Tech, Power, and the New American Dread-Machine

My all-around anxiety/dread/existential despair of the subtly encroaching "oh fuck" cloud of the partnerships between the government and technology has only been getting more...intense. Anybody else? Just me? That's ok as it's partially why I wanted to focus this week on top troubling stories I came across in the areas of tech, politics/government, immigration, and circus-act headlines like this.

My despair (which has since turned into a kind of muted malaise) also spiked after catching wind of the major conflict with Iran now despite President Trump, obviously fresh off of reading The Art of War, stating, "NOW IS THE TIME FOR PEACE," after dropping "multiple 30,000-pound bunker-busters on the Fordo nuclear site, as well as facilities at Natanz," according to the New York Times. Trump has since declared peace but it's truly giving us Bush Jr. vibes.

I also noticed that the White House released a very strange, extremely long, pro-bombing-Iran marketing article on the official White House website to positively shape (and maybe trap hesitant politicians) the Iran war narrative titled, "WHAT THEY ARE SAYING: President Trump’s Display of Peace Through Strength." The thing was filled with direct quotes of support (“peace through strength", etc.) from over 70 politicians, all appearing to be pulled from the media, X, Truth Social and wherever else they could find praise.

Desperate? Yes? Terrifying? Oh yes. Are we out of the woods yet. Hell no.

Which is why all this and more are all very strange efforts to construct consensus around a "patently illegal" act we all went through over the weekend and hence why this "oh fuck" cloud, with the help of big tech execs literally joining the Army Reserve as lieutenant colonels, continues to grow in my mind.

With daily news breaks of DOGE getting the OK from the courts to snoop around social security, SF Mayor Daniel Lurie in bed with crypto/blockchain billionaire Chris Larsen which I wrote about a few weeks ago and, most recently, OpenAI quietly continuing to partner with the DoD, everything looks and feels like the "surveillance state" is not coming but most definitely here. Why and for what reason? I find myself asking. There's no single answer which, unfortunately, is kind of the point. Instead, we've become, to use a phrase coined and supported by Walter Lippmann, American writer, reporter, and political commentator, the "bewildered herd," a public at the mercy of media propaganda subtly shaping opinion, organizing society, and quietly managing the workings of democracy. This "herding" is becoming even more apparent to me as I've been reading (and probably need to take a break from) The Surveillance Valley by Yasha Levine, a book that argues and proves that the internet originated as a military project with surveillance at its core. Worth the reading if you want to start sounding like me.

Ironically, the algorithm is fully aware of my neurosis because it keeps feeding content like this from Gossip Goblin though, it is pretty cool...

That aside...my immediate circle (granted, I don't get out much and when I do, the last thing anyone wants to hear is my take on who how the end is near) or major news media platforms (404 Media, Lever, Wired, etc. have been doing great work), seems unaware of the slow moving techno-autocratic take over happening everyday, one hour at a time. Again, maybe they are and don't want to discuss it with me. If so, all good! No harm, no foul. But the tides of freedom, autonomy, and even independent thought - what we’ve long believed to be our rights as American citizens - now feel as though they’re slowly but surely slipping through the same fingers that have been giving it all away for free.

Take, for example, only a few days ago, 404 broke news that "Local police in Oregon casually offered various surveillance services to federal law enforcement officials from the FBI and ICE, (as well as) to other state and local police departments as part of an informal email and meetup group of crime analysts..." Horrible, terrifying, and unconstitutional.

Now, put that side by side Cato Institutes new report finding that, "As of June 14, ICE had booked into detention 204,297 individuals (since October 1, 2024, the start of fiscal year 2025) where, of those book-ins, "...65 percent, or 133,687 individuals, had no criminal convictions." Seeing that, one really has to step back and go 4 Non Blondes "What's Up" in this mother fucker. Then, on Monday, SCOTUS gave Trump another win, granting him to restart "swift removals of migrants to countries other than their homelands." The majority didn't even go into detail or provide analysis or reasoning for their decision.

The only thing "illegal" about the human beings ICE is picking up (and literally sending to Guantanamo with the ongoing help of Palantir) is that they hold immigrant status, are brown, and apparently in direct conflict with Miller/Trump's administration goals of turning America from a land of diversity and remove all who push feelings and sentiment of being "anti-white."

"I think there is a definite anti-white feeling in this country," Trump told Time in an interview published on Tuesday. "I don't think it would be a very tough thing to address, frankly. But I think the laws are very unfair right now." (Reuters)

In reality, they are immigrants (which America has always had and benefits from) that are either in-between getting citizenship or trying their best to start the process which, according to Cato's data again show that "93% of ICE book-ins were never convicted of any violent offenses" yet being treated and sent off to a location meant for terrorists based off the Trump's administrations word. Rubio himself said to "forget the intelligence" which is nothing but a blanket statement for every single illegal, damaging, life shattering thing they are going.

This skewing and muddying of truth would be all to familiar to Jewish political theorist Hannah Arendt who wrote in the essay "Truth and Politics" almost 60 years ago:

"The story of the conflict between truth and politics is an old and complicated one...even in Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia, it was more dangerous to talk about concentration and extermination camps, whose existence was no secret, than to hold and to utter "heretical" views on anti-Semitism, racism, and Communism. What seems even more disturbing is that to the extent to which unwelcome factual truths are tolerated in free countries they are often, consciously or unconsciously transformed into opinions."

All of the above isn't to say that talking about, dwelling to death, and being all-consumed by all of this is any sort of real action. Ironically, much of what we deem as "action" (myself included) is posting on the same social media platforms that benefit directly from this rage-bait and terror. Recently I got off of Instagram and a few months ago Substack, both owned and invested in by tech lords and broligarchs that siphon content and user data for their own good. In the grand scheme of things, it's nothing but for me personally, it's something. This isn't a flex because I know people need to live their lives, the best the can, when they can, and the way they want.

But, my goal with this newsletter, more short stories (coming soon!), and poetry, is to bring awareness to these events to do my best to keep light on it all. Chris Hedges, American journalist, author, and commentator has been writing about war-torn countries, depraved religious fanaticism, the Palestinian genocide, and political/legal corruption for years. Despite it all getting worse, he continues, giving this simple but impossible task to, "bear witness" and bring awareness to it, however he can.

To me, this is honorable and true; a way to confront the horrors of your time without turning away. Not for praise, prizes, or promises of position, but to perhaps stand as someone others can look to in the future, when they’re facing the same travesties and all hope seems lost.

Part of me wonders if this rising tide of terror in me is due to me getting older. I am, sadly, inevitably, doing just that the day. Fact of life and nothing to fret about or do about it. Such is the fate of all men and I, being as such, am no different. In Plato's Phaedo (also known as On the Soul), a dialogue between Socrates leading up to his infamous death via hemlock in an Athenian prison, Socrates said,

"...death is a release from the body and a return to the soul's true home."

Mortality aside, when I feel these flare ups of technological hard determinism, I can't help but visualize myself as that one Simpson's meme of Grandpa Abraham Jebediah Simpson II angrily waving his rickety fist at the intangible cloud floating above his head while the rest of the world looks on, ignores him, and chuckles.

Am I yelling at something worth yelling at? Is anyone else yelling with me? Will all this yelling be futile in the end?

I'm not always sure but the growing "doomerism," a term loosely applied to people who are extremely pessimistic or fatalistic (if you've met me...you get it), may be because I'm surrounded by news, work, and writing about it most days. The other part of me, the one that wants to read and know and be able to situate myself as much as possible to write, create and share what I have can't stop.

I don’t believe I could be forced to stop. Especially now, when truth is being openly gutted and defunded, it’s more important than ever that we, as a unified people, hold fast to what’s right: human decency, goodness, and the equitable pursuit of happiness. The powers that be, to maintain their grip, simply can’t allow that.

Anything less is to live under the boot, invisible or not.