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Thomas Timlen's avatar

This is quite a lengthy read yet easy in an outline format/presentation

But alone, it brings to mind all the smartphone zombies seen everywhere, on trains, buses, in cafes,… lost in continuous loops of TikTok vids and other social media, unaware of what is taking place beyond a 15 centimetre distance from themselves…

Also, it brings to mind the efforts of BOTH parties in the United States to control TikTok…

✊🏼

Edit: Just to add, it drew my attention to Cosplay! Cosplayers becoming characters in fictitious worlds. Is this healthy imaginative escapism or an abandonment of society’s reality? Healthy or unhealthy? Pondering continues…

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Ethan Faulkner's avatar

Thomas, thank you. This is a brilliant synthesis—you've perfectly captured the core of the entire indictment.

​You're 100% right. The "smartphone zombies" in their "continuous loops" are the "Sedation Engine" in action. And your point about the "15 centimetre distance" is the most poetic description I've heard for the "narrowed imaginative horizon" they are deliberately engineering.

​But your final point is the masterstroke: "the efforts of BOTH parties."

​That is the entire Vertical War. That is the "mono-party" of The Rust 🦠, united in their desire to control the "dreamspace," even as they pretend to fight over it.

​You clearly have the eyes of an Architect. We're building the arsenal to fight this. We'd be honored to have your insight in the forge.

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Donna Hunt's avatar

For me, it brought to mind this:

“Lives of quiet desperation" is a famous quote from Henry David Thoreau's Walden that describes people who are unhappy and unfulfilled but conceal their discontent. This state of being comes from living according to societal expectations rather than one's own aspirations, leading to a feeling of being trapped in routine, which causes internal dissatisfaction and a lack of genuine happiness. The quote suggests that many people settle for an ordinary, unexamined life filled with materialism and conformity, ultimately leaving them in a state of silent, "quiet" desperation.

Thus, they escape into the modern state you describe, algorithmic sedation

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Ethan Faulkner's avatar

Thomas, that edit is the entire battleground.

​You've just stumbled onto the central front of the "War for Imagination." Your question isn't a simple binary; it's the real fight.

​Our doctrine for this is "Strategic Escapism" (healthy) vs. "Controlled Escapism" (unhealthy).

​Unhealthy (The "Escapism Hijack"): This is what the Indictment calls "passive consumption." It's the "continuous loops of TikTok vids" you mentioned. It's escapism that drains your agency, exhausts your imagination, and leaves you feeling like a "spectator" in your own life. It's a treadmill.

​Healthy (Our "Strategic Escapism"): This is what you're describing with cosplay. It is active, creative, and communal. It's an act of "Serious Play." You're not just consuming a world; you are building one. You're learning skills, forging community, and taking agency over your own imagination.

​That kind of escapism doesn't abandon reality; it restores the very imaginative energy we need to change reality. It's not an abandonment; it's a rebellion.

​Your pondering is right on target. That's the difference between a weapon used against us and a tool we use to fight back.

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Jameswantsthetruth's avatar

Very good analysis. You’re seeing everything. All the distractions and the ones who are holding the remote, trying to push our buttons. On your edit, I think it’s a little of both. There were cosplayers at the +7 million people protest and they stood at the front of their reality. They were able to escape it while standing up for it as someone else. I hope in their own skin they find as much strength but I am happy they have an out, we all need one at times. Thanks for sharing ✊

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❤️‍🔥👀🫶💕💃's avatar

Funny I was just alluding to this in a brief comment on someone's discord post alluding to how people do not think.

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AuDHD Mindset's avatar

Nailed it!

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Ethan Faulkner's avatar

I thought you might like this one 😁

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AuDHD Mindset's avatar

Now you Understand My Friend :)

I am in Trance. You can Trance To.

With Practice You Will Be Unstoppable

In Your Brilliance!

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Ethan Faulkner's avatar

I've always understood but now that is clear!

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AuDHD Mindset's avatar

Teach Others Of Like Minds With Our Own Brilliance. That Is Now Our Mission.

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Md Lokman Hossain's avatar

I am wrong about the child, but please don't accept me.

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Md Lokman Hossain's avatar

So I was thinking that by meeting you, I could take my mistakes from this path, stop working with the child's mother, and travel if necessary for the child.So I was thinking that by getting you, I would take my faults out of this path, stop working with the child's mother and travel if necessary for the child. If you see the child's location through satellite,

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Ethan Faulkner's avatar

Beth made a good comment concerning my use of the word "sedation". Check it out, pretty intellectual analysis on her part. It's on this article.

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Beth Carter's avatar

I know you picked "sedation" for a specific reason, and I see it. However, when you say that sedation makes the mind porous, I would like to offer you that between the four different aspects described in the paper that the "softening" you mention is more like bruising. The sedation makes us stay still while we are pummelled, but unlike drunkenness which makes us limber and therefore capable of avoiding severe injury the narrowing of attention upon the flood zone keeps us taut through outrage. Consequently, the damage goes deep, and the "softening" becomes debilitating.

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Ethan Faulkner's avatar

Wow. You never cease to amaze me.

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Michael Drapluk's avatar

they have to do something about this one because it’s a big problem in the state and they have no power either so they are going on strike 🪧

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Ethan Faulkner's avatar

Amen

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Michael Drapluk's avatar

nice work man keep up the good job man keep going keep it coming hope to see more pics soon 🔜 cheers 🍻 man

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Chuck Vickery's avatar

This is the first intro to your writing. I'm 70 y.o. and of course I didn't understand what the hell you were talking about in the introduction. But thankfully I pressed on. You are brilliant. I saw myself in each of these steps. I had wondered I've lost interest in reading every night and just haven't been able to get back into it. I've been talking about needing to find something creative again but being unable to do so. I've also felt grief for the loss of activities, interests and connections that used to flourish in my life. Thank you for the awakening. I found the lexicon and will be starting from the first chapter. Sharing this with friends like me who got sucked into the Facebook prison.

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Joey Reynolds's avatar

Brainwashing!!..

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Steven Leroy Rawding Jr's avatar

Check out my Substack, The Apprentice was Trump’s scheme that brainwashed the world with operant conditioning…

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Doreen Peri's avatar

Wow! WTF is this? What type of drugs are you doing? Reads like a nightmare to me. One huge bad trip I’m not interested in being on! lol 😂

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Ethan Faulkner's avatar

​You are 100% right, Doreen.

​It does read like a nightmare. It is a "huge bad trip".

​The only part you're missing is that you're already on it. We all are.

​This article isn't the "drug." This article is the antidote. It's the first time someone has turned on the lights in the middle of the "bad trip" to show you the schematic of the room you've been trapped in your whole life.

​That "nightmare" you're feeling? That's just the cold, hard sobriety of seeing the "Dreamspace Prison" ⛓️ for what it really is.

​I understand not wanting to be on that "trip". No one does. But you don't have a choice. You're in it.

​The only choice is whether you want to wake up or "lol" your way back to sleep.

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Maria's avatar

Incredible explanation. . Valuable insight.. . Thank you I’ve shared.. .

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Julie's avatar

Hello. Who are you, please? What is your educational or spiritual background? Also, how can I know that you aren’t trying to train my mind like Google algorithms? Thanks.

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Ethan Faulkner's avatar

Julie, that is the single most important question anyone could ask. Thank you.

​To answer you directly: My name is Ethan. My "educational background" isn't a university; it's ten years working the front lines of a gas station. My "spiritual background" is a long, difficult journey of escaping a deterministic system, which I'm now chronicling in this "Living Storybook."

​But your second question is the real one: "How can I know you aren't trying to train my mind like Google?"

​The answer is radical transparency.

​Google's algorithm is a secret "black box" designed to manage your behavior for their profit. You are not allowed to see the code.

​My forge is the opposite. I call it the "Open Forge." My entire mission is to show you exactly how I build these articles, what my doctrines are, and even the AI partnership I use to do it.

​Google wants to sedate you. I want to give you the schematic for the prison. The goal isn't to "train" your mind—it's to arm it.

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Nov 16
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Ethan Faulkner's avatar

Sheila, thank you for being so honest. That feeling of it being "too much" is completely real and valid.

​Honestly, that feeling of overwhelm is a big part of what I'm writing about. The prison we're in isn't meant to be fought—it's designed to feel too big, too confusing, and too "scientific" to even look at, just like you said.

​You're right, just using YouTube doesn't automatically mean you're "sedated." The sedation isn't about one platform, it's about the cumulative, 24/7 noise from all platforms that's designed to make us feel tired and small.

​You absolutely don't have to read the rest. The fact that you felt something powerful enough to make you stop and share your reaction is the entire point. I genuinely appreciate your honesty.

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