Now, publicly “Liking” something is inviting the brand in question to bombard you with crap, ask you asinine questions at all hours of the day in an attempt to “build a community” around things that really don’t need a community built around them.

Precisely! For example, adding a band or movie to your interests under 'about' is logically just a means of self-expression, like saying: 'this is the kind of music I listen to/movies I see/books I read. However, now this will automatically make you 'like' the band's/movie's/book's facebook page and it will begin to flood your newsfeed with updates and offers.

I still keep forgetting it – that I shouldn't 'like' anything on facebook anymore, because Like = Subscribe/ 'Yes please send me marketing!'.