I am tired.
Waking up in the middle of the night here in Australia is dangerous.
No, it is not the fear of a giant spider about to launch itself onto your face or a snake in the loo that gives me the shakes.
My biggest fear is that I will not control myself, and I will delve into the news of the moment. The land of the red, white and blue is awake when I should be snoring. Of late, I am getting too many updates from the land of the Orange Psycho. Not pretty.
This little guy does not scare me…how about you?
I will find things in the news or on YouTube to feed my jones and “keep me up to date”. It’s also a great place to find some insightful journalism. OK, YouTube is not journalism; it is my chance to catch up with the daily bullshit that comes out of the Orange Cankle Monster and his roomful of tools. It’s an avalanche of lies and vitriol and racism and fear that I choose to watch.
It doesn’t help me get back to sleep.
I need to make better choices for my soul. Does anyone need to know the daily movements of their fucked up leader? I’ve stated this before that this is history in the making and that is why I am glued. It’s going to happen without me watching, and if I miss a highlight, 10,000 other creators will tell me about it later.
Unless, of course, everyone is silenced as a terrorist.
I dip my toe into socials (Insta-Facebitch-Substack) on my laptop and try to avoid that scrolling disease on my hand-held monkey on my back.
I feed the Algo-beast by writing here on Substack. I came across a piece by Sam Harris (Author-Podcaster) that said some things that truly resonated with me.
Let me share what Mr. Harris has said:
The work I’ve done for my entire adult life has been predicated on one belief: That there is value in the pursuit of truth and compassion for our fellow human beings. I have always assumed as a matter of faith that — whether in journalism or in my work in politics - it is an honorable endeavor to do my small part to try to ground The Discourse in facts and a sense of shared humanity.
But lately, my faith has been shaken by the fear that even trying to do this work is actually the opposite of good - that unintentionally, even the best, most earnest journalism and media participation contributes to the larger problem destroying our society, all because The Discourse has changed.
The Discourse is now algorithmically manipulated to make us hate each other.
The people who now own The Discourse need us to keep participating in these public spaces so they can wring monetizable engagement out of their platforms.
So a louder and louder voice in my brain keeps asking a question: Doesn’t that logically mean that by posting, speaking out, and participating in any way — even through deeply reported journalism — that we are giving the algorithm owners yet more of the “content” that they need to keep their noise machines going?
This voice is countered by the other voice - the one that knows everyone should not stop participating in our democracy, and not stop trying to make their voices heard. That is a surrender. I am in awe of so many people still — even at this dark hour — persistently trying to do the right thing, still trying to ground The Discourse in fact and humanity.
I don’t have answers (yet) to this argument rattling around inside my brain. I don’t know which voice will ultimately prevail in my already-noisy mind, and so I’m still just plugging away at the work I’ve been doing (hence why I posted this!).
But I can sense this becoming a spiritual conundrum for me. I know that I increasingly feel an inkling of shame whenever I click the “post” or “reshare” buttons on these platforms - even when I’m clicking those buttons to try to amplify great journalism and valuable messages reminding everyone that we are all in this together.
I know we’re all in this together. But I worry that by posting that — or posting really anything — it may inadvertently help those monetizing the notion that we’re not.
Sam, I feel your pain. It has driven me to retreat from the socials. But when we are all disconnected, this ability to share feelings and thoughts is valid for me. Or am I preaching to the choir?
Debating seems to be over. Not because some racist show pony was murdered, but because we are in our own echo chambers. We are eating our brothers and sisters alive online. And now it is leaking (even more so) into our so called civil society and violence is increasing.
Here…watch this video by Shahid Bolsen and/or read the excerpt below…
“I've said many, many times, you have to erect your partitions around your discourse, around your people. Around what you let into your mind or you're going to lose your focus and you're going to lose your purpose and you're going to get confused and you're going to make bad decisions, going to make wrong decisions, unjust decisions, immoral decisions because youl et yourself get provoked.”-Bolsen
Our enemies are not each other. Our enemies are not people who do not look like us, pray like us, or dance like us.
The enemy is the system. This system of criminals and oligarchs is running the world—the billionaires who own the corporations and our media. I am looking at you, Murdoch, Ellison, Zuckerberg, Musk, etc. This is a crime that has no borders.
Who thought we could try to match colonisation?
All power and all wealth are now in the hands of a few. They are cutting up everything into pieces, and you are not getting a crumb. Putin basically has America in his hands with his fat Donald puppet, and Donald is making every dollar he can for his cronies and family while telling you every day he is making something GREAT.
In the movies, he would be locked up or sent spiralling into hell. Unfortunately, this is not the cinema.
You may too be too young to recall the Pentagon Papers. They were a 7,000-page top-secret document showing the USA’s involvement in Viet Nam from 1945-1968. They were leaked to the public by military analyst Daniel Ellsberg. The release sparked a landmark Supreme Court battle over press freedom and the right to publish government secrets, and it contributed to the government's loss of public trust and the eventual downfall of President Nixon.
This article appeared on September 15, 2025 in the New York Times.
The headline reads:
Anatomy of Two Giant Deals: The U.A.E. Got Chips. The Trump Team Got Crypto Riches.
A lucrative transaction involving the Trump family’s cryptocurrency firm and an agreement giving the Emiratis access to A.I. chips were connected in ways that have not been previously reported.
You may have noticed trips to Israel by Steve Witkoff, Trump’s Middle East Envoy, were framed with him going to Israel to talk. This article shows there is more to his travel.
Read the article. Look at this image (above) and tell me you don’t smell corruption.
(Note: Donald Trump is now suing the New York Times regarding their reporting before his last election. WTF?)
Trump has crowed about his visit to the Middle East for months. And remember, during that trip, he did not visit Israel. He does not care about Gaza or the genocide.
He only cares about his bank account.
They are coming for everything that is not locked down. Even your mind.
Yes, maybe I should talk to the trees, the birds, the whales and see a friend…or make a new one.
We all should.
In real life.
Enjoy the playlist…bit of a theme…