Don't be a Shill

Assalamu alaikum everyone. You know what we currently refer to as social media or online influencers are what we used to call shills. So many social media channels are nothing but window dressing for product plugs and advertisements. It's depressing. People are literally creating content with the sole aim of Trojan horsing in an ad.

That's the whole purpose of a massive number social media accounts. They're just distracting, eye catching delivery devices for products. They're all selling something. I'm not talking about selling something that they themselves produce or a service that they themselves are offering to people. I mean, you have that too but not nearly as much and there's nothing wrong with that.

Most of these people are just shills from major corporations like Amazon and they make money when you make purchases that they prompt you to make from these companies. In the old days we would have called most YouTube videos infomercials or advertorials because they are advertisements pretending to be informative, unbiased, noncommercial content. So on YouTube you literally have to sit through ads to watch a video that is also probably just an ad. We all know and acknowledge that social media is fake, but we seldom ever talk about this aspect of the fakeness. It's what they call affiliate marketing.

That's where people produce content for the sole purpose of getting you to click on a link to a product or to a company, to a store, to make a purchase, but that the video creator will make a commission from that sale. Now, don't have a problem with people trying to make money or with trying to find ways to earn an income from home where they don't have to submit to wage slavery, but I have a problem with the duplicity, with the deception that people are engaging in when they're producing content built entirely for the purpose of manipulating you into buying something, when you thought that they were just good faith online creators with something interesting to say. And I have a problem with the fact that these creators are actually creating nothing, but in fact just driving people towards already existing major companies, offering up their talents to market multi billion dollar businesses in exchange for a small commission on the sales that they generate. I mean, let's be honest, they work for those companies the same as any formal employee, they just don't have a fixed salary or benefits. They're like migrant farmers working for feudal landowners, all fortifying the feudal system of power, helping the richest of the rich consolidate their market control.

Now in theory, if these big companies depend more and more on affiliate marketers to generate sales and maintain market dominance, affiliate marketers could become a force in and of themselves with some leverage over these companies, which they could then use punitively or coercively for political or ideological reasons, but what are the chances? Now I've been on social media for about eight years. I had over 70,000 friends and followers on Facebook before I closed my account. I opened a Patreon account years ago when it first came out, but I've never used it. I've never tailored my content for monetization.

I'm sorry, I'm just old school. I still think it's crass. I've looked into affiliate marketing, but I just can't bring myself to contribute to funneling yet more money to these massive corporate giants. Now in my view, the COVID lockdowns have nothing to do with public health and everything to do with massive project to restructure the economy, and it's going to be increasingly important for people to be able to find ways to earn income from home as independently as possible. But as much as you can, they should not come at the expense of your honesty and your integrity, and it shouldn't be done in such a way as to continue inflating the profits of these multibillion dollar companies that are crushing small businesses day after day.

Anyone who used to follow me on Facebook knows that these corporations are the largest, most powerful non state actors in the world with enormous influence over governmental policy and with the power to subjugate the economic sovereignty of entire countries. Personally, I can't contribute to trying to increase their wealth and power even if it is easy money. Now how does all of this relate to being tawam? Well, a lot of emphasis is placed on men to provide for their families, and rightly so. And again, if men can find ways to earn an income without succumbing to wage slavery, establishing independence, being able to spend more time with their families, that's great.

But it's also incumbent upon men to make difficult decisions which sometimes requires you to prioritize conviction and principle over income. Ultimately, Allah is a and your was written for you before you were even born. So while you have to be prepared to do whatever you have to do to earn an income, to provide for your family, you can't be willing to do what contradicts your beliefs and values. That has to be part of the strength that you provide to your family. It's better to be broke financially than rich financially, but broken as a man.