My Thoughts On… – A Blog by Alysson Fergison

Welcome!  OBLIGATORY DISCLAIMER: I’m outspoken, snarky & often profane.  I say what’s on my mind – like it or not.  People seem to think I’m funny.  Who am I to argue with the divine wisdom of strangers and a couple thousand Twitter followers?

If you offend easily or tend to believe that women should sit down, shut up and “act like ladies”…well, you’re about to be handed an unwelcome dose of reality.  As Kathy Griffin would say, “Suck it!”  Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

My Professional Life

These days I earn my living building search engine and user friendly small business websites & blogs using the WordPress platform.  If it’s good enough for CNN, Mashable, The New York Times, Stephen Colbert, MIT, Reuters and many others, it’s good enough for me – and, more importantly, my clients!  I also help small business owners with their Internet marketing efforts – like SEO (search engine optimization), ORM (online reputation management), SMM (social media marketing) and online branding.  If you’re a small business owner in need of some help, please check out my search marketing alter ego at SEOAly.

Throughout my career I have had the opportunity to develop a wide variety of skills working for the largest companies in their respective industries – Prestige Portraits (the Senior Portrait division of Lifetouch), The TruGreen Companies and Web.com (formerly Website Pros).  From my experience as an award-winning portrait photographer to a manager in a $6+ million lawn care branch, each position provided unique insight into how big businesses operate.  I am now able to use that knowledge to help small businesses operate more efficiently and be more successsful.

Who Is Alysson, Really?

I am an optimistic cynic.  I hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.  I believe that the vast majority of people have the potential to be good, but that life pursuits and greed often bury the good underneath mountains of pain, blind ambition and regret.  That is, perhaps, where my affinity and deep love of animals comes from.  An animal’s love is unconditional.

They don’t care about expensive houses, lavish vacations, corporate ladders or shiny cars.  Ambition, self-interest and avarice will never cloud their judgment or serve as their motivation.  They hold no grudges.  They don’t keep score.  They have no concept of malice or revenge or jealousy.  They’re the best of what we could be, if not for human arrogance, xenophobia and fear.

When it comes to me, what you see is what you get.  My positions on issues, my understanding of right & wrong and my opinions don’t change based on my audience or circumstance.  Mercilessness and avarice are bad.  Compassion and empathy are good.  Saving lives is always better for the soul than taking them.

Here are a few basic examples that will help to illustrate some of my core beliefs and points of view:

• No matter how many Bible verses you can recite or how much money you dropped into the collection plate last Sunday, if you prey on ignorance, misery, death & destruction to turn a profit, you are an absolute horror of a human being.
• War will never bring about peace.
• Nothing screams dimwittedness like protests of alleged rights infringements by those who cannot even spell Constitution.
• If an entire legal team is required to defend an assertion that an “interrogation technique” isn’t torture, it IS torture.
• The notion that “Fascism“, “Socialism” and “Communism” are synonymous smacks of foolishness.
• Tea partiers are woefully misinformed puppets of avarice who can’t shut their pie holes long enough to realize they’re being used by an ultra-right wing, power-hungry crusade by the wealthiest individuals & corporations in the world.
• The agenda of congressional Republicans only benefits the wealthiest 2%-5% of Americans & large corporations, not the average American.
• Fossils were not planted here by “Satan” in order to trick people or test their faith in “God”.

Learn to separate the stories filtered through the ideological spin machine from the truth.  Propaganda is for simpletons.  Don’t be one.  Regardless of  how unwilling you are to accept them, the documented events of history are not open to individual interpretation.  You are entitled to your own opinion, but you are not entitled to your own facts.  Truth is truth.  Facts are facts.  Acknowledge them.  Learn from them.  Evolve.  Progress.

Insanity: doing the same thing, over and over again, and expecting different results.  ~ Albert Einstein.

Social progress is more important than blind allegiance to ideology, political party or theology.  Compassion takes precedence over profit and people are more important than corporate interests.  I am a progressive, but don’t mistake that for political party affiliation.

The answers to our greatest challenges have never and will never come from the ideological cesspool of partisanship.  Practical, constructive solutions are always somewhere in the middle of ideological extremes.  Progress depends on incorporating the best ideas, no matter which side of the political aisle they come from.

Don’t Mistake Civility For Passivity

While my intent is never to offend, I offer no apologies for the things I believe and say.  Political correctness is for those whose massive character flaws are masked by a seemingly benign desire to be liked and a never-ending quest for approval.  I possess neither.

I call a horse’s ass a horse’s ass and I’ve been known to call out shenanigans and douchebaggary whenever the opportunity presents itself.  Understand that I will vehemently argue my point and I will attack nonsensical ideas, but I will never threaten or personally attack an individual.  Personal insults are for the juvenile, small-minded and intellectually weak.

I am rational, reasonable and logical.  My arguments are backed up by examples and facts.  Substantive debate of today’s issues and the challenges we face requires nominal intelligence and a basic understanding of the facts.  If your arguments are based on opinion, mere ideology, fundamental right-wing political talking points & propaganda or religious rhetoric, our conversation will be a short one.  I will not enter into a battle of wits with the unarmed.

A Snarky Cynic’s Free Time…

I have a variety of interests that include writing, blogging, photography, search marketing, graphic & website design, politics and animal advocacy.  NO, I am not a “throw blood on women wearing fur”, “call more attention to myself than to the cause” PETA crazy.  You’ll find me discussing those subjects and more on Twitter.  Follow me, won’t you?