There’s an interaction in the new movie Tony where the Anthony Bourdain character tells his chef mentor he doesn’t believe in God, and the mentor replies, “What is that? That’s like saying you don’t believe in air, but you continue to breathe.”

What’s funny to me about this sentiment—which I hear plenty of similar-orbit shit constantly by just going to AA meetings—is that it works on paper, the same way any structure of authority does. (It is not lost on me that very religious conservative Americans will say communism only works on paper but the word of God, as it is written in the Bible, is indelible.) It’s pretty easy to conceptualize of the idea that there could be something that we, as humans, are incapable of truly grasping the all-encompassing nature of out in the universe.

But that isn’t the premise that the movie talks about, and that is so often confused in these theological debates. The idea posited isn’t Can you conceptualize of a god?—the question usually asks Do you believe in God?

There is a fundamental difference between these acts. I can understand the idea of capitalism the same way I can understand the idea of communism, but I will not believe in the former the way I will the latter. With the argument surrounding some kind of higher power, these understandings of ideas against beliefs become more abstracted but the premise remains—what does your individual relationship with reality allow you to feel aligned with at a spiritual level so much that you can have faith in it?

Looking at the world, both in this moment and throughout history, I can’t believe in any sort of god that centers humanity. We are a vile species hell-bent on self-destruction—at either a massive scale through balances of power or individual scale through vice and corruption. I certainly won’t lend my belief to any god that is talked of as representing countries like the United States or Israel. Does a god that created humans to create religion, and all the subsequent death and destruction in its name, exist? Maybe, but I don’t have to—and will not—believe in that.

So often people who adhere to organized religion cherry-pick what to believe in from a religious text and excuse incongruent ideas by the passive dismissal of, “It’s not for us to understand.” This feels like such a catch-all justification for perpetuating destructive behavior or ideas without feeling the need to improve (or, perhaps, the guilt for being associated with it).

Part of it is just being sick of an ongoing genocide and settler-colonial project being justified by ‘God’s promise,’ but it’s mostly how one-dimensional a lot of theological talk feels in general public discourse. Comprehension, imagination and faith are separate concepts that get conflated and then used as justification for the selfish deeds of humanity and it’s just so goddamn stupid.

The Grove

On The Sidewalk

Swap Meet

I live in a pretty rough-and-tumble part of LA now, so on days when I go to see a movie and the theater is in a upper-middle-class outdoor mall, it can be quite a diverse experience of people-watching.

There’s an interesting parallel between the rise of guys like Elon Musk, the Trump presidency, and the simultaneous adoption of and enthusiasm behind AI—it’s the dawn of a new era of the con.

Whether it was Lee or Bernays who created modern day public relations doesn’t matter so much as the effect they’ve had on the world because of it. Advertising is one thing, but the idea of PR and manipulating social dialogues around everything—as opposed to just products or investments—has brought us all to this era of un-reality in the west.

Taking a look at Musk, for all who laud him, he has not actually built anything. He doesn’t know anything about cars or rockets, he purchased the assets that have built his wealth (or built them on government subsidies while being ‘anti-socialism’). He’s no inventor, shows no capacity for innovation or vision for the future. He’s just a shrewd capitalist (and a pretty big fucking idiot). Trump may have made some real estate dealings in the past but is notorious for fucking over workers (as well as lying about, well, more than I can link to). These are men who keep their heads above water because of how American culture has adopted public relations on the thoroughfare of public debate.

Yet these men are lauded by many for their ‘leadership.’ Wealth supersedes any questions in relation to morality, justice, equality, or even legality. It’s repugnant.

Drawing Lines

Somewhere along the line, the idea of what you make of yourself became less important than how what you make of yourself represents the capitalist ideal. Social intangibles like respect and dignity and honor have long evaporated from the air we now collectively breathe, and everything is about money and power. Being a shitty person has a proportional relationship to how much money you have at your disposal to ride out any negative news cycle that might carry your name with it. Do we really think Mark Zuckerberg will be affected by the fact his superyacht didn’t help a boat in need?

And so a new age of deceit is upon us. It’s no wonder that the people largely associated with these ideas also adopt AI so completely—to them, cutting corners for financial reasons is more important than any natural, human process. Art does not matter to these people—creation is an inconvenient step in the process of financial viability. Existence, and its potential, are secondary concerns to capital gains.

The MBA idea that everything is business has overwhelmed our relationship with inspiration. Labor is no longer about meaning something, it’s about cost-effectiveness. These people have adopted the idea that financial equations are more important than human endeavors, and so aesthetic (or any constructed) results that suit any need of production are more important than creative processes.

Losing It

This is a cancer upon humanity. I’m not saying that every use of AI is bad, or that every statement to the media is a lie, or that every businessman is a crook. But we have entered an era where the potential truth of the internet has been consumed by the dishonest nature of advertising—and along with it, those who profit are becoming shells of human beings who are only icons of wealth, shedding all other traits in regards to empathy, kindness, dignity, respect, or honor. They are the scum of the earth infecting growing swaths of the population with this grotesque self-centered outlook that defeats the purpose of our collective existence.

Capitalism is beyond an economic crime, it is the death knell of what makes people a part of the natural world. With the technological advancements we’re developing now, if it remains as influential as it has been over the past couple centuries, we are certainly doomed to lose a majority of our civilization to completely inhuman ways of being.

Never trust a liberal. The whole Vote Blue No Matter Who schtick has always been a joke, as the DNC has always had more interest in keeping leftist interests at bay than actually defeating anyone on the right. As The New York Times outlines:

“We are preparing for the next war that is coming,” said Jonathan Cowan, the president of Third Way, a leading centrist Democratic group, revealing to The New York Times a new $15 million effort between now and 2028 to discredit democratic socialism.

Politics have been relatively mask-off since the second Trump election, even though the Democrats aligned in both 2016 and 2020 to stifle the campaigns of Bernie Sanders—those were never really discussed. Now, at least, they admit they fully consider anything to the left of market-based neoliberalism as big of a threat as the far-right.

Though this has been pretty common knowledge for anyone left of fascism for some time, I’m glad democrats are now openly admitting this type of political alignment so I can scoff at anyone who tells me that not voting for one of them in any future election is a wasted vote. Liberalism has always enabled this country’s drift into what it is now and there’s no way to have a conscience and support it any longer.

Richter and Key, in a photo that totally makes Key look fatter than she is (I doubt she will mind)

Sometimes I get half-heartedly resentful at these two because owning cats means I can’t just leave my world behind and move to Slovenia on a dime, but then one of them does something funny and my plans to abandon America fade.

I’ve known since I was young that I always wanted cats—and, later on, maybe some goats—as opposed to kids, and I think that’s an okay thing to admit. Children aren’t for everyone (and not that pets are, either—it’s all just preference).