Welcome to my first post. In the future, the conversation and articles will be more civil, but for this first post, I think some expectations need to be set.
You Clicked. That’s on you.
Let’s start this first conversation by saying you will not see my face. Not now, not ever. If it is a video, I will use an avatar or prepared footage. The reason is practical: a large portion of those on the internet have shown that the moment an argument challenges their personal beliefs, their interest is no longer about the belief and becomes about attacking the person who challenges it. I am not interested in that conversation with those people.
So in the spirit of that decision, I have also decided that if you cannot conduct yourself like an adult in the comment section, you will be blocked — permanently and without a second thought. Not hidden, not muted, not warned. Gone. Meaningful conversations are welcome here, including disagreements. Dissent, challenge, and pushback are all welcome, as long as the person doing it is capable of basic human conduct. If you are not, the door’s behind you, use it.
If that already bothers you, then what follows is really going to be a problem.
Something has gone wrong with people. Not a little wrong. Fundamentally, structurally, maybe irreversibly wrong. The working theory for a long time was that humanity was on an upward arc. That we were, however slowly and messily, becoming more civilized, more capable of basic decency toward one another. That theory has become very difficult to defend. What we are watching right now, in real time and demonstrated across every platform and every public space both digital and physical, is regression. A large portion of the human race is devolving. They are moving in the wrong direction, and doing it proudly.
The anonymity of the internet didn’t create this. It revealed it. It handed millions of people a megaphone and zero consequences, and what came pouring out wasn’t suppressed brilliance or overlooked wisdom. What came out was the ugliest, pettiest, most small-minded version of people. These people had always been in there, sitting in the shadows waiting. Society had managed to get a grip on them, to push them back, but things changed when we started electing trash as leaders. Then the mask didn’t fall off; people took it off voluntarily and threw it in the trash.
And then those very same people, the ones furthest from basic decency, became the ones screaming the loudest by demanding it from everyone else.
Here is something the internet has collectively, catastrophically forgotten: you do not have to watch things you do not like.
That’s it. That’s the whole lesson. Nobody asked you to be here. I’m giving my opinion, that is all, and you have options. And if you wish to express them, by all means, do.
But you saw the title. You saw the thumbnail. They give you a sense of what you were getting into before you click, but often you click anyway. You keep scrolling until you find that nugget that feeds you anger, the nugget you came in looking for, and you got angry and shot down to the comments section to unload and scream nonsense into the void.
So if you brought a genuine thought, a real counterpoint, an actual perspective worth hearing, I invite you to contribute it. That conversation is welcome. It should be said upfront that I am not married to my opinions. The whole purpose of forming an opinion is to have it challenged so eventually an opinion turns into an understanding based in truth. So genuine arguments that can change my mind are welcome, because that is how a person grows. But if what you brought is rage because something challenged you and your eyes are closed to all contradictory evidence or simply because you don’t want to hear something because that might make it true, then this is not the place for you.
So I say now. The ability to change the channel still works. The back button still works. The off switch still works. Use them. Because the alternative, if you decide to come in here sideways, is that you get blocked and we continue our work without you.
There is a specific kind of person who has thrived in the current environment. They have no platform of their own, nor do they want one. They have built nothing, created nothing, contributed nothing to any conversation worth having. They are, in the most precise sense of the word, nobody, and they know it, which is exactly why they do what they do.
What they do is find someone who has offered something, who has put themselves out there and said something or made something or taken a position, and they make it their entire purpose to tear that person down for no other reason than they disagree. They are a child upset on the playground whose only intent now is to destroy. To harass. To send the same poisonous message from seventeen different accounts. To make the act of being a public voice feel like punishment.
And it is working. People are shutting up. People are walking away. People who had something worth saying are going quiet because the cost of saying it has become a sustained campaign of abuse from people who will never, in their entire lives, do anything of meaning. There is a quote from Warhammer 40k that says it best: “When you are gone, you will not be missed.” And that is exactly who these people are. Momentary noise.
This is what the internet has decided to reward. Not quality. Not courage. Not honesty. But the ability to generate enough hate in every person who partakes in their platform to ensure we collectively make each other’s lives as miserable as possible.
Well, that ends here.
Now, with all that being said, why am I here? Why am I putting myself out there? Well, I am putting forth an opinion and inviting you to help shape it further, nothing more. Because none of what I just described has convinced me to stay quiet. There are things that must be said and conversations that must be had regardless of how uncomfortable they may make some people.
When I decided to start publishing articles, I toyed with the idea of turning comments off completely. But that is counter to why I am doing this in the first place. I want to start a conversation, not publish a rant, and the existence of people who will hate me for saying them is not a good enough reason to stop.
But I also want to clarify that I am not special. I have an opinion and an internet connection, and that is the full extent of what separates me from anyone else doing this. The difference I hope here is that I welcome counterpoints because they help me sculpt a more considered opinion. So how do I handle things I don’t like on the internet? When someone online says something I can’t stand, I unsubscribe and walk away. I click “Do not recommend this channel,” but only as a last resort. Because if they are saying something I don’t like and I cannot define why I don’t like it, I feel it is my job to continue watching or reading them until the reason for my discomfort becomes clear. Then if something genuinely needs to be said, I find a way to say it directly, privately, and with respect because that is how a person handles disagreement, not by screaming into a public comment section like the world owes them an audience.
A Word About What Comes Next
This first article was personal. It was meant to be. It was the explanation, the context, the terms of engagement laid out plainly before anything else gets said.
What comes next will be more researched, more structured, more focused on the ideas themselves. But the conclusions will not be softened and the punches will not be pulled. If something rises to the point that I feel I need to publicly say something, then I will say it plainly so any with counterpoints know exactly where I stand and what to address in their response.
Lastly, let me address my relationship with AI directly.
I am a writer. Every word you hear or read is mine. I use AI the way a carpenter uses a level. It tells me if something is off. It often suggests maybe I should rephrase something because it is too blunt and I sound like a dick. Beyond that, the work is the work, and it is mine.
Everyone seems to be demonizing AI right now, so let me offer a different image. A blank canvas. That is all it is. A tool, not a final product, and more people are beginning to understand that distinction, even if the conversation hasn’t caught up yet. I will have considerably more to say about AI and its relationship with the living, but that is a conversation for another day.
