America’s current preoccupation with attacking and deporting legally residing immigrants and naturalized citizens is a grotesque spectacle. The nation is now eating itself, driven by a supremacist and xenophobic mindset that cannot abide the truth of its own heritage. Ethical censure, not celebration, is what the United States has earned in recent years, as it enacts policies and cultivates attitudes betraying not only its founding promises but also the very mechanism of its historical rise.
Just the facts… (Review, historical)
I assert that longstanding choices have contributed if not caused our current economic instability, civil unrest, and this insistent plod towards autocratic and kleptocratic governance. My assertion draws on a combination of well-documented trends and widely discussed critiques in political science, economics, and contemporary journalism. What follows is roughly 20-30 years of thinking pushed into a four decade+ timeline and the whole thing is rife with what has, is, and seemingly will continue to be a deliberate predatory aggressiveness toward the working class that reveals the United States to be no different whatever from any other feudal, dictatorial, despotic, and/or […]
The Ontology of Us: How Xenophobia Shapes Humanity’s Self-Image & Fate
Ontology, the philosophical study of “being,” is often presented as an abstract, universal framework for understanding existence. Yet there is a hidden assumption buried in almost all ontological thought: the idea that the human way of perceiving and categorizing reality is not only the default but also the primary perspective. Our philosophical definitions and scientific models are inescapably human-centered in both form and function. We have never encountered a non-human consciousness capable of debating ontology with us. Without an “other” perspective, it becomes an unspoken truism that our own way of ordering reality is uniquely evolved, sophisticated, and, conveniently, superior. […]
Synchronicity & Validation (No thank you.)
Content warning: Personal history, likely uninteresting for anyone but me.
Dramatis personae – sister
Content Warning: Abuse, big emotions, family trauma, generational trauma
Dramatis personae – mother
My mother was, I think, a horribly traumatized woman who lacked the self awareness to grasp and regain her agency, autonomy, and lived experience authority. She was far less complicated than my father, but her injuries and lack of supports lead to a life of learned helplessness that I doubt she could have overcome alone. All that said, I know little about her outside what I was told long ago and my own experiences, which admittedly, are biased. My mother was born on May 25, 1947 in Heflin, Alabama. Her father was a music director for a well known, international […]
Weak Connectors: Humanity’s True Saviors
If you have ever felt like you do not truly belong to any single social group, or that you are always on the edge rather than at the center, you are not alone. Many people, especially those who are neurodivergent, are very familiar with this feeling. However, what seems like a lack of belonging may, in fact, indicate a powerful (and required!) human competency. Sociologist Mark Granovetter, in his influential 1973 study, identified an important idea now central to social network theory: the “strength of weak ties.” Granovetter revealed that our acquaintances, or those we know less intimately and who […]
The practice is the practice (grieving)
The following content is emotionally laden, extemporaneously recorded, and unedited. It discusses deeply personal issues from childhood and presents disturbing or psychologically violent themes and experiences. It is not transcribed for this reason. I am working through my shit and refactoring my being, largely in real time, and this place is my charnel ground… if you’re here to carry something away for nourishment, be welcome and may you find what you most need.
Why “Other-ing” Behaviors Hold Us Back (How Understanding Our Biology & History Can Move Us Forward)
(This is in rough form and notations are a mess. I may return and clean it up and I may not.) Why do societies repeatedly struggle with fear, hostility, and violence towards “the other”? From ancient migrations to modern debates over immigration, this pattern appears universal and stubborn. Yet, beneath the rhetoric and reaction, both biology and history reveal that turning against outsiders is not inevitable. Instead, recognizing the roots of otherism can help us transcend instincts and build a more cooperative, adaptable future. ### The Biological Basis: Built-in Boundaries and the Genetics of Aggression Research across genetics, neuroscience, and […]
Retrolanguage, Language Models, & a Hidden Crisis: Understanding & Responding to the Risks Shaping Human Thought
Large Language Models (LLMs) are reshaping communication, information exchange, and human decision-making at scale. While their capabilities offer efficiencies and new forms of connection, they also introduce substantial risks—ethical, psychological, social, and technological—that demand urgent consideration from technologists, policymakers, and the public.
This report synthesizes current research, expert analysis, and ongoing conversation to explore these risks, focusing on the unique concept of retrolanguage—the subtle and potentially dangerous drift in linguistic meaning enabled by LLMs.