People have to be in denial of the automaticity of their social interactions in order to sustain the illusions of solidarity culture produces. Which makes them fragile and hackable, both the people and the culture.

All one had to do in order to predict it was ask, 'if I were the Devil, how would I fuck with American Christians?'

It's funny how people will regard badly someone who has a 'gift' and doesn't use it for income, but not regard themselves badly for not developing their own 'gifts' because they focused on a career that didn't involve creativity.

They don't even think of the possibility because their religious beliefs tell them faith will keep them safe from complications. But if their daughters need abortions, they can use their tax cuts to help them get one out of state or overseas. If they're in the right bracket.

'Be warned: If you offend me, I will judge you harshly, and you will never know it, and it won't make any difference in reality, but it will help me to feel righteous, enabling me ignore my responsibilities without feeling irresponsible. (I will only give this warning once.)'

I don't know who needs to hear this, but free market theory is based on conditions in which business cannot lobby government for policies favorable to a particular industry or a particular subset of corporations, so optimistic free market models may not apply to our system.

#NewProfilePic

I want to phrase this correctly and gently, but it has always seemed suspicious to me that so many markers to elitism or what people see as higher taste and the performance they take for it, barely ever include a curiosity and love for people. Instead it’s just things.

In the future, 90% of humanity will have only one friend, the robot that calls them to ask how their Omnicorp Total Life Plan® is working for them (provided by Omnicorp, the only remaining company to serve all life needs after a brutal series of mergers and acquisitions).

Nobody wants to know the concessions they'll be forced to make for disaster relief under another term of Lord Donald.

'I'm going to call you a word that will be so devastating that you won't recover' would make any insult completely lose its impact:

'Okay, do your worst.'

'...LOSER.'

'What, that's the word?'

'It sounded more devastating in my head, I guess I should have undersold it.'

The world loves sociopaths as long as they direct hostility toward groups regarded as enemies. Loves them, and will eagerly follow them through the gates of hell. And punishing them isn't likely to stop it. So what is society's adaptation? Probably to become more sociopathic.

Americans have been trained to trust screens since birth. Not sure how easily they can be taught to apply critical thinking to their earliest non-parental babysitter. The screen is safety, comfort, stimulation, alchemy, love. It is the placenta, the cornucopia, it is life itself.

Our society is highly nonconformist, and by that I mean people make subcultural brands out of futile displays of rebellion without substance or sacrifice, and corporations make money off it, keeping everyone on the same hamster wheel even if they want to be seen as opposing it.

A one year old on the bus the other day looked up from his phone and said something that haunted me: 'People wouldn't just LIE about having nudes on their profile... would they?' We never had to deal with that kind of disillusionment and loss of trust as kids.

Don't just push the envelope. Lick it. Lick it, fold it and stamp it. And if the envelope doesn't get where you're going, use a postcard. And if that doesn't work, lick the window at the post office. Let nothing stop you.

(Surrealist life coaching available, ask for prices.)

A book about dreams during the rise of the Nazis: archive.org/details/3rdrei…

advanced level video meeting technique: take a new especially beautiful photo of wherever you are that day and use that as your virtual background

you let people know where you are *and* it's interesting and fun

I'm not sure innocent people can compete with the tenacity of guilty people seeking to rig systems in favor of immunity, especially in a society in which almost anyone can be bought with the right appeal to conformity, pride or ideology. Tenacity is powerful, and most lack it.