Don’t be a shill
What are currently referred to as “influencers” 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 exclusively with the aim of Trojan Horsing an ad. That is the whole purpose of a massive number of social media accounts — they are distracting, eye-catching delivery devices for products…they are all selling something. And I am not talking about selling something they have produced, or a service they are offering themselves (you have that too, but not nearly as much). Most of these people are just shills for major corporations like Amazon, and they make money when you make purchases that they prompt you to make from those companies. In the old days, we would have called most YouTube videos infomercials or advertorials, because they are advertisements pretending to be informative, impartial, non-commercial content. So on YouTube, you have to sit through ads just to watch a video that is also likely an ad in and of itself. We all know and acknowledge that social media is fake, but we don’t often talk about this aspect of the fakeness. This is what is known as Affiliate Marketing.
I don’t have a problem with people trying to make money, or trying to earn an income from home without submitting to wage slavery. But I have a problem with the duplicity and deception people are engaging in when they produce content built entirely for the purpose of manipulating you into buying something when you thought they were 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 are in fact, just driving people towards already existing major companies, offering up their talents to market billion dollar businesses in exchange for a small commission on the sales they generate. I mean, let’s be honest — they work for those companies the same as formal employees, they just don’t get a fixed salary or benefits. They are like migrant farmers working for feudal land owners — all fortifying the feudal system of power. Helping the richest of the rich consolidate market control.
Now, in theory, if these big companies depend more and more on affiliate marketing to generate sales and maintain market dominance; affiliate marketers will become a force in and of themselves who will have some degree of leverage over those companies, which they could use punitively or coercively for political or ideological reasons…but what are the chances?
I have been on social media for about 8 years, I had over 70,000 friends and followers on Facebook before I closed my account. I produced almost 10,000 pages of content and I never sold anything. I opened a Patreon account at one point, but never did anything with it. I never tailored my content for monetization. I’m sorry, I am old-school. It still seems crass to me. I have looked into affiliate marketing, but I just can’t be part of a system for funnelling even more money to corporate giants.
In my view, the Covid lockdowns have nothing to do with public health, and everything to do with a massive project to restructure the economy, and it is going to be increasingly important for people to find ways to earn an income from home, as independently as possible — but as much as you can, that should not come at the expense of your honesty and integrity, and it should not be in such a way as to continue inflating the profits of multi-billion dollar companies that are crushing small businesses day after day. Anyone who used to follow me on Facebook will know that these corporations are the most powerful non-state actors in the world, with enormous influence over political policy, with the power to completely subjugate the economic sovereignty of entire countries. I can’t contribute to the increase of their wealth and power, even if it is easy money.
How does all of this relate to being Qawwam? Well, a lot of emphasis is placed on men being providers, and rightly so. And, again, if men can find ways to earn their incomes without succumbing to wage slavery, establishing independence, and being able to spend more time with their families, that is great. But, it is also incumbent upon men to make difficult decisions that sometimes require prioritizing principle and conviction over income. Allah is Ar-Razzaq, ultimately, and your rizq was written for you before you were born. So, while you have to be prepared to do what you have to do to provide for your family, you should not be willing to do what contradicts your beliefs and values. That has to be part of the strength you provide to your family. The moral strength. It is better to be broke financially than rich financially but broken as a man.
