There’s an adage about “death by a thousand paper cuts”. Well, that’s akin to what I’ve been dealing with for some time now. The GOP (ostensibly) has been burying me in a barrage of texts. Here’s one from today that’s pretty amusing, actually.
I mean, in order to fix the fact YOU are sending me “too many messages”, I NEED to click on a link from a spammer/scammer? Um, no. There is no way in hell I’m clicking on a link from these folks. Jeez!
What might not be clear is that I never signed up for these. They’re often addressed to “friend”, and sometimes reference a zip code that’s in the greater Seattle area, but is not close to mine. This is the last org I want anything to do with. When they first started coming in, I did what the message says and replied “stop”. That only increased the message count. Currently, I’m averaging between 30 (the exact number from yesterday) and 50. To say 900-1,000 text messages a month is disruptive is quite the understatement. I’m glad that I have unlimited texts.
At first, I assumed that it was a mistake. That “friend” had signed up but mistyped their phone number. But, really, would you blast someone you liked like this? Or maybe someone thought this would be funny, someone who knows me. However, this has started to feel more like harassment. It’s surreal to get so many MAGA messages. Even if I were aligned with them, exploding my phone seems counterproductive. If I were pro-Trump, I would imagine getting a spam message every couple of minutes would cause me to rethink that. As it is, it is growing my dislike for the Republican Party.
What’s weirder is that bulk SMS isn’t free. I mark them as spam and block each one, and my spam filter is doing a modest job blocking them. Yet, since each one comes from a different phone number, lots slip through. Ugh!
I’m unsure what I want to do going forward. I guess, in the end, it’s a first-world problem. Though it’s annoying, it’s not like I’m getting direct, threatening messages. It’s annoying and disruptive. I am missing important messages that get buried in the sea of garbage. I am going to explore options, but am not likely to contact an attorney or law enforcement, as I see there’s a high likelihood that it’s NOT the formal GOP establishment. I mean, it’s a dumb way to spend money. But, man, I really hope these people go out of business soon.