigar.com/
http://www.milkandcookies.com
http://www.silversow.com
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It is properly said that the Devil can "quote Scripture to
his purpose." The Bible is full of so many stories of
contradictory moral purpose that every generation can
find scriptural justification for nearly any action it
proposes - from incest, slavery, and mass murder to the
most refined love, courage, and self-sacrifice. And this
moral multiple personality disorder is hardly restricted to
Judaism and Christianity. You can find it deep within
Islam, the Hindu tradition, indeed nearly all the world's
religions. Perhaps then it is ... people who are morally
ambiguous.
Scripture is said to be divinely inspired - a phrase with
many meanings. But what if it's simply made up by
fallible humans? Miracles are attested, but what if they're
instead some mix of charlatanry, unfamiliar states of
consciousness, misapprehensions of natural phenomena,
and mental illness? The fact that so little of the finds of
modern science is prefigured in Scripture to my mind
casts further doubt on its divine inspiration.
But of course I might be wrong.
-Carl Sagan
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