Blogversary, 2025


I started this thought-stream in 2016. Since then, it’s interesting to watch how my interests have changed focus. I think my interests have changed in ways that reflect the changes in the internet, politics, and how society decides who and what is important, when.

From that perspective, it all looks like a large game of media football – how to keep America’s waning powers of concentration focused on whatever bouncing ball we’re supposed to vote for, buy products from, or whatever. I used to feel, right around 2016, that it was possible to make a point, help make things better, teach good ideas, do the right thing, etc. I think that many of us would have said that religion was an issue of dwindling importance, but then we all discovered that religion was simply a mask behind which there bubbled deep and broad hatred – not religious hatred, but abstract hatred. I thought it was religious people that hated anyone who wasn’t like them, but it turned out, to many of our surprise, that what we were looking at was an aspect of hatred that masked a deeper frustrated hatred from the losers of a class war. As the billionaires get richer and richer and richer, the remains of the middle class have been painted as effete and ineffective, out of touch, corrupt, etc., while the upper class managed to somehow pull of a Satan-level trick of convincing the lower class that they’re on the side of the working class. From there it was easy to demonize the thin troupe of progressives in American politics, and repeatedly flip the game table over, “surprise!” Some people talk blindly about a second American civil war, and don’t seem to realize that the first one never ended, reconstruction was mooted, and the deep dark forces that created the US as a corporate oligarchy built on slavery and wage slavery had gained control of their own regulators and were tired of having to pretend to play fair.

Of course, there are complex and interesting characters on all sides of this period, but I think the main characteristic is resentment – resentment at anything: liberals, smurfs, LGBTQ people, pronouns vaccines, and mom telling you to clean up your room. I don’t know which came first, the resentment or the toxic masculinity, but the two are inextricably entwined, to the point where it’s almost a parody: you don’t need to punch a neo-nazi in the face, you just convince them that they wouldn’t do it if they were woke and no less character than the US Secretary of Defense will jump in against it.

The public internet has changed as a result of commercial pressure and (perhaps) automation and AI. I don’t think the AI is the problem, so much as the zillions of people who go chasing after any new business model. There was the year when everyone was on onlyfans. Then, the media channels were filled with people trying to fool everyone into looking at their onlyfans. Or their travel blog. I have a friend in China who recently went to one of the famous mountain areas and it was chock full of “influencers” and their camera crews, jockeying so they could take a couple de rigeur shots of some classic view. Because the big platforms now take ad dollars, we no longer see any of the amateurs we watched 10 years ago, those folks have been deplatformed by their competitors or by the platforms that got tired of writing them checks.

Krea AI and mjr: “the crowd of influencers fight in the desert to photograph the last tree.”

Basically, our politics are the same kind of crap: once the republicans finally produced a cadre of voters that don’t care about the truth, they realized that they don’t have to waste their time to tell the truth, any more. Nowadays “Baghdad Bob” would be white house press secretary. I’m obviously not going to blame AI, but the quality and authenticity level of everything has gotten so low – very quickly – with almost no negative impact, thereby setting up a feedback loop. The problem is that, some of us would get upset if the administration gave briefings to the Supreme Court that had been written by the famous litigator ChatGPT, AI Esq., but neither the Supreme Court or the White House cares. If they don’t care, the press corps don’t care, and eventually nobody does. I guess the only truth I am happy to learn from all of this is that the press corps never did care, and didn’t do a very good job pretending. We gave them too much leeway.

I used to really, really worry about this stuff. There were times that I was up ’till 4am writing a blog posting that was thoughtful, fact-checked, referenced, and not embarrassing. The slowly dawning reality is that the internet will prefer jiggly boobs to any kind of Socratic argument. And, now that jiggly boobs are just a matter of tuning a prompt and finding the right software, you can join the foamy crest of the vast wave of crap that is about to break on all of the media channels. Honestly, it’s so bad and stupid that I feel bad and unreasonable even worrying about it, when Israel is openly starving people as a matter of public policy, and our “elected representatives” are “representing” us by sending them more weapons. Most Americans are not aware that there is a law saying you can’t ship US weapons to an end-user that may deploy them in war crimes ( <— Israel ) but the White House just decided to ignore the law. It’s little things like that that add up to the Turnip administration which feels free to ignore the law; why not? Everybody else does. The people who are supposed to be “good guys” [seriously, how the flaming fuck did anyone mistake Joe Biden for a progressive?] will look the other way, just as hard as the “bad guys” who seem to be jumped up on the adrenaline rush sociopaths get by hurting people who can’t defend themselves. Yee ha. They don’t care if it’s Palestinians or Israelis – they just want to see someone who is less fortunate than themselves, burn. Because watching someone else burn is one way of knowing you’re better off then they are.

He’s a truly creepy being. Speaking of sociopaths: he uses his very presence and his words and voice to immiserate a nation of 160 million people (along with a comparable number who love it).

There is no way to hurt him. You can probably imagine a villain in a well-made samurai movie, whose special power is simply that he does not care. Anyone who cares about anything, is crushed and defeated because if you care for something you try to defend it, and he’s just going to smear shit all over it.

It’s stupid and it’s selfish but, “Zoomgate” was one of the things that broke my world. I spent 35 years traveling around the world, designing security systems, teaching classes, responding to incidents, etc. I was busy. I was well known and well paid. One of the most obvious beginner-level things that I used to tell people about, starting in the early 90s with the Clinton administration, was to not build private networks so as to bypass security: just find your security people and squeeze them or ask them why whatever it is you want to is a bad idea. Honestly, when you have a president who is blatting about “maybe we’ll nuke ${country}” to the entire world, there’s really not much point trying to tell who’s on the conference call. I mean, if Pete Hegseth is your SECDEF, who cares? I suddenly realized that everything I had worked to do was wasted. Well, I’ve made some sharp things that were pretty. I’ve done what I wanted. Now, I realize that I would have been better off if I had just cheated on the stock market (I had the chance several times) and pocketed a bunch of money, paid some fines, and spent the rest of my life perfecting my edge-polishing and Chinese-style noodles.

By the way, have any of you made scallion pancakes? I don’t need to write recipes any more, because you can just ask ChatGPT in real time and it’ll tell you – and it’ll be right. I no longer need to do any of this stuff.

I have been productive this year, though quiet. I know that some of you would be amused by or care about some of the stuff I have been building but I’m no longer getting any kind of emotional reward feedback from the internet, except for a few trickles here and there when I am able to do something suitably weird. My personal site hosting service has decided to complain about the performance of my site (I get 20 visits/month and am running bog stock wordpress) as a way of upselling me off my 25 year old service level, and I think I’m going to probably let @ranum.com go. Who cares? All that matters is whatever’s in front of me now, I guess.

The time of reckoning is near, and I probably will be sitting on the side with a big smile on my face.

Oh, and have you noticed how Instagram and Facebook have puffed up with right-wingers who are cheerfully promoting the stupid whatever? I’ve been shocked, again, at the decay in quality of the dialogue. Here, I used to spend hours writing pieces on Argument Clinic and now if you make a comment on Instagram there’s a good chance you’ll get zerged by proto-fascists throwing down well-memorized skeptical tropes. It is not even worth taking your blade out of the scabbard. I’m no Socrates, obviously, but I wonder how the poor fellow was able to wander around Athens without picking up an oar and giving the occasional Musashi-style drubbing. One of the subtle details I did not consider, as the propaganda noose tightened around us all, is that we’re basically going to be stuck arguing with religious idiots, again, who get all their arguments from Fox News Entertainment. For one example:
Me: well F-35s aren’t invulnerable especially when they are running away since they put out a lot of IR.
Rando: what do you know? Proof! Citation needed!

-or-

Me: well, F-35s aren’t invulnerable especially when they are running away since they put out a lot of IR.
Rando: I served in the military, who dafuq are you? I used to see F-35s in the distance and they are great!

I’ll still be around but I have less and less to say, I think.

Oddly, one of the things that really makes me sad is when some instagram account that is trying to get people to subscribe to a fake onlyfans account full of AI generated images, posts on insty and immediately gets 1200 comments that are all “I love you” and “please contact me.” I don’t think humanity is in any danger of wiping itself out by incelitis due to AI image generation, but it sure makes me think that Stephen Pinker is smoking something when he says humanity is going to mature into a luminously brilliant thing. At first I stole a riff from my dear commenters here and would make slightly oblique comments like, “are you a mutant? in your last image you had 9 fingers and now you have 11!” but the fakers literally know they don’t have to care: if they can get 1200 idiots to sign up to an only fans account – even if they quit in a month – that’s a lot of money.

Comments

  1. StevoR says

    Congratulations and commiseratiosn I guess too.

    FWIW I don’t think anyone actually mistook Biden for a progressive – but he was certainly vastly better than the reichwing alternative.

  2. StevoR says

    PS. Defeatism doesn’t get us anywhere good and there’s still a lot of good people trying to make the world better and often doing so albiet usually in smaller ways than we’d like. Yeah, I have to keep reminding myself of that too. Don’t give up and please do keep writing and speaking out still.

  3. lochaber says

    A bit of topic, but hopefully not angrily so…

    I went to get takeout tonight, and got a beer and a snack in the mean time, read a book, and watched the people and cars and such on the sidewalk/road outside.

    Some jackhole pulled up, opened their door, and dumped a takeout container, and then sped off. I really don’t get littering, and it bugs me, but apparently I’m a minority in that…

    Anyways, within a minute or two, some of the local pigeons approached, and proceeded to eat trash noodles, which was probably the funniest thing I’ve witnessed this month, if not this year…

    I don’t know what it is with pigeons, but when I see them eating abandoned people food, it gets pretty energetic, and often involves the larger bits getting flung into the air. (I should probably look into this…)

    So, the pigeons would every now and then, grab the end of a noodle, and then flip their head up and shake their head about while trying to swallow as much of the noodle as possible. Which resulted in sometimes upwards of ~6 inches of noodle flailing about in the air above the pigeon, and I found this hilarious. All while they are bobble-headedly walking around, and completely ignoring automobiles passing like ~3″ from them, and just casually wriggling noodles in the air here and there. A couple seagulls showed up, and scarfed down a lot, but they weren’t quite as amusing, and were more scared of automobiles. Got another beer and stuck around for a while just to continue watching pigeons flailing noodles in the air…

    Back to topic, I didn’t really pay much attention to politics and such up until 9/11, and I felt like I was the only person in my social groups who thought all these anti-terrorism laws/measures were a bad idea, unnecessary, and would just get used to enforce tyranny, and I was always chided for taking things out of context, or not realizing how much we need to fight terrorism or whatever. And here we are, this is the “I told you so” I never wanted to be able to utter. I never wanted kids, and have never been more glad to not have produced any.

    I don’t think we (as a species) will make it out of this – I think it’s completely likely that some small groups will continue to exist as small, forager/hunter-gatherers in a weird post apocalyptic hellscape, maybe some of those groups may even be able to survive the upcoming climate catastrophe, but I don’t think they will be able to rebuild any sort of technical/industrial society, we pulled up the ladder behind us, and burnt the bridge in front of us…

  4. astringer says

    I well up with tears with the couplet:
    McGowan:” I could have been someone”
    MacColl: “Well so could anyone”
    Your post reminded me of the affect this song had though my life: I vowed never to deeply regret the thousands of missed opportunities that one will witness riding at the ‘front of the train of knowledge’. The alternative is blinkers, mediocrity and Pirsig’s gumption pouring down the drain of apathy. You, Marcus, have been someone.

    ” Don’t give up, ‘Cause you have friends”.

  5. lurker753 says

    Fuel Rat #1

    A simple idea became a tribe, eager to spread to any worlds that will have them, with the same simple idea: “We have generosity; you don’t; any questions?” (Yes, one question: “How do I join?”)

  6. rwiess says

    it takes time. The majority of the country now sees what a failure Trump is, and we’ve got 3 1/2 years to go unless he drops dead earlier. Our job is to minimize damage, hang on, vote, and take to the streets if he tries to cancel elections. I expect this country will learn the hard lesson, and residual Magats will retreat into resentment as the rest of us regain the reins of government and begin to put it back together.

  7. Pierce R. Butler says

    How charmingly quaint that Krea AI thinks that taking photographs involves cameras

  8. Jazzlet says

    Not just pretty stabby things, the Eye Gouger sees regular use, and I handle the ash bowl at least four times a day – it still holds all the drug foils beautifully. The bread slasher sees less use as I am making less bread, but does see use. All three are a pleasure to use, and will see me out, this is a good time to thank you for the small improvements they bring to my life. All of that said, I have been unsure of the point of saying much for some time, it doesn’t stop me entirely, but I am less voluble than I was for most of my life.

  9. macallan says

    I suddenly realized that everything I had worked to do was wasted. Well, I’ve made some sharp things that were pretty. I’ve done what I wanted.

    Well, there are a few people who like to read about pretty stabby things and how to make them, so not a complete waste ;)

  10. says

    SteveoR@#1:
    FWIW I don’t think anyone actually mistook Biden for a progressive

    No, nobody with any sense did. There were folks at DKos who had really drunk deep of the “hobson’s choice” kool-ade and convinced themselves that he was absolutely great, simply because he wasn’t obviously a turd. Then, when it turned out he was completely out to lunch, there was a circular firing squad for all the naysayers who had been saying that all along.

    I think that (overgeneralizing here!) progressives tend to be concerned with fairness more than their alternates, which makes them weak since they are always hoping for better than they’re going to get.

  11. says

    Pierce R. Butler@#8:
    How charmingly quaint that Krea AI thinks that taking photographs involves cameras…

    There’s a great quaintness to all representation of devices in fiction (or the present, I suppose) – you know, the “save” icon is still a 1.44Mb floppy disk, and telephones absolutely do not look like telephones any more. This is probably a field that demands a semiotician, if only because full oticians are not easy to find.

  12. says

    lochaber@#3:
    I don’t know what it is with pigeons, but when I see them eating abandoned people food, it gets pretty energetic, and often involves the larger bits getting flung into the air. (I should probably look into this…)

    Hey, there’s an idea for an instagram channel! Lay out meals for critters and do musical overlays and clever shots with cameras hidden in the corn flakes, etc. Wait, I know, I know, like everything else – it’s been done. I confess I am still a traditionalist, in that I insist the internet was made for animal pictures.

    I don’t think we (as a species) will make it out of this – I think it’s completely likely that some small groups will continue to exist as small, forager/hunter-gatherers in a weird post apocalyptic hellscape, maybe some of those groups may even be able to survive the upcoming climate catastrophe, but I don’t think they will be able to rebuild any sort of technical/industrial society, we pulled up the ladder behind us, and burnt the bridge in front of us…

    I tend to agree. It’s as if Mad Max is a documentary of the future. Except that I don’t think people will be as nice. Though an American version would be great: you’d have mobs of rednecks “rolling coal” in huge pickup trucks, and ammunition would be the currency, which would mean that the plot would be about recovering a nuke or two… Seriously, humans are such stupid fuckers that we’d be trying to get and use nukes, in a blasted future, because, blast it fucking more why don’t we?

  13. says

    astringer@#5:
    The alternative is blinkers, mediocrity and Pirsig’s gumption pouring down the drain of apathy.

    I loved the bit about “gumption traps” and (as you may imagine) I have experienced a few. Why, the other day I was perfecting the polish on a 14″ neo-seax, when a thing happened that took a small chip out of the edge. Of course, I was able to bring the edge back and generally improve things anyway, but it was 6 hours more work and a considerable load of gumption.

    Right now I am stuck waiting for a pure carbide 1/4″ drill, because I can’t seem to get anything else to go through this tang and it’s becoming problematic. I know I can’t get through it with anything else, and I have to wait because the local stores no longer sell specialty parts and I can’t afford to get something snapped off and jammed in there.

  14. says

    lurker753@#6:
    A simple idea became a tribe, eager to spread to any worlds that will have them, with the same simple idea: “We have generosity; you don’t; any questions?”

    Thanks, now I am blubbering. It’s weird, isn’t it, that of the 5 companies I was involved in founding, the 3 IPOs I went through, the talks, conferences, keynotes, battles with marketing, etc, etc., the Fuel Rats are one of the things I feel I am most proud of. I still get Emails from some of the Rats: “07 boss, hope you’re OK, today we did this or that…” many of them have gone on to jobs in the industry where they are in charge of customer channels and it’s based on Fuel Rat comm discipline and ideals. I love them and am proud of them all. “Your job is to make the collective look badass and beautiful if you can, by accomplishing mighty feats then bragging tastefully about them.”
    That’s all stuff I pulled out of my capacious colon on many nights, while the fan blew on me and my gaming system hummed and buzzed and I explored places that do not quite exist. That was 2015-6, when I thought that the desire to help would usually overcome the desire to dominate, simply because it’s easier.


    I flew longshot AKA “Rat.01”. Here I am paused, trying to decide if two neutron stars are fun to fly between. I think I chose discretion as the better part of valour.

    That game had such great graphics. If only they had listened to their customers and leaned into the game’s strengths, instead of building a PVP bloodbath-o-thon for the Call of Duty set.

  15. LeftyFencer says

    You and PZ are about the only guys I trust for analysis. So don’t peter out. Get back to the forge and hammer me out a nodachi fit for a museum. I’ll want pictures and video. You have a lot of insight left in you. Share it. Tell me about how much silver I can use to coat it with so it’s a good monster-killing blade. Make art. When humanity is clustered around the arctic circle in two hundred years maybe your swords will be highly useful. Sounds like a good legacy.

  16. billseymour says

    Marcus @12:

    … telephones absolutely do not look like telephones any more.

    I still have a land line, and it’s the only phone number that I publish.  Until recently, I had a Western Electric instrument in a black bakelite case with an actual dial; but when I retired about three years ago, I found I needed to navigate various menus for government agencies, medical providers and insurance companies*.  I now have a princess phone with touchtone. 8-)

    *Aside:  remember Sarah Palin’s death panels?  We have them:  for-profit medical insurance companies that are so much more efficient, right?

  17. seachange says

    You matter to this starfish. Blog what you like, don’t blog what you don’t like. You are a free man.

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