L'esprit déconnexion: That moment after you tell a rando online you're no longer engaging with them and you have to commit to that instead of going back and typing "look, you're an asshole, and I'm not required to spend any time with assholes except for the one that came with my own body."

I spend so many minutes of my life quietly asking the question “oh my god, why are you like this?”

I swear that every time the words “RFK” and “road trip” pop up together it’s like a trailer for a new Rob Zombie film.

I didn’t want to be right about this fear I’d had, but clearly it was well founded.

Nothing Liverpool FC did in the summer transfer market was as consequential as letting Luis Diaz leave.

And if you think this has been about you in particular, perhaps it is. You can either take a moment to reflect on that or you can do what the Artifact tells you to do and charge at me with red in your vision and fury in your throat.

And if I choose not to engage, you can pretend it was a victory.

I'm writing this to get it out of my head, as I do with many things I write. If it's useful to you, great; if it means nothing to you, then so be it.

And the second thing I recognize is that I've chosen my least active and visible social media platform to say any of this, because if this series of thoughts doesn't go very far beyond me that suits me just fine.

(This is also akin, in my view, to why some people stockpile firearms.)

I do recognize that I'm using a social network to say any of this, and I'm trying to parse the idea that it's not so much the social media itself that's the Accursed Artifact as it is the social media's promise that you can feel powerful and exert some measure of control over a chaotic world.

But it also whispers to you that your enemies will never be vanquished. That there is no true victory condition, because there will always be someone or something you need to destroy. But in exchange for that understanding you will always get to feel righteous and self-assured in your actions.

It tells you that the damage you do is necessary and that once all your enemies are vanquished the world will be better, and that you will be hailed as the hero, now and forever for having done great and noble works.

And the hold of the Accursed Artifact is that at first it tells you to ignore anyone who would suggest you put the Artifact down. Then, as time goes on, it tells you not to ignore, but to attack. Because the Artifact needs you to hunger as much as it does.

I've watched warriors for progress or social justice become berserkers instead, swinging their double-edged axe around them with abandon and reveling in every drop of blood it spills without stopping to consider if the violence is doing anything productive.

The rush of power that takes hold of them as they dunk repeatedly on someone, whether or not they actually deserve it. The validation from others admiring your wit or your savagery, prompting further of same. The declarations of victory and pursuit of creative new ways to continue one's festivities.

I spend more time on social networks these days observing and listening than I do posting. Part of that is because I've watched too many people who are a delight to be around in real life become twisted, ugly versions of themselves when they take part in an online fray.

The most famous example of these, of course, is the One Ring of Sauron, which provides immeasurable power and immortality while it consumes you from the inside. And the longer you possess it, the less you are capable of letting it go.

Consumers of fantasy media and role-playing games are familiar with the trope of the Accursed Artifact: a weapon, an item of clothing, a book that grants its bearer some kind of immense power in exchange for some part of their being.

Shortly afterwards I felt sick to my whole being, I logged out of that forum, and I never returned. I'd let the inherent anonymity and rage of the medium corrupt something about me and I hated myself for it. The moment still haunts me today.

Somewhere in the middle of that argument, in which I had grown especially heated on my end of the screen, I was challenged by my opponent about knowledge of the military. And in the midst of my anger, I implied in my next comment that I had served in the armed forces. I have never in fact done so.

Sometime in the early 2000s, I got into an argument online. Yes, I know, big deal, arguments are the second-most plentiful resource on the internet besides that which a Tony-winning musical once wrote an entire number about. But I'm going somewhere with this.

And then, long after everyone who was alive at the same time has died, the movies will return, like rock versions of AMADEUS and IMMORTAL BELOVED.

So holy. Much wow.

So either the US hit an elementary school with a Tomahawk missile, Iran managed to steal Tomahawk missiles from us or our allies or we sold Tomahawk missiles to Iran. All are GREAT SCENARIOS to contemplate.

There is no phrase in modern media I am more annoyed with right now than “appears to contradict.”

ICE is lying. DHS is lying. The Trump regime is lying.

THEY HAVE BEEN CAUGHT IN LIES.

I have nothing but sympathy and hope for the Guthrie family as they plead for the safe return of their mother by whoever has abducted her.

And we need to recognize that there are families our government has targeted whose pleas are identical and no less worthy of our support.

At some point he's going to say "Listen for the last time I was not part of all that Epstein stuff. I wish I had been, though, it sounds like it was a great time!"

It will be like when OJ Simpson announced the book IF I DID IT, except this time the media will treat it like another Trumpian lark.

So ICE in Minnesota is detaining five year-olds and sending them to camps in Texas, where they might be killed by guards who claim it’s a suicide, and then found not guilty of inaction to save the child. This is the hellscape we are supposed to call a Great Nation.

ICE: "Stop calling us Nazis."

ALSO ICE: "Let's do our own version of the opening scene from INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS."

I wish my cynical mind could just enjoy THE ODYSSEY trailer for what it is without being prematurely exhausted about the forthcoming posts claiming "The Shocking Way that THE ODYSSEY (2026) Connects to TROY (2004)!"

And we’ve made him President, twice, because oh no what if a highly qualified woman, with several years of experience in governance and statecraft, were elected instead. (10/10)