Independence

How do you fight the same battle... over and over...? 

new place... same battle; new time... same battle;

how do you overcome the same opponents...? 

every place... it's the same opponents; every time... it's the same opponents;

how do you prevail... with the same people... on your side and against...?

there and then... the same people; here and now... the same people;

...when every war is the war to end all wars?

Independence

Why do you believe your side is telling the truth... and the side that opposes you is lying? Is it really because your side professes the same values as you? Is it really because your side affirms the same beliefs as you?

Is it really because you are commanded to obey divine laws that govern all lives that ever were, all lives that ever are, all lives that ever will be?

Is it really because you are loyal to a people?

Is it really... honorable? ...or noble? to trust your side... and to mistrust the side that is not yours? Is it really... moral? ...or right? to obey... a divinity? ...or its followers who are human? ...or its extremists who justify their harms and their cruelties... as swords in the hands of divine will?

Or is this a smokescreen? A clever thing. A cute thing. A warm sugary blanket. That covers the truth?

*

There is a deceit...

in saying "it is really so"

and

there is a dishonesty... 

in listening to "it is really so" and not hearing the lie pretending to be real. 

*

Do I in fact disbelieve... that shared values and beliefs, unify? that mandates are the backbone of religious observation and practice? that to be a member of a people, to belong, inspires patriotic fidelity? that morality alone divides unjust acts from righteous ones?

Yes. 

*

Because saying a thing, doesn't make a thing so;

and saying a lie, doesn't make a lie real;

and to listen to a thing being said and hear it made so;

and to listen to a lie being said and hear it made real;

is:

neither being just

nor being fair 

nor being kind 

nor being generous.

*

Yet here we are.

Saying shared values and beliefs, unify. Saying mandates are the backbone of religious observation and practice. Saying being a member of a people, belonging, inspires patriotic fidelity. Saying morality alone divides unjust acts from righteous ones.

Because

why not? 

vibes trump proof anyway; 

the appearance of unity; the affectation of piety; the presumption of loyalty; the plausibility of legitimacy; matters!

...not reality.

*

Indeed here we are. 

Listening to deceivers and their deceits and hearing their simulated unity; their false piety; their illusory loyalty; their veneered legitimacy; not as smokescreens for wrongdoers and their wrongdoing! 

And

why not? 

vibes trump proof anyway;

and a warm sugary blanket that covers the truth is really... real;

...right?

*

How do you know what is really happening... is existential? ...a threat to your way of life and all that matters you? ...a peril that demands a maximal war?

How do you know a lie pretending to be real is... really as real as reality?

How do you know... your enemy?

*

Tyrants and their tyrannies, despots and their despotism, exploiters and their exploitation know what is really happening... is not existential; ...not a threat to your way of life and all that matters to you; ...not a peril that demands a maximal war.

Tyrants and their tyrannies, despots and their despotism, exploiters and their exploitation know a lie pretending to be real is... not as real as reality.

Tyrants and their tyrannies, despots and their despotism, exploiters and their exploitation know... their enemy; for lies and liars know... their enemy

is not you who believe the side that opposes you is lying; not you who are commanded to obey divine laws; not you who are loyal and honorable and moral; not you who deceitfully say "this is really so";

nor you who are dishonestly just and fair and kind and generous and listen to lies and liars and hear not smokescreens and clever things and cute things and warm sugary blankets that cover the truth.

If... their enemy is your enemy

who and what are you really fighting for?

More or

Like Hell's a Paradise

Tyrants and their tyrannies, despots and their despotism, exploiters and their exploitation are swallowing the world whole...

while all of us under their sharpies and their gavels are compulsively over-sharing on platforms and gossiping about strangers with our neighbors and numbly swallowing deliriously grim content from newsfluencers...

as if torpidity is natural;

as if not caring one whit is a fine way to live;

as if refusing a moral duty to rise against the theft of our power to oppose tyranny and despotism and exploitation is smart;

as if it is a waste to reason, to witness, to defy abuses of power... but it is a profound comfort! to revel in witless nonsense and it is a joyous pleasure! to indulge in self-serving socialization and it is a sacrosanct privilege! to be as cruel and as harmful as tyrants and their tyrannies, despots and their despotism, exploiters and their exploitation...

for God willing:

as their wrongdoers and wrongdoing are ours... 

so shall their ill gains be! 

M

*

Further Reading

You and I and the Truth (May 23, 2025, tvfs)

M

Call Me No One

There is no one called

'The Giver'. 'The Taker'. 'The Maker'. 'The Breaker'.

There is only The One God.

Call Me No One

Long ago before The One God, 

The Giver and The Taker and The Maker and The Breaker ruled as Many. For you see, we were ruled by Many. The Giver gave. The Taker took. The Maker made. The Breaker broke. And when we gave and when we took and when we made and when we broke, we knew The Truth of things.

We knew we did not do this on our own.

We knew we did this because we were ruled by Many greater than us.

And so we gave and we took and we made and we broke until the Many no longer ruled us. For one day The Truth of things revealed to us that we ruled ourselves while the Many served us. Until one day they did not. Until one day The One God became ours.

Not because it appeared to us.

Not because it saved us.

For The One God did not exist until we made The One God to serve us. To be The One who had been the Many. To be cast in our image as givers who gave and as takers who took and as makers who made and as breakers who broke. To rule.

For The Truth of things revealed to us that ruling ourselves subjected us all to each other. The Many were blamed until they were not. Then we blamed each other for our giving and our taking and our making and our breaking. This

was no way to live. This

was no way to die. So

The One God became the new ruler who bore our blame. our responsibility. our will. in the wake of giving and taking and making and breaking and breaking and breaking. none our doing. all The One God's doing. The One God greater than us.

Why?

Why??

Why not???

When Many served us all, a few of us with imagination, a few of us with mettle, a few of us with vision saw that Many served and served tirelessly giving and taking and making and breaking for too many of us rather than too few of us. And this

did not serve us who were few, us who dreamed our kingdoms into being and our selves into power, us haloed by our One greater than Many, us for whom The Truth of things revealed untold power and immortality for

us with imagination, us with mettle, us with vision. And this

is how we who were many were denied grace from Many by The One God who serves us who are few and not we who are many.

⇜ ⇝

Long ago before The One God, Many never envisioned the end of power and the end of immortality, because the Many who were greater than us knew only The Truth of things that were and not The Truth of Things that would be.

Tomorrow The Truth of things that are will face The One God and a few of us with imagination, a few of us with mettle, a few of us with vision will see that The One God was cast in our image because The One God was always

us

dreaming into being someone to believe in, someone to trust, someone to stand with, someone instead of no one but each other.

⇜ Epilogue ⇝

The Many serve the many but The One God serves the one.

The one who claims The One God their own personal license to be the one haloed by The Divine One to rule the many.

How could this One God serve the many? when this Divine One serves the one who gives and the one who takes and the one who makes and the one who breaks? sanctifying all doing in the name of the one and The One, unified in will by the one and The One?

Before this Divine One, Many are forbidden and denied and refuted and damned for The One God is the only One.

The only One who gives and the only One who takes and the only One who makes and the only One who breaks. The only One

who calls the one Master.

M

How to Serve We the People

The latest smug 'truth', sanguinely delivered as a 'calm' and 'rational' balm to the 'outrageous' nonsense vomited by 'know-nothings' and 'alarmists', is

"this is better than the alternative".

As if "the alternative" isn't moral terror baiting slop, flambéed tableside like Hell's best baked Alaska serves seductive lipstick wearing pig because of course it does!

How to Serve We the People

A lot of what appears to be 'organized' as 'civil disobedience' today is not civil disobedience and importantly, this 'version' of 'civil disobedience' is not solving problems.

Not to rain on a parade;

or kill a moment;

or spit in the face of spirit;

but 'parades' and 'moments' and 'spirits' that lean into performative and theatrical noise are not nonviolent paths towards change.

*

While some protests are acts of civil disobedience, many 'protests' are outlets where we vent our outrages, violations, injustices, etc.

Needless to say, the difference between the latter and the former is the latter serves our feelings; the former serves our cause.

*

If our cause is cruelty and harm -

then our 'protests' may be mobs pretending to exercise 'a right to assemble';

if our cause is change -

then we cannot be what we oppose.

We cannot embody cruelty like an administration that despises human rights as unnatural demonic inventions. Nor can we represent harm like an administration that gilds wrongdoing in its name with gross legalistic license. 

This is why nonviolence powerfully serves a cause of change - while never serving a cause of cruelty or harm.

* 

Moreover, if our cause is change, nonviolence alone is not how change is achieved. Because nonviolence alone is not a revolution.

*

Nonviolent acts of civil disobedience, on the other hand -

nonviolent solutions that invite everyone to agree to an alternative to ideological callousness and indifference and unwholesome calculations of state-sponsored harm -

nonviolent stands of a plurality of people, altogether aligned against the myth that a duck isn't a duck if it denies being a duck -

that is more than a spectacle;

that is more than a reaction;

that is more than a gesture;

that is how our cause rejects the hypnotic thrall of moral terror baiting slop and seductive lipstick wearing piggery to serve we the people.

 

More

We live in a reality that values policies of appeasement throughout every sphere of life and living. 

Which is to say, to be human is to tolerate at best and champion at worst: normative placidity, bottomless pools of optimism, and of course, loyalty and surrender.

*

It goes without saying that this reality is not a kingdom that values courage,

or change,

or freedom to believe in a secular terra worth fighting for,

or the like.

*

Such that when the price for real world peace is to be meek and mute multitudes of this kingdom -

this isn't peace;

this is real world capitulation;

for what? 

for who?

*

As if we live in a reality enchanted by illusions of policies of appeasement delivering big beautiful real world bubbles! like Hell's best baked Alaska serves the truth!

M

Enter the Police State

With the best of intentions, I hear people repeatedly bellow "'the algorithm' makes things seem worse than they really are";

inflexibly I see people trot the same tired overplayed litanies of "evidence" to this point, "research" and "studies" and "polls" that definitively "prove" that "we 'overestimate' the differences between us and them";

as if optimism at all costs is the solution to hollow and false, easy and romantic, untruths and mistruths.

:eyeroll:

Enter the Police State

(i)

There isn't "a side" that sold us on the "promises" of the "strengths" of the police state. Nor "a side" that guaranteed "protections" from the "weaknesses" of the police state. 

For every "side" sold us.

The "side" that wanted "to save" the "children";

the "side" that wanted "to lock up" the "criminals";

the "side" that wanted "justice" to be "fair" and "informed" by "facts";

the "side" that wanted "to live" without "fear";

the "side" that wanted "to feel safe" within "big beautiful bubbles";

and every "side" that wanted "to swear and affirm": 

"law and order" by definition, will always mean "to serve and uphold" here, where the grass is green and the sky is blue.

(ii)

Such that all the word-wrangling to explain this "house" "promises" built -

to moralize the reality of this "bed" "protections" made -

because what really happens in police states is what is really happening now -

is after-the-fact bullshit laid brick by brick by all of us -

because what really happens in police states is "the public" is pacified by hollow and false, easy and romantic, untruths and mistruths,

until optimism at all costs is at once compulsory and "reasonable". 

(iii)

As for what prayers and what winks and what promises sold us this "house" and this "bed" and this brick "road" of bullshit -

see (i) above and

case in point:

the police state's solution to "a public demand 'to save' the 'children'" isn't to efficiently and materially address "harms" to non-adults across public and institutional environments, but rather, to criminalize any and every non-adult based on "institutional policies and practices" and "official rules and recommendations" that allow disproportionate, asymmetric, prejudicial, etc. treatment of non-adults, as if 

when a police state answers our "payers", we should see nothing but wholesomeness and decency and say nothing but praise and apologisms and do nothing but be grateful and submit; 

the police state's solution to "a public demand that 'justice' be 'fair' and 'informed' by 'facts'" isn't to exemplify transparency or integrity, but rather, to criminalize any and every individual human being and corporation à la fictional "personhood" and organization à la collective of autonomous beings because unilateral power without tangible, realized, actual unitarian power isn't powerful at all! as if 

when a police state "winks", we should laugh at the "joke" because everybody knows that a police state's ride or die is absolute power, hahaha; 

the police state's solution to "a public demand that 'law and order' by definition, will always mean 'to serve and uphold' here" isn't to abide or respect a fair or just legality or jurisprudence in a republic or a democracy, but rather, to criminalize any and every act that defies, opposes, rejects, etc. "legalism" and its dominion in all but name over free people, free states, and free nations everywhere; as if 

when a police state "promises" us the world and everything therein, we should not trust in the sincerity of plainly despot-adjacent hyperbole but fake-adjacent piety should be believed;

etc. 

(iv) 

Such that it bears iterating clearly:

police states are indefensible

because what really happens in police states is not a joke;

it is a reality laid by prayer by wink by promise by all of us sold on "powerful" and "anointed" mortals on gilded thrones 

and it can be undone

when we face what is worse than what wind-up plastic rictus-faced monkeys say things seem, when we face things as they really are, including the differences between us and casually evil cheerleaders of police states because "our differences", at once profound and granular, are self-evident "disunions" between us

and a representative government that disavows its oaths, including, the oath of every republic and every democracy to serve the people;

as if optimism at all costs isn't a gift to police states, arising from the hearts and shores of republics and democracies everywhere,

a gift repaid in hollow and false, easy and romantic, untruths and mistruths, including the hallucinatory homily that

we the people approve a police state for our children, our neighbors, and ourselves because we the people voted for a joke of a republic and a farce of a democracy.

 

More

On "optimism at all costs", #policestatepacifier and #policestateally.

(i)

First, "early adopters" or "forerunners" or "target softeners" of the police state break everything.

Institutions, e.g. traditional or linear news media, public early and higher education, safety nets (food banks, homeless shelters, addiction resources), the economy (banking, currencies, exchange markets), foreign aid (medical supplies, disaster assistance, refugee resources); and

governments, e.g. the legislative branch (à la because an allegiance to "their God" or "their Leader" is "higher" - forswearing an oath "to serve the people"), the judicial branch (à la exploiting asymmetric "lawfare" to prejudicially uphold or "strike down" laws at will), the executive branch (à la despite such "power" not explicitly conferred to "the executive office" - acting unilaterally); and

so on and so forth.

(ii)

Then, the police state declares its "revolutionary" solution:

itself.

It parades litanies and homilies and sermons and preaches the "glorious righteousness" of the police state -

and -

it violently attacks any and all opposition with disproportionate hostility and militancy.

(iii)

Then, all of us

see nothing and say nothing and do nothing - 

or - 

we cheerlead the police state, including, as amplifiers of hollow and false, easy and romantic, untruths and mistruths. 

(iv) 

Which is to say, when we are encouraged or compelled to leap into a bottomless pool of "optimism at all costs" because this repels apathy and paralysis, hopelessness and despair, cynicism and pessimism, and the like -

this is a kind of dishonesty and deception that treats us like we can't handle the truth,

this is a kind of untruth and mistruth that infantilizes us -

such that buying this is little different than buying the hollow and false, easy and romantic, untruths and mistruths of every police state

and tell me: what happens when this illusion is exposed? as a fiction? a fraud? a lie? buyers of illusions simply buy another, including every police state's tried and true 

illusions of success, illusions of approval, illusions of gratitude, that is, 

fictions, frauds, lies -

for this is a willful rejection, if not repudiation, of the truth that police states dismiss and redact and expunge and rewrite, the truth that's worth fighting for, the truth that's real.

M

*

Note or Further Reading

On "the politics" that presage police states and "autocracy-adjacent" precursors of police states, see Seed Con (January 19, 2025, tca).

M

Nothing Worth Fighting For

Do you think cowardice is wise and reasonable? - profitable and productive? - for a wink? for a promise? for a prayer? - and defensible?

Nothing Worth Fighting For

Sure.

Why else would cowardice be so common? so normal? so casually accepted as the acceptable morality of acceptable people?

*

After all: 

isn't courage unwise and unreasonable? 

isn't this why the "advisors", "ear-holders", "closest of close inner circles" of dictators and tyrants are little more than barrels of wind-up plastic rictus-faced monkeys, clapping tin cymbals and bowing at the bidding of hands that wind them?

isn't courage unprofitable and unproductive? 

isn't this why "influencers with followings", "high-net-worth individuals", "captains and titans of industry" sever and silence backbones in surrender?

for the loss and suffering experienced by everyday people being nothing really compared to state-sanctioned persecution and retaliation lobbed with prejudicial fervor at "the powerful"

legitimizes deferential capitulation in the name of powerlessness? and docile servility in the name of "fiduciary care"?

*

After all:

isn't courage, in the end, futile?

for in the real world tangible interests of everyday people who experience measurable material consequences of "appeasement", is there ever a defensible argument for refusal? - denial? - protest? - opposition? - hostility?

which is to say,

is there ever a just raison d'être for warring against cowardice?

in the name of common men and women and children whose freedom have been traded for a wink? because nationalism is ever an ideological refuge for anti-them sentiments that run deep with abandon as "pride"; 

in the name of normal actions and thoughts and beliefs which have been disowned for a promise? because promises are ever the currency of deceivers who traffic in "truths" that lie;

in the name of acceptable principles that denounce and repudiate moral abdications cloaked in "the emperors' new prayers"? because pretentious sanctimony masks are ever the weapons of brittle extremists against human, secular, and ethical interests;

or is a war against cowardice impossible because winks by nationalists and promises by deceivers and prayers by extremists are above all:

eminently tenable?

*

Needless to say:

it is not enough that the "closest of close inner circles" of dictators and tyrants yield their autonomies to their masters -

it is not enough that "powerful people" and "influential personalities" capitulate before pecuniary interests held hostage by state-endorsed harassment and revenge - 

"the majority" too surrender their self-determination when they abide the bidding of hands that wind them at will and "followers" also renounce their self-respect when self-serving nakedly dispossesses their voices of backbone, but above all

when they casually accept the unacceptable, everyday people transform every corner of the world into kingdoms;

* 

kingdoms where it is customary;

kingdoms where it is encouraged;

kingdoms where it is celebrated;

to see nothing! and to say nothing! and to do nothing!

because courage is nothing but a "utopian idea", a "mind virus" that would plainly rob us of something more wonderful than a "utopia", more fruitful than a "mind":

mortals on thrones exercising absolute dominion over

meek and mute multitudes. 

*

As if such kingdoms, 

wrought by people everywhere, 

would cost us nothing worth fighting for. 

As if the cost of cowardice isn't a casual evil that believes it's not.

 

Epilogue

We romanticize who we are.

And.

We romanticize who we aren't.

*

Some of us imagine, as "communities" of "believers", we neither sow nor foment "discord"! because it isn't "divisive" to tout "community", "faith", "grace", and above all, "righteousness"! 

As if "believers" are not everyday people, reveling in the uninhibited turpitude of nationalists who wink and deceivers who promise and extremists who pray as unqualified pillars of "righteousness", "grace", "faith", and above all, "community"!

Like nothing is real!

Like nothing matters!

*

We romanticize courage.

And.

We romanticize cowardice.

*

Some of us imagine, as "neighbors" and "citizens", we neither beget nor rouse "conflict"! because it isn't "nasty" to praise "entitled opinions", stoke "aggrieved feelings", amplify "newsfluencers", and above all, worship "truths" over "fake facts"! 

As if vindictive rancorousness is "courageous";

as if belligerent saber rattling is "refreshingly honest"; 

as if people everywhere know "this is beautiful"!

 *

When seeing nothing and saying nothing and doing nothing becomes

wise and reasonable;

when kingdoms of mortals on thrones exercising absolute dominion over meek and mute multitudes become

profitable and productive;

when romanticization becomes

"the real truth", defensible and applauded;

we imagine

reality is fiction that believes it's not.

M

*

Note

When there are calls to "tone down the rhetoric" because "this isn't who we are" - I think - Seriously? As if by calling "truths" that lie - "rhetoric" - everybody everywhere is on the same page with respect to self-censorship and "decorous speech" across "public halls, squares, and forums". Please. As if calls for unity vis a vis "we" (i.e. "who we are", "who we aren't", etc.) aren't self-important pretensions of "consensus" and "common ground". Come on.

The calling for the assassination of public servants isn't "rhetoric". It's an incitement to exact vengeance, justified by gordian rationalizations and arbitrary legitimizations, and amplified by provocateurs and contrarians, believers and followers, and zealots and extremists.

Notwithstanding that it bears emphatically iterating, "who we are" and "who we aren't", aren't a movie (i.e. Birth of a Nation, etc.) or a television show (i.e. Roots, etc.) or a song (i.e. "Dixie", etc.) or a poem (i.e. "The New Colossus", etc.). For "who we aren't" are main characters in make-believe Mayberry; for "who we are" are authors of "facts" and "truths", romanticized for narrative fictions,

as if nothing worth fighting for is real.

M

Who do you BELIEVE?

More than ever, religion disappoints me.

It promises a godly greatness and delivers an unceasing parade of SMALLNESS as human as the measure of such mortal spirit is meanness.

Who do you BELIEVE?

Apologists tell me that I am an anomaly.

*

That Muslim? Her heart is not hateful. Her posture is not a kind of intimidation. Her stare is not a kind of aggression. Her prayers do not name me - enemy. As for her acts of trespass... 

what are they but violent? 

That Charismatic? Her beliefs are not hateful. Her stand is not a kind of intimidation. Her position is not a kind of aggression. Her doctrines do not pronounce me - demon. As for her acts of false witness... 

what are they but malevolent?

That Extremist? Her thoughts are not hateful. Her disposition is not a kind of intimidation. Her angle is not a kind of aggression. Her convictions do not avow me - inhuman. As for her acts of sabotage...

what are they but cruel?

That Protestant, that Catholic, that Orthodox, that Evangelical? Her words are not hateful. Her attitude is not a kind of intimidation. Her bearing is not a kind of aggression. Her faith does not condemn me - damned. As for her acts of wrongdoing...

what are they but vicious?

*

You see

how apologists promise grace and deliver moral abdication?

*

That Muslim? That Charismatic? That Extremist? That Protestant, that Catholic, that Orthodox, that Evangelical?

I am supposed to be BLIND to their acts. Because a professed faith is a defense. an excuse. a justification. a moral "trump card".

I am supposed to be BLIND to their acts. Not because MY heart. and MY beliefs. and MY thoughts. and MY words. are... theirs.

I am supposed to be BLIND to their acts. Because a mantle of religion is a blank check to be violent. malevolent. cruel. vicious. and

loved. so loved. forgiven. so forgiven. in the name of mercy. most merciful. in the name of grace. most gracious.

*

Never mind

that Jewish human being. she cannot be corrupt.

that Buddhist human being. she cannot be abominable.

that Hindu human being. she cannot be vile.

that Christian human being. she cannot wear religion like a fraud, like an imposter, like a FAKING FAKE.

*

Apologists claim that I see not what I see.

By vowing that I see not what I see, apologists conclude that I lie.

That my trespass is violent. my false witness is malevolent. my sabotage is cruel. my wrongdoing is vicious.

*

By my denial of Muslim, Charismatic, Extremist, Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox, Evangelical systems of belief, apologists claim that I deny the truth. By my refusal of Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, Christian systems of belief, apologists claim that I refuse the truth.

By vowing that MY TRUTH is a rejection of what's real, apologists conclude that I am false.

That I am corrupt. abominable. vile. a fraud. an imposter. a faking fake.

*

You see

you are supposed to believe anyone who denies what "religions" insist is true and you are supposed to believe anyone who refuses what "religions" insist is real

cannot be trusted,

cannot be trusted to know what is true and cannot be trusted to know what is real,

cannot be trusted to be honest,

cannot be trusted to be moral.

*

I ask you

can apologists be TRUSTED?

can apologists be TRUSTED to know what is true and can apologists be TRUSTED to know what is real?

can apologists be TRUSTED to be honest?

can apologists be TRUSTED to be moral?

*

Or is it possible

that apologists who promise righteousness and deliver acts of trespass that are violent, acts of false witness that are malevolent, acts of sabotage that are cruel, acts of wrongdoing that are vicious

are SMALL humans;

that apologists who promise sanctity and deliver hateful hearts, beliefs, thoughts, words; and intimidating postures, stands, dispositions, attitudes; and aggressive stares, positions, angles, bearings; and prayers that name enemies, doctrines that pronounce demons, convictions that avow humans inhuman, faiths that condemn and damn

are MEAN mortal spirits;

that apologists who cannot be trusted to be good people are apologists who cannot promise love or forgiveness or mercy or grace, because apologists who deliver an unceasing parade of smallness as human as the measure of such mortal spirit is meanness

are FRAUDS. IMPOSTERS. FAKING FAKES?

*

After all, isn't it possible that "religion" is not a manifestation of "divine inspiration" so much as an execution of mortal invention

of human beings, by human beings, for human beings,

because there is mortal gain to be had by a pretension of "divine creation",

including power, wealth, immortality, etc.

for "believers"?

 

Epilogue

I am not an anomaly.

I see human beings, "members of religious communities", being human.

I see "members of religious communities" parading an unceasing panoply of smallness as human as the measure of such mortal mean-spiritedness is abysmal.

I see sanctimonious and self-righteous parades WEARING RELIGION like JUDGES IN JUDGMENT.

*

You see

how a "professed faith" that insulates "the faithful"

from scrutiny,

from consequences,

from justice,

is LOUD and PROUD and here and now?

*

I am not an anomaly.

Because it is possible that I am not the only one who DENIES and REFUSES and REJECTS prayers that name enemies, doctrines that pronounce demons, convictions that avow humans inhuman, faiths that condemn and damn.

*

I AM NOT THE ONLY ONE who knows what is true and I AM NOT THE ONLY ONE who knows what is real

is not what "religions" and their systems of belief tell me,

is not what apologists and their claims promise me,

because I am not the only one who knows what is true and I am not the only one who knows what is real

is what "religions" and apologists deliver:

love that DENIES love. forgiveness that REFUSES forgiveness. in the name of mercy that REJECTS mercifulness. in the name of grace that LIES with gracelessness.

M

*

Note

The use of "she/her" is not to exclude "he/him", but rather, to state the obvious, "a pretension of 'divine creation'" is as much "her" "execution of mortal invention" as "his". For all the "mortal gain to be had by a pretension of 'divine creation'" is also "hers". 

Or am I the only one who sees "how a 'professed faith' that insulates 'the faithful' from scrutiny, from consequences, from justice" wears "she/her" pronouns like basic b!tches in heat for "power, wealth, immortality"?

M

In Judgment

The following is a song in the form of a spoken poem...

In Judgment

What is there to say

that hasn't been said?

that hasn't met the moment

of the living and the dead?

with hands that lift no one,

and feet that don't rise,

and howls that mean naught

but crocodile cries?

*

What is there to do

that hasn't been done?

that hasn't been thought or writ

or felt or won?

for the license of the few

to terrorize the many,

to lionize and glorify 

a parking lot penny?

*

We can listen to the noise

that says nothing at all

and do everything we're told

is best for us all.

But crocodiles and pennies,

don't die for the light -

they live for their own

and their right of might.

*

So before you halo

a sinner as a saint,

with a fabulist's brush

dipped in liar's paint -

remember to honor

the truth raw and bare,

the truth real and honest,

the truth just and fair.

*

Or listen to the noise

that cares not one bit

that it cleaves us into factions

of hell-fire and spit.

*

Follow who you follow

and do what's been done,

what's been thought and writ,

what's been felt and won,

for the pleasure of the few

to dominate the many,

to worship and revere

every bankrupt penny.

*

Parrot who you praise

and say what's been said,

that hasn't met the moment

of the living or the dead,

with words that lift no one

on waves that don't rise,

like brittle crocodiles

howling post-truth lies.

Further Reading

Author's Note (unpublished, tvfs) to In Judgment (above, tvfs)

M

Charade You Parade

'Identity' isn't a 'free pass' or a 'blank check' or a 'rubber stamp'. Which is to say, who you are doesn't give you permission to be a version of you that is your worst. It doesn't authorize, nor does it bless, the visions and beliefs that marinate and inflame every heart and any mind. Whether the 'identity' you claim follows from 'religion' or 'race' or 'nation', the charade you parade is

identity 

releases you from any and every mortal and immortal injunction.

Charade You Parade

I

'Identity' is not a recent scourge, but it is persistent. I suspect because it boils down to -

I am therefore I can.

* 

For example:

I am 'religious', therefore I can hate people who believe differently from me. I am 'deeply religious', therefore I can harm people who believe differently from me.

Why?

Because the exercise of 'religious practice' is - not (a) solely a belief in inhuman power(s), is it? - for it is also (b) a 'free pass' and a 'blank check' and a 'rubber stamp' - for (c) any belief derived from (a) - and (d) every practice derived from (a) - regardless of whether or not (e) such beliefs or such practices are 'good' or 'just' by

mortal judgment.

*

Case in point:

People who testify to 'being devout' exercise a 'pious practice' of hierarchy as though hierarchy cannot be a 'practice' separate and apart from (a). Despite the 'moral rightness' of such hierarchy not following from being part and parcel to (a) - but rather from being (c) and (d).

Hierarchy, therefore unsurprisingly, is neither a belief nor a practice subject to mortal opinions by exercisers of a 'religious practice' of hierarchy. For arguments that question the 'goodness' or 'justness' of hierarchy, on the basis of other systems of belief, are reflexively dismissed and reviled. 

Because people who testify to 'being devout' exercise a 'pious practice' of habitually dismissing and reviling other systems of belief. Including scientific systems of belief, secular and humanistic systems of belief, atheistic systems of belief, etc., no?

*

II

Which is to say, when 'identity' boils down to - I am therefore I can -

'identity' 

is too often a 'free pass' and a 'blank check' and a 'rubber stamp' for any idea and every agenda derived from I am therefore I can, 

regardless of ethical systems of belief.

* 

For example:

I am 'racial', therefore I can hate people who are 'racially' differently from me. I am 'deeply racial', therefore I can harm people who are 'racially' differently from me.

Why?

Because 'being free' is - not (f) solely a human right to self-determination, is it? - for it is also (g) a 'free pass' and a 'blank check' and a 'rubber stamp' - for (h) any idea or feeling or sense originating from (f) - and (i) every agenda or act or conduct arising from (f) - regardless of whether or not (j) such ideas or such agendas are 'right' or 'wrong' by mortal reason.

*

Case in point:

People who publicly defend an expansive and inclusive 'idea' of 'freedom' while unapologetically defending a suffocating and brittle 'agenda' that restricts and excludes as though (f) is not everybody's right to 'be free'. 

Because the denial of some liberties of some people is 'right'. Because the advancement of everybody's liberty is 'wrong'.

For I am 'free' to deny anybody's liberty if I am so autonomously-determined. Never mind that 'freedom' that issues forth from both sides of a people's mouth, defends nobody's 'freedom' from

illiberalism's repudiation of ethicism.

*

III.

Which is to say, when 'identity' boils down to - I am therefore I can -

'identity' 

is too often

authorization that blesses the erasure of mortal guardrails. 

*

For example:

I am a 'patriot' of my 'nation', therefore I can hate people who stand with a 'nation' different than mine. I am 'deeply patriotic', therefore I can harm people who stand with a 'nation' different than mine.

Why?

Because an 'oath of allegiance' is - not (k) solely a vow of fidelity and loyalty, is it? - for it is also (l) a 'free pass' and a 'blank check' and a 'rubber stamp' - (m) to wrong (n) in the name of (a) and (f) and (k) - regardless of whether or not (o) such wrong is 'lawful' or 'honorable' by

mortal authority.

*

Case in point:

People who sanction hostility against and towards political entities, including people and states and nations, as though (k) halos acts of aggression as 'patriotism'.

Because (l) and (m) and (n) and (o).

Because violence that serves the glory of one's own political entity, one's own people and one's own state and one's own nation, is a kind of 'respect' or 'duty' or 'love'. Not for a mortal 'fatherland'. Nor for an immortal 'father'. But for a release from any and every mortal and immortal injunction

to be a version of you 

free from the charade that 'identity' is a right, instead of a wrong.

 

 

More

Too often when we talk about 'identity' - we're talking about an 'idea' that has become a 'justification' that has become an 'agenda' -

to 'enforce' obedience and submission

to enforcers and enforcement -

*

Too often when we talk about 'identity' - we're talking about a kind of power and a kind of control -

to rob and strip and dispossess people of their rights and freedoms and liberties,

because they're 'non-conforming' or 'different' or 'not one's own' -

*

Too often when we talk about 'identity' - we're not talking about 'believing in an inhuman power' part and parcel to 'the exercise of religious practice' or 'a human right to self-determination' part and parcel to 'being free' or 'a vow of fidelity and loyalty' part and parcel to 'an oath of allegiance' - 

*

Too often when we talk about 'identity' - we're talking about the make-believe, the fiction, the lie that 'identity' is a right

to wield 'religion' and 'race' and 'nation' as the full armor of God

to wrong

with an inexplicable impunity that I suspect boils down to - the charade that parades: I am therefore I can.

M

*

Note

"the full armor of God" is a reference to Ephesians 6:11

M

You and I and the Truth

When someone says "there's not a lot we can do" - what I hear is "the powerful and the able are doing an awful lot

to not save us" and what I believe is that this is a weak excuse for basic, mindless, 'main characters' to lean into blaming-shifting while

evading a responsibility to be more than fantasists and nihilists and cynics.

You and I and the Truth

It is so easy to be a fantasist or nihilist or cynic, because it has always been so damn comforting to embrace fictions and delusions and the worst. After all,

when the alternative is the truth, lies are the compelling alternative.

*

Case in point: punching down.

The fantasist will tell you a story. Spun of whole cloth. Or wrapped like a precious diaphanous bow around a grain of plausible reality. A narrative that satisfies a hunger to be in on 'the secret'.

For all it takes to sell a tall-tale is a fabulist.

The nihilist will tell you a theory. Scattershot with absurd jargon. Or code-switches that wink and spit. Or thought terminating cliches that gush from pretensions of wit and wisdom. An ideology of permission.

For all it takes to sanction an annihilation is a justification.

The cynic will tell you a belief. Soaked through like a pig pickled in vinegar. Or as unrelentingly brittle as a desiccated hide. An opinion that there is no fairer judge of the truth - than a feeling.

For all it takes to see what isn't there is a false witness.

*

You see: punching down is so easy because it has always been so damn comforting to defend our unreasonable intolerance. After all,

when the alternative is standing with the punched down, the compelling alternative is not only tempting, but shameless.

*

Isn't this why we exhaust each other with 'deep conversations' and 'sweeping investigations' and 'insider revelations'?

To say

defying a call to disavow tall-tales, sanctioned annihilation, and false testimony can be honestly explained! - because fictions and delusions and the worst are so credible! - because fabulists, justifiers, and false witnesses are so appealing! - because look here -

this is plainly normal - everybody who is lead into this temptation is clearly ordinary - how everything about this blithe acceptance of obvious nonsense is understandable and thoroughly unexceptional - ?

Which is to say,

aren't 'deep conversations' and 'sweeping investigations' and 'insider revelations' the sacrosanct fuel by which we 'prove' that standing with the punched down is febrile? whereas the shameless alternative is not only vigorous but muscular and not only muscular but fearless and not only fearless but heroic - ?

*

You see: to be a fantasist or nihilist or cynic demands nothing more ingenious than a lie that is an imposter of the truth and a liar who is an imposter of confidence.

For all it takes for the powerful and the able to do an awful lot to not save us is

us, hearing fantasists and nihilists and cynics declare their victorious right to rule us all, as if basic, mindless, 'main characters' are not only our own, but our only rescue and salvation.

 

More

You paint the punched down with strokes like a brush clutched between the toes of an elephant.

Without apology.

As if this rendering of 'reality' and 'the truth' is acceptable to the alternative.

And necessary.

Because the alternative is the truth,

the answer to your prayers is not.

*

When a local bakery owner and a leader of a free country say "there's not a lot we can do" -

when an immigration attorney and an entertainer and an elected representative of the people and a corporate citizen say "there's not a lot we can do" -

when you say "there's not a lot we can do" -

do you hear yourself? 

leaning into self-censorship or blame-shifting or sugar-coating or numb distractions or self-dealing or entitlement, etc.?

*

When the sacrosanct 'fuel' by which basic, mindless, 'main characters' are 'proven' to be 'vigorous' and 'muscular' and 'heroic'

is

fiction and delusion and the worst -

and

fiction and delusion and the worst are doing an awful lot to not lift all boats -

an awful lot to prioritize fabulists, justifiers, and false witnesses as if tall-tales, sanctioned annihilation, and false testimony are precious realities -

an awful lot to not stand with the punched down -

because stories and narratives! because theories and ideologies! because beliefs and opinions! -

when will the alternative to fantasists and nihilists and cynics be you and I and the truth?

M

Breakfast

To get here -

to get to not-normal-agreement, that is,

to get here -

to get to a suffocating absence of dissent, among a group that would otherwise express variations of uniformity of minds or mindedness, that is,

to get here -

to get to indiscriminate conformity, is

not to get to universality or unity.

Breakfast

At the same time that what's real is actually material and tangible and invariable - not only is not everybody's reality 'material' and 'tangible' - not everybody's reality is 'invariable'.

Let's make believe for a minute,

so we can see what we cannot...

Brad

Brad doesn't sit at a table for breakfast. What would be the point, anyway? The counter is civilized enough for the single solitary rock that is his daily portion.

As he moves his gravel from left to right, letting it roll across his tongue, he seethes. A rock for breakfast! What kind of dream? What kind of promise? What kind of bullsh_t is this kind of prosperity?

At work, he adopts the glassy personality of a drone. Why bother being anything else? It's only a matter of time before he's 'reduced' because another another another faceless 'efficiency officer' de-prioritizes his goddamn dignity. An app calculates his productivity stats. and chirps. to advise him of evidence-based tips! to be a stand-out! Seriously. What the

f_____ck.

Donny

Donny couldn't ask for more. an embroidered linen napkin. a glittering polished knife and a glittering polished fork. a stupidly luxurious cut of filet melting onto his tongue. Such breakfast is an indescribable pleasure.

As he gazes through the brilliantly clear panes of glass that overlook a breathtaking blue beyond, he is overcome with fervid feeling. A steak for breakfast! This kind of prosperity is everything!

His smile is wide. his step is light. As he passes by drones and drones and drones en masse to their places of employment. as he passes by floors and floors. as he passes by offices. Until he is softly enveloped in the plush cocoon that is his refuge of productivity. A melodic voice chimes like a reverie. It could be his lovely assistant. or his digital aide. It would hardly matter! It always! gushes with good news! like an irrepressible geyser. Incredible.

Life!

Brad

Brad doesn't know another life. But he suspects that what he doesn't know is the secret to something more. And he's not alone. he's not alone. he's not alone.

There is something. and there. and there is more. and more. and unbelievably! miraculously! the truth! His whole life and the truth: there. Lurking at the fringes of frustration. If only he'd felt its hot breath like his own heartbeat sooner. known it earlier. because

then. he'd've been something. he'd've been something more than nothing, swallowing hope whole, because the lies told him to. he'd've been free.

and alive.

with blood dripping from his incisors.

Donny

Donny sometimes pinches himself. Not because he doesn't deserve everything. every dollar every quarter every dime every penny. No. no. no.

Donny sometimes pinches himself because nobody'd ever told him how absurdly random the plan would be. how a right instead of a left. a yes instead of a no. would write a yellow brick road into existence. for him. for him. for him.

Nobody'd ever told him how it'd feel. to obsessively mine blind corners. shadows. portents. for an axe. for him. for him. for him. because the plan

follows its own rules. keeps its own guidance. and dammit! takes! 

with no more warning than it gives. gives. gives.

If not to secure the future against every imagined specter that would hiss and cackle and erupt into nightmares writ in flames, what is any of it for? if not to see, crowned and glorious and bulletproof, that

he rises.

and grains of sand do not.

Brad

The key to transformation, as they say, is to open your eyes. break the fog. banish the sluggard scripts that shackle you to a demeaning reality that is not real. not real. not real. because the truth is something you dive into like a child on a cliff, repudiating mortality.

this is running with a pack.

this is chasing lemons with shots of vinegar and laughing.

Brad doesn't sit at a table for breakfast. He paces. Grinding a piece of gravel between his molars. At work, he cloaks a swelling appetite behind a restless smoke of coiled obscurity. Because

he is feral.

he is predatory. 

Pay attention, as the say, for snakes will strike because they are ready

weapons.

Donny

There are limits to power, wealth, influence. ha ha ha. But there are no limits to more tomorrow than yesterday. and more tomorrow. and more. 

Donny walks the labyrinth of his mind like a rose of machination will reveal its innermost secret in the wake of his resolute tread. petal by petal. heel by heel. yes. yes. yes! Though nameless foes demand his defeat like fractious animals, he is the hunter!

Donny's smile is authentic-adjacent behind spectacularly false veneers. When he is finally without ceremony, ensconced in his unapologetically hermetic sanctuary from pathetic mindless blobs provoked into ungrateful clucking,

he boils over like a simmering tantrum hitting its banal crescendo.

How dare! he spits. he splutters. How dare! he rattles with vibrating fury. How dare he be denied a thing!

Fin

Brad and Donny are not 'universal'. nor do they represent any kind of 'unity'. But in their world, they are and they do. Because their world 'exists' - not because their reality is what's real - but because their reality is what they make believe. And who's to say - make believe is not

the truth in disguise.

Epilogue

There is a rigid. hard-line. fiction about loyalty. Likewise, faith. 

That would the abandonment of rationality and reason 'be' 'rational' and 'reasonable' and 'normal'. Because this is what loyalty demands. what faith means.

Never mind the reality of the wrongness of clear-eyed repudiation of rationality and reason 'being' 'rational' and 'reasonable' and 'normal'. Never mind the insane dictatorial throughline of narratives that measure loyalty. that define faith. as absurdly as fantasies. 

Because how wrong you are willing to be should not be a measure of how loyally loyally loyal you are. Likewise, bearing false witness should not be a measure of how faithfully faithfully faithful you are.

That this is the rigid. hard-line. lunacy that justifies a terrible 'loyalty'. a dishonest 'faith'. begs the question: what is it all for? and: at what cost?

Because if it's all for the truth - then the truth cannot be the cost.

M

How to Screw Courage

Don't you absolutely treasure when people tell you their gambling with real people living real lives in the real world is a game they play to score points against real people living real lives in the real world? 

Because point scoring is as demure as game playing is as demure as brinkmanship masquerading as outrageous ploys for specious and sophistic puffery and deification?

#gamblinglife

How to Screw Courage

People pretend that selling your soul is a last act. That a first step is the only purportedly 'difficult' one. That every act after is neither here nor there. A painless slide into ease. 

*

But selling your soul is not an excising of conscience. It is a rational decision to position yourself above everyone. It is a ruthless justification that insists on positioning your interests ahead of everything. Because anything less would not be

'right'.

*

It assumes that morality is an imaginary obstruction. A costumed affectation that is 'put on' and 'set aside' like an alien-armor-suit of make-believe-invulnerability. A baptism of 'magic dust' from the props department of an amateur theater.

*

Principles, dear captain obvious, interfere and impede, do they not? Like runaway forces of nature, they wreck what is undeniably precious,

legacies of greed.

*

People pretend that selling your soul is a very smart feat of genius. That a life arcing towards the attaining and the amassing of a lot in the hands of a few is

fair. 

That this is what it means to earn, that this is what it means to be deserving of generously lined silk pockets, that this what it means to receive what you are due, 

dammit.

*

But it is not work to allocate wealth or assign power or disavow aid, to enrich the wealthy or empower the powerful or deny the beset. It is not toil. It is not labor. It is not sacrifice. It is neither blood nor sweat nor tears.

It is a calculated decision to position yourself above everyone. It is a callous justification that insists on positioning your interests ahead of everything. Because anything less, to be brutally honest, would not be

'just'.

*

It assumes that 'equality under the law' is toothless by purposeful design: 

when it is working as intended, it is pacifying fools and idiots with spit slinging and gnat swarming; when it is working as commanded, it is codifying patronage, partiality, prejudice.

*

Indeed:

as an axe, 'the law' falls on enemies and scum and parasites; as a shield, 'the law' protects the wealthy and the powerful. What a providential hymn

to live and die by.

*

People pretend that selling your soul is a show of gallant strength. 

That appeasing, that abject groveling before, that surrendering and submitting to tryhard tyrants, czars, emperors, caudillos, kings, on their terms of course, is how to be principled, how to be powerful, how to be peaceful.

*

However, when no despotic tryhard would ever in a million lifetimes stand for a cessation of literal or figurative war without demanding the exacting of retribution and spoils as an imperative condition of peaceful accord: 

this is not a triumphant illustration of bullies holding 'all the cards' gloriously proclaiming their literal or figurative armistice shall be bought and paid for with souls graciously sold to slake the unrepentantly insatiable pleasure of an opportunistic tryhard;

this is a sham of conscience, an unmitigated corruption of law and order, a perversion of alliances secured by assurances of mutualism that smugly dictates the price of nothing beyond existence itself shall be

gratefully demure spinelessness.

*

As if a 'f_ck you' to the backbone estate for not screwing their courage to the sticking place is how prayers are answered, how promises are kept, how people are saved

from self-respect.

More

When point scoring and game playing and brinkmanship masquerading as outrageous ploys for specious and sophistic puffery and deification 

is sanctioned in the name of morality policing, is excused in the name of scorn and indifference, is condoned in the name of partisan loyalty -

this does not 'cancel' the reality of real people living real lives in the real world like a scripted show in the 'nonfiction' category or 'rewrite' the reality of real people living real lives in the real world like a bestselling novel that is not 'truer than fiction'.

*

In other words, reality can neither be 'cancelled' nor 'rewritten' on the basis of

because a lie is sanctioned, because a lie is excused, because a lie is condoned.

*

Which to say, all the tools in the world can applaud being tools in the world until all the hot air in the world is used up by fabulous effort and still,

all the tools in the world will remain nothing more than tools.

That tools profess and proclaim otherwise, can neither 'cancel' nor 'rewrite'

reality itself.

*

That this strategy is the game plan of a 'party', an 'ideology', a 'system of belief', a 'policy', etc., speaks not to a trustworthy position that 'keeps it real' or 'truths' -

but to a relentlessly self-interested willingness and wherewithal to deny reality and defy the truth. For no self-respecting tryhard would ever in a million lifetimes stand for the backbone estate.

#thef_ckyouestate

M

Here and Now and Then and After

Singularly wrongful and especially cutthroat ambition on thrones, dripped in the emperor's new regalia, ruling as co-divinities alongside justful and truthful immortals,

has never been real and is still anathema to what is right.

Here and Now and Then and After

What comes this way? This self-righteous self-superior self-satisfied, ignoble and transactional, wildly hallucinatory and torturously anti-reasoned way?

Not good things, 

that is for damn sure.

*

I am not surprised that 'this way' is not without its cheerleaders. Notwithstanding, 'this way' not only satisfies millionaires and billionaires, capitalists and oligarchs, titans and magnates, 'this way' is taken by rank and file administrators, lawyers, operators, just like that. 

*

You see, where there is self-righteous self-superior self-satisfied will, there is 'this way'. Whether 'this way' amounts to real action that effects, say, efficiency or lives up to, say, promises, is moot. Because the wheelhouse of a surrogate or pharisaical mouthpiece is unapologetic nescience. Not plays on a playing field.

Such that cheerleaders who passionately hoot and holler every 'success' and 'triumph' of 'this way', are hardly arbiters of greatness achieved, right here.

*

You see, where ignoble and transactional incentives comfort millionaires and billionaires, capitalists and oligarchs, titans and magnates, there is 'this way'. Whether 'this way' spares a sole penny for thoughts about employees or customers or trade deficits or economic realities, is neither here nor there. Because plausibly principled props are not only not bona fide, they're espoused like the better part of valor is pleasure.

In a fictional narrative where a tyranny of the bottom line is 'killing it', being defended, protected, and safe-guarded from any defiance of a manifestly destined right to unbridled unregulated unlimited wealth and power, is the constitutional privilege of predatory, militant, and exploitative convictions.

Never mind how.

*

You see, where rank and file administrators and lawyers and operators indulge wildly hallucinatory and torturously anti-reasoned positions, there is 'this way'. Whether 'this way' is jubilantly welcomed by acolytes or by no one, it plainly resembles Saw more than it resembles a gauzy unfocused shrovetide carnival to fete a goldentide of free and fair democracies.

As if fiats that burn to the ground and abolish and feed to wood chippers and wreck public interests and the common good and representative government and the public are 24 karat gold diktats that chainsaw abuse, right now.

*

I am not surprised that 'this way' is welcomed by winners who risibly repute themselves 'the majority', who theatrically style themselves 'the people', who incongruously nominate themselves to serve neither the majority nor the people.

As if singularly wrongful and especially cutthroat ambition on thrones, dripped in the emperor's new regalia, ruling as co-divinities alongside justful and truthful immortals is not only what is apodictic, but also 'the way'

then,

good things come,

after,

that is for damn sure.

More

Needless to say,

performative umbrageous vigilance to do with justifying how 'waste' or 'fraud' or 'abuse' is being eliminated, right here and right now, is about theatrics and 'selling it' and virality and 'memes'.

Because 

the point is not about found 'waste' or 'fraud' or 'abuse', so much as 'named' public interests and the common good and representative government and the public, that are 'shamed' as definitive 'evidence' and categorical 'proof' of an agenda that steadfastly opposes vesting in democracies and republics, an apodictic law of Ate.

Because

neither a literal nor figurative chainsaw nor singular executive order nor literal nor figurative wood chipper nor especial deciding opinion is about 'defending' free and fair democracies or 'saving' our republic.

*

Because

public interests and the common good and representative government and the public

are the 'enemies' of this self-righteous self-superior self-satisfied, ignoble and transactional, wildly hallucinatory and torturously anti-reasoned way; the 'enemies' of cheerleaders, millionaires and billionaires, capitalists and oligarchs, titans and magnates, rank and file administrators, lawyers, operators; the 'enemies' of winners and co-divinities;

whose manifestly destined right to unbridled unregulated unlimited wealth and power has never been real and is still anathema to what is right.

*

Such that

so-called 'broad endorsements' of such nonsense, reported 'groundswells of support' for such nonsense, and 'widespread sharing' of such nonsense

reflects neither an 'uprising' of a 'common sense super majority' nor a 'mandate' from an 'overwhelmingly illiberal electorate', so much as 

an amplifying of self-righteous self-superior self-satisfied, ignoble and transactional, wildly hallucinatory and torturously anti-reasoned cheerleading, 

pretending to 'speak truth to power'.

*

For you see,

I see

pretender kings parading the emperor's new drip, saber-rattling the emperor's new regalia; false idols promising to throne integrity, while crowning liars who troll the truth; ogrish servants of Ate being neither meek lamps of God nor civil servants who represent the will of 'the people';

no? 

M