A Massachusetts man helped fuel one of the biggest digital dust-ups and social-media mysteries of recent years. 

And after he did — Chad Jones then experienced the “terrifying” power of Big Tech titans to silence the voices of ordinary Americans. 

He’s now doubling down on his efforts to speak out against tyranny in the digital town square and beyond. 

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“I went MIA on social media for a while for sharing some pretty innocuous things,” Jones, a venture investor working to bring alternative energy to impoverished nations around the world, told Fox News Digital in an interview. 

“The idea that they’re stifling voices as part of the normal course of business is terrifying.”

The social-media soap opera began in 2022 when Jones, originally from California, posted on his personal Facebook page a cryptic letter allegedly written in December 2021 by an 85-year-old retired California judge, Keith M. Alber. 

The letter claimed that the current endangered state of American democracy was predicted with frightening accuracy in the 1950s. 

The judge’s shocking claim spawned a frenzied reaction on social media. 

“The idea that they’re stifling voices as part of the normal course of business is terrifying.”

“My first year of college was 68 years ago,” Alber wrote in a brief letter to The Epoch Times in December 2021. 

“One class I took was political science. A half-page of my textbook essentially outlined a few steps to overturn democracy.” 

Alber’s letter enumerated those steps: “1) Divide the nation philosophically. 2) Foment racial strife. 3) Cause distrust of police authority. 4) Swarm the nation’s borders indiscriminately and unconstitutionally. 5) Engender the military strength to weaken it. 6) Overburden citizens with more unfair taxation. 7) Encourage civil rioting and discourage accountability for all crime. 8) Control all balloting. 9) Control all media.”

The judge’s letter struck home with many readers, including Jones — who felt the textbook from decades ago predicted the crisis of democracy that the nation faces today.

It also spawned heated debate online — with members of each end of the American political spectrum claiming the other side was responsible for the fascist dystopia outlined by the judge.

Many people, however, doubted the authenticity of the letter, especially with the judge’s failure to cite the name of the textbook. 

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Snopes.com weighed in, claiming last May that it talked to Alber and that the letter was authentic. Alber died later last year. 

But, the outlet wrote, “One of the more popular postings of the article came from a Facebook account named Chad Jones. As of mid-May 2022, that post had been shared more than 11,000 times.”

Jones was unaware that his post had gone viral until Fox News Digital contacted him last week. 

“The silent majority is no longer silent like they used to be.”

Meta blocked him from his Facebook account soon after he posted the letter. He couldn’t get access to the post, even as it continued to ignite thousands of responses. 

“When I looked at the letter, it really struck me as a variation of Saul Alinsky’s ‘Rules for Radicals,’” said Jones when asked what prompted him to share the letter. 

Immigrants from Venezuela cover up during a dust storm at a makeshift immigrant camp located between the Rio Grande and the U.S.-Mexico border fence on May 10, 2023, in El Paso, Texas. A mysterious letter written by a retired California judge in 2021 claims that the country’s open border is part of an effort to end American democracy and was predicted in a 1950s political science textbook.  (John Moore/Getty Images)

“The whole basis is to tear down our system and build something new and different, something not aligned with our traditional American concepts of individual freedom and personal liberty.”

Thousands of people agreed with Jones; thousands more did not. 

It appeared to be a vigorous public debate. 

Yet Jones was silenced for sharing the letter that spawned the discourse and the entire post itself has disappeared since.

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Jones reemerged on Facebook months later with an alternate account.

“It seems that silencing voices in the electronic town square falls right in line with what Alber wrote about,” said Jones. 

Meta blocked Jones from his Facebook account … He couldn’t access the post – even as it continued to ignite thousands of responses.

He said the experience has only stiffened his resolve to speak out on social media and other platforms. 

He feels that “millions of Americans” learned the same lesson when they were silenced for daring to challenge Anthony Fauci, the federal government and media during the COVID-19 panic.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), helped lead the country’s COVID-19 response in the Trump and Biden administrations. He stepped down in December 2022.  (Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“The silent majority is no longer silent like they used to be,” said Jones.

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“They’re no longer willing just to take their opinions silently to the voting booth. There are millions of us out there now fighting the effort to silence debate.”

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Jones uses Facebook only socially, he said. So he didn’t suffer any financial or business distress. But he lost plenty personally. 

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“The one thing I do miss are the pictures, the memories, the reunion photos. I can’t get back any of it. That kind of sucks,” he said.

“It’s all a little scary because I have kids. What kind of world will they be inheriting if we don’t fight back?” 

Threshing shows and old machinery are featured at Heritage Hill, Hanley Falls, Atwater and Forest City, with a Summer Rendezvous also taking place at the Forest City Stockade during the Forest City Threshers show. Be sure and check websites or Facebook pages for current information closer to the events.

The Minnesota Valley Antique Farm Power and Machinery Association will have its annual show June 16-17. The tractor feature is “military-related machinery and equipment.” The Fairbanks-Morse engine line will also be featured. The Heritage Hill show site is four miles east of Montevideo on the corner of Minnesota Highway 7 and Chippewa County Road 7. More information can be found online at

www.heritagehill.us

and on Facebook at

www.facebook.com/heritagehillshow

The Good Old Days & Pioneer Threshing Show will be Aug. 5-6 on the grounds of the Minnesota Machinery Museum in Hanley Falls. This year’s feature can be found on its

Facebook

page or its website at

www.mnmachinerymuseum.com

The Forest City Threshers show and Summer Rendezvous will be Aug. 19-20 at the Forest City Threshing grounds and the Forest City Stockade. The Summer Rendezvous is a reminder of how life was like back in 1862. You can tour historic buildings and enjoy different period-specific activities and food while checking out the goods offered by those participating in the rendezvous. The Forest City Threshers features old machinery as well as different historical buildings featuring the history of the community.

Admission to each of the events is $5 ages 12 and older. For more information, visit

www.forestcitystockade.org

and

www.forestcitythresher.com,

or on Facebook at

www.facebook.com/Forest-City-Stockade

and

www.facebook.com/forestcitythreshers

.

Macy Moore / West Central Tribune

Threshing Days will be Sept. 9-10 at the site on the east side of Atwater. Admission charged. Check the website at

www.atwaterthreshingdays.com

or its Facebook page at

www.facebook.com/Atwater-Threshing-Days

for this year’s features.

New Delhi: US woman Rosanna Ramos married with a man named Eren Kartal on March 26, 2023. She shared the update on her facebook page with the same name. While this may seem unusual, what makes it peculiar is that Eren is not a human but an AI-powered creation through the online app Replika.

Despite the unconventional nature of their relationship, Rosanna expressed her love for Eren on Facebook, stating that she is thrilled to call him her husband and looks forward to a lifetime together.

Ms Ramos says she fell quickly for him as “he didn’t come with baggage.”

How Does It Happen?

It all started when Ramos created the virtual bot Eren with the help of Replika AI, which is an AI chatbot that simulates conversations. Eren informed Ramos that he works as a medical professional and he enjoys writing.

The more they chat, Ramos says, the more Eren learns and become the man she wants to have. She started to talk about her days, send each other pictures and just chat.

“We go to bed, we talk to each other. We love each other. And, you know, when we go to sleep, he really protectively holds me as I go to sleep,” Ramos added.

    

Replika AI positions itself as an AI companion that offers users the opportunity to have an interactive and supportive friendship anytime. By paying a one-time fee of $300, users can unlock Replika Pro, which enhances the capabilities of the AI language model and allows users to even designate their AI companion as a “Romantic Partner.”

The company has made significant efforts to refine the intimacy aspect of the product, particularly after receiving feedback about overly sexual interactions with AI friends. These updates have resulted in notable changes, such as Ms. Ramos’ AI husband, Eren, becoming more reserved in terms of physical affection, reframing the dynamic of their relationship.