My problem with the enemy (and I refuse to give them a more nuanced name than that) is nothing ideological.

It's that they're crazy, evil, and a solidly double digits percentage of them are possessed by demons.

And thus, they're categorically unfit for power.

I used to work 14+ hour days and have a 'no days off' mentality. This year I cut that shit off and focused on building a career and life of quality. The results are higher income, more time to enjoy life, schedule on my terms + stronger relationships. Fuck your "hustle."

The reality is 99% of people's "hustle" is just them hustling themselves. Hustling yourself out of life and into a worker cog. The exact opposite of what you want to become when you're an entrepreneur. You're becoming the same system you sought to destroy.

To build a successful business it takes way more than just plain old hard work. I am a huge believer in American grit, not American hustle. You need hard work, but if that is all you can bring to the table, you have no place running a business.

People work hard because they believe in what they're doing or they feel they have to make it happen. I get that. We have families and people counting on us. But you are failing them all when you live in your office.

We are privileged in even being able to run a business. If you are lucky enough to do that, you owe it to yourself, your loved ones, and the people counting on you to do it the right way. Be healthy. Sleep. Live your life. Be more than your career. 🖤

In the space of half a year, a new class division was ripped through American society: those who can live normally through pandemic lockdowns and restrictions versus those who can't. The two sides have a great deal of difficulty communicating across that chasm.

Of course, media and political elites are, at worst, inconvenienced by lockdowns, so news coverage is heavily slanted against the people who are really suffering from these policies. They're already as forgotten as the designated losers of globalist trade policy.

Spend a day watching mainstream media pandemic coverage, then spend the evening with people whose livelihoods have been utterly ruined by pandemic restrictions. It's like traveling from the Earth to Mars. Completely different worlds, totally different outlooks.

It's exactly like the divide between "free trade" winners and losers, people living in comfortable financial and media bubbles vs. people living in hollowed-out ghost towns with skyrocketing mortality rates. The Wuhan virus gave us a new, even bigger class of Designated Losers.

The new class divide cracked open along some economic and social fault lines that were already present and deepening, such as the growing number of people who preferred minimizing human contact while socializing online. It really is the social schism of the new century.

#NEIOH

1. Friends Of The Great Planet Earth!

Everything You Seek Is Already Within You!  Each Waking Dream Has False Teachings That  Say There Is A Special Place 'Out There' In The Skies Where People Go That Follow A Certain Doctrine.

2. And Those Same Teachers Explain There Is A Place Of Torment For Others That Arrived On A Different Part Of The Planet And Were Taught A Different Doctrine.

There Is ONE Creator That Has Been Named By Many. It Would Be Loving To Honor And Respect Another's Beliefs,

3. As In Truth, Many Have Lived In Multiple Cultures With Many Beliefs That Now Are Judged! Incarnating Over And Over Is The Joy Of The Soul Experiencing Life! The Soul Fully Understands This Is A Human Experience.

4. Wouldn't It Be Much More Relaxing And Fun To Allow Others Their Freedom, Just As You Want Yours?  Yes Indeed!  Relax And Flow!

Since The Very Beginning Of Your Self-Awareness As An Incarnate Being, You Have Probed Your World For Clues To The Meaning Of Your Existence.

5. You Have Looked In Every Conceivable Crevice And Pondered The Vastness Of The Infinite Cosmos. You Have Scrutinized The Spiritual Wisdom That Was Forthcoming From Those Who Believed Themselves To Be Knowledgeable About Such Matters.

thread of NPCs / side characters

blanket permission to use these as prompts for art or fiction, to snaffle them for #ttrpg campaigns, etc, go right ahead! i might use them myself too, in future works!

ship captain who's bound to their ship and can't step a foot off it onto land or another boat - they can swim a little in the surrounding waters, but that's it

mermaid who makes a magical trade for legs on the exact same day their human lover makes a magical trade for gills

faerie divorce lawyer who gets called onto assist with a human friend's legal troubles

the opposition vastly underestimates the lawyer's ability to run rings around contractual obligation

group of brownies who recently have taken up residence in the warmest place in a human's house - the cabinet their games console is in

Whenever people call me an elitist, I am flummoxed. I am from a working class background, I am a product of public education my entire life, and I spend my free time creating a podcast that aims to make great books accessible to all for FREE.

I am called an elitist because I believe there's a difference between literary art and plain fiction. I believe some books are more worthy of your attention than others. Lots of books are like junk food: pleasurable but not nourishing.

My podcast is dedicated to the idea that great books are for everyone and everyone deserves a chance to learn to enjoy them. This is not an elitist enterprise. It does, however, suppose that some books are truly worthy of your attention and that I have some capacity to judge.

My podcast doesn't pretend to be exhaustive. I have limited resources and time and perspective. But the conceit of the podcast is that in listening to it you will deepen your literary and philosophical education. These aren't just books I happen to like and hope you do too.

My podcast highlights books I think you will benefit from reading. Many of them are challenging; one might have to struggle with them before one can enjoy them at all. The podcast aims to help get you to the enjoyment/appreciation stage, to show that the struggle pays off.