For all our technological advancements, all we’ve managed to do is perfect the feedback loop and preserve the bubble — “Everybody’s talkin’ at me I don’t hear a word they’re sayin’ Only the echoes of my mind” — Harry Nilsson I was scrolling through my Mastodon feed today and was struck, once again, that all we’ve achieved with our precious technological advances is the ability to more effectively reach the…

In which I attempt to determine if there are any advantages to citric assault over that of a cool, refreshing beverage — I don’t want to upset you needlessly, but I feel compelled to let you know that I want to chuck a lemon, possibly several lemons, at your head. Ok, maybe not your head specifically, but probably someone just like you. Being that life has handed me all these lemons, it’s…

The weird, wacky world of Mastodon and its demand for regulated autonomy, benevolent anarchy, and altruistic self-sufficiency — On any given day, as I scroll through my feed, invariably, there will be a new round of posts, mainly from people who have recently arrived, talking about how important it is to boost posts. …

The tired trope that people over a certain age don’t understand technology is defied by all evidence to the contrary — Not long ago, my mother was telling me about how she and my father would get tickled that they couldn’t hear each other anymore, and how they would misunderstand what the other person said. They often wondered aloud what they were going to do when they got old. My parents…

A short history of American police departments, established to protect the property rights of wealthy slaveholders, and their full circle return to a racist, occupying militia — Americans across the country have a common misperception that the purpose and function of law enforcement are “to protect and serve.” So many of us think that must be enshrined in common law or the Constitution somewhere, but the reality is much stranger and more recent.

In which I explore the pros and cons of being disagreeable on a platform that supposedly has no dog in the fight — Do you find yourself irritated by the world around you? Itching for a fight? Maybe you’ve discovered a newfound sensitivity towards uncomfortable subjects or an intolerance for open dissent. Are you looking for an outlet for your self-righteous indignation and outage, or even just a place where you can make…

In which I attempt to defend my intolerance of all manner of human existence as being in the service of artistic excellence — Within the domain of my self-selected community of progressive liberals, tolerance is viewed as something next to godliness, assuming, of course, that your understanding of a higher power allows for such distinctions. …

The recently unveiled tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr, and Coretta Scott King has invited criticism that is unlikely to last — When the Eiffel Tower was first constructed in Paris for the 1889 World’s Fair, the artistic establishment of the time called it an embarrassment that not even the Americans would have allowed. It looked like an “industrial chimney” meant to last 20 years. One hundred and thirty-four years later, it…

If we have any hope of making the big shifts necessary for our country to progress, we have to get into the dirty details — More often than not, I like to explore the intricacies of the grey areas in our culture, rather than the big technicolor issues of the day. The big issues not only feel too big, but they’ve almost always been well covered. Plenty of opinions on the major sticking points. Where…