Greg Cassel

Not only are web channels gonna die; the Web itself will (must) be replaced by something else which extends or replaces the Internet protocols. It could be something more inclusive, scalably intelligent, wise and cosmolocalized, if we focus sufficiently on partnership instead of dominator systems.

"Power corrupts" is mostly true, but oversimplified. It's more accurate to say that *power over* corrupts. The true problem is when a person or group holds power over anything far from their center, or which affects others more than themselves. That's it. It's not complicated, but slightly subtle.

We can use this vast upwelling of ugly American behavior as a force for revelation and transformation without othering and vilification.

I imagine that if I received the Medal of Honor for any honorable deed, I'd work hard to get the Wounded Knee Massacre medals revoked.

Just because half of social media is juvenile antics doesn't mean you gotta get swept up in it.

In contrast, if someone seems more confused than aggressive, maybe that's worth talking about. Maybe they're more of a thinker than follower. You can probably figure out pretty quickly if they're dogmatically fixed on defending a person or cause. Good luck.

Set people aside without writing them off forever. It's fine to gently decline to trust aggressive people. Someday, things could be very different-- but healthy boundaries, and sustainable socialization, mean safety (and time management) here and now.

Especially don't waste time arguing with anyone who seems (consciously or not) fixed on domination. It's fine not to trust them. Let it go! Suppose that they'd lie cheat and steal, if they had to, to win. Hold them socially accountable, yes that's crucial but WE CAN'T DO THAT BY ARGUING WITH THEM.

Regardless of the motivations or intentions for harmful actions, we can protect ourselves from them. When we have time to, we can also analyze them deeply, within relationships of mutual responsibility-- but please stop arguing with strangers.

Wee epiphany: it's so pragmatic to say that our key social toxins are violence and confusion. It's fine that that doesn't explain the whole universe! We can recognize that toxic behaviors are violent AND/OR confused AND that it's rarely important to distinguish them further.

2025

This should be obvious but debate culture is a zero sum spectacle organized around a collective humiliation ritual. The point of a debate isn’t to produce a new, intersubjective understanding. It’s to decide who wins. Anyone demanding you participate in it does not have your best interest in mind.

"Until we commit ourselves to ensuring that the underclass is given justice and opportunity, we will continue to perpetuate the anger and violence that tears at the soul of this nation.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

“I'm afraid that America may be losing what moral vision she may have had …. And I'm afraid that even as we integrate, we are walking into a place that does not understand that this nation needs to be deeply concerned with the plight of the poor and disenfranchised."..

“We have fought hard and long for integration, as I believe we should have, and I know that we will win. But I've come to believe we're integrating into a burning house."..

Let’s be clear about what happened to Jimmy Kimmel Trump’s most brazen attack on free speech yet.

After years of complaining about cancel culture, the current administration has taken it to a new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn’t like.

One nice thing about early stage apocalypse is how many people reveal the depths of their double standards and hypocrisy. Very revelatory.

I know some people are caught up in vicious cycles of mutual outrage and whataboutism, but hope that even they can appreciate the central point here, without disregarding their own valid concerns.

That bubble of modern luxury has NEVER been sustainable, but we may still be able to transition sweatily, gracefully and gratefully to the development of life-giving partnership systems, instead of collapsing in bloody flames.

People who want civil war, and others who disregard the possibility, are oblivious to how fragile our bubble of modern luxury has become. It could pop anytime. POP welcome to apocalypse and long slow painful deaths for countless people; perhaps later, a new stone age.

It is, as always, the right time to seek transformative justice instead of vengeance. At some unknowable and irreversible point, this becomes utter necessity.

When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's amore.

When you swim in the sea and an eel bites your knee, that's a moray.

Many aspects of modern society are at best a slippery slope toward the celebration of wasteful excess.

Experience is a broad stream of many simultaneous forces; in contrast, conscious thinking and verbalization are linear, unitary, centralizing forces.

Thinking, verbalizing and writing aren't bad things, as long as we keep experiencing.

Whenever you want to say something mean or mocking, it's helpful to ask yourself "How does this help?" (Spoiler alert: it doesn't.)

We did the math on AI’s energy footprint. Here’s the story you haven’t heard. The emissions from individual AI text, image, and video queries seem small—until you add up what the industry isn’t tracking and consider where it’s heading next.

www.technologyreview.com/2025/05/20/1...

I don't mean his delusions although they're related. I mean "Whoa this guy's so physically & mentally fucked-up! Unfit!" How could that be acceptable in his job? Maybe if he'd had an idiopathic disease & heroically transformed his struggle into immense wisdom, which is THE OPPOSITE of his story.

The thing I don't get about RFK Jr. is how anyone could see him speak without thinking that he's very physically and mentally sick.

Capitalism is an immense problem, but bureaucracy and domination systems are deeper, older problems. Focusing on capitalism isn't enough.