The Cult of Competence: How We Were Gaslit Into Believing Humanity Is Smarter Than It Is
Once you strip away the corporate PR, the soft-focus documentaries, and the TED Talk civilization we're spoon-fed, you’ll find something both obvious and disturbing: Most people are deeply, irreparably incompetent. Not in a cynical or cruel sense—but in a literal, cognitive, spiritual, and psychological one.
We’re not living in an enlightened global society. We’re living in a glorified daycare for post-adolescents—a padded playpen administered by petty bureaucrats and narcissistic “leaders” whose core qualification is their ability to form cliques, mimic authority, and bluff their way into influence.
Julión Álvarez, the U.S. Treasury, and the Inconvenient Truth About Music, Money, and Memory
According to Yahoo News, Mexican singer Julión Álvarez had to cancel his Texas concert after his U.S. visa was revoked—again. This situation underscores the complexities artists may face when their professional activities intersect with broader geopolitical and legal issues. While Álvarez has not been formally charged with any crimes, the recurring scrutiny highlights the challenges in navigating international regulations and reputational risks.
Beneath the Quiet Hills: Timothy Leary, LSD, and the Dark Psychedelic Legacy of Millbrook, New York
Here, in the early 1960s, the sprawling Hitchcock Estate became ground zero for one of the most radical and controversial chapters in American cultural history. At its center was Timothy Leary, the Harvard psychologist-turned-psychedelic evangelist, whose experiments with LSD weren’t just about science — they were about rewriting the very nature of human consciousness. But the story of Millbrook is far more than just a tale of drugs and counterculture. It’s a labyrinth of shadowy government ties, elite family secrets, occult undertones, and a communal search for transcendence that veered dangerously close to madness.
The Age of the Grounded Savage
The world is loud now. Loud with half-truths, corporate smirks, fake apologies, algorithms that watch us closer than our parents ever did, and customer service reps who somehow say everything without saying a damn thing. Empathy’s been rebranded as a weakness. “Understanding” has become the welcome mat for abuse. And people still want you to play by the old rules—smile, wait your turn, don’t make a fuss—while they bulldoze boundaries and call it “standard policy.”
How to Travel Without a REAL ID or Passport (and Sometimes Without Any ID)
Traveling without a REAL ID or passport in the U.S. and neighboring regions is possible, but it requires careful planning and awareness of current regulations. This guide covers domestic travel within the U.S., as well as trips to the Caribbean, Canada, and Mexico, providing practical advice and official resources.
FedExposed: The Global Delivery Cartel That’s Failing Us All
In the realm of global logistics, FedEx has long been perceived as a paragon of efficiency and reliability. However, beneath this polished exterior lies a series of systemic failures, ethical controversies, and customer service nightmares that paint a starkly different picture. This article aims to unravel the myriad issues plaguing FedEx, from delivery mishaps to labor disputes and beyond.
The Empathy Failure
In the West, “helping” has become something of a branding exercise. We talk about assistance the way we talk about customer service—efficient, outsourced, emotionally disengaged. Institutions parade their “humanitarian initiatives” on annual reports. Companies tout “corporate responsibility” like a side hustle. Politicians gesture toward the vulnerable with language so sanitized it sounds like a marketing campaign.
Meanwhile, the actual act of helping—real, sacrificial, messy care—is nowhere to be found. You could be bleeding in front of a hospital and still be told to make an appointment online. Try asking for housing, therapy, or legal aid and you’ll meet an intricate system of indifference: a polite refusal wrapped in bureaucratic decorum.
We don't help people anymore. We manage them.
"A Black Man in Dutchess County Doesn’t Stand a Chance”: Revisiting All in the Family and a Region Still Wrestling with Race
In a 1973 episode of the groundbreaking television series All in the Family, Henry Jefferson—one of the show's few Black characters—announces he’s leaving Queens to open a dry-cleaning business upstate, in Dutchess County, New York. Archie Bunker, the sitcom’s resident bigot and a working-class white patriarch, reacts with typical bluntness. He doesn’t believe a Black man would "stand a chance" doing business in that part of New York.
Fiction, yes—but fiction that hit like truth. Fifty years later, Archie’s sentiment lingers in the air like a faint echo. What felt like an overtly racist exaggeration in the '70s now reads as a frank preview of the systemic barriers that have stubbornly endured in New York’s Hudson Valley—particularly in Dutchess County and surrounding areas like Ulster and Columbia counties.