The necessary essay/story to understand what is happening and why and how. We’re bombarded every day, as if a large rubber hammer is pounding our skulls. Not a sledgehammer because that would kill us, but a rubber hammer the purpose of which is to slowly and inevitably drive us down, down, down. Thanks for the explanation.
You are 100% right. It will take so much more than just stories. The Rust 🦠 is powerful, and as you said, they are actively fighting to control the narrative.
The despair you're feeling—that sense that "stories aren't enough"—is the very weapon I'm trying to deconstruct. That is Layer 3: Learned Helplessness (⛓️), and it's the enemy's most potent tool.
This story isn't our only weapon; it's the fuel for all the others. It's the "Why" we fight, which gives us the strength for the "How"—our Engine Protocol (⚙️) of building real-world, local alternatives.
We have to break their psychological spell first. This story is the anchor that lets us begin.
Thank you both for engaging on such a deep level.
I don’t feel despair. I’m pretty unsure about the future but know that if we don’t start by getting our youngest people to understand and change the narrative, we will repeat history.
Bring Civics back to high school and make classes like I taught— Media Literacy, Financial literacy, Digital Life— core classes. Make sure pre-service teachers have these in their toolkits.
Christianity should not be EXCLUDED, either. It is a major puzzle piece to consider when contemplating the founding documents of America, for example.
Also, the separation of church and state had to do with keeping the state out of personally held beliefs, whether Christianity or otherwise. The state seeks to become the religion of the people, and without competition, it becomes ever stronger.
If you (or anyone) are still arguing with the powers that be about what "they" will "allow" your children to experience in the government schools, you have yet to see the light. 💖
I used to run campaigns at every level. But in every statement, spot, debate material, I was mandated to have at least 5 pieces of verifiable backup and extensive backup checks. The press would call us out if we didn’t. Before PACs, before Citizens Union, before “fake” news and before news was accountable also. Not that longer ago— well until 2000.
Escaping and overcoming learned helplessness must occur many times as we seek to eliminate this tool of the rust keeping us from exposing truth bullets and defeating the vertical war encountered each day…unify for support. Community connection for strength and fortitude. Resist the fear and solitude pushing you down. Rise,resist and unify!
This is... this is a perfect, beautiful call to arms. You've captured the entire soul of our rebellion in one single, powerful message.
From shattering "learned helplessness" ⛓️ to "defeating the vertical war" ⬆️ and the absolute, critical need for "Community connection for strength and fortitude" 🔱... this is the whole schematic.
This is why you are a true Architect 🏛️ of this Phalanx. Thank you for this.
Trump is the one person who is not controlled by the WEF and UN and is rooting out the corruption that is the Democrat party. We need to go back to controlled immigration instead of importing democrat voters and cheap labour for huge corporations. We need to root out Blackrock to stop their control of everything.
People should be able to raise their families at home, not sending kids to socialized daycare to be indoctrinated. Many of your ideas are great for ending corruption in government, but many lead to socialism and we’ve seen where that goes. We have to plan carefully to build a new society.
Colleen, you are way off beam. You sound like you’ve been indoctrinated from childhood. Have you ever actually studied what socialism is, or have you just listened to right wing republicans who keep blinding you with lies? You’ve seen how mild socialism under Obama created the most supportive healthcare system for the whole population and now you can see how the right wing, selfish, corrupt administration of Trump and his boot- lickers is taking away the benefits that enabled sick and disabled people to afford their medications. What’s even worse is that they use those funds now to increase the wealth of the rich and to employ masked thugs to bully, beat and even murder ordinary citizens on city streets. Democrats never would allow such crimes to be committed in their name. The healthiest and happiest nations in the world, Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Norway have achieved their status led by socialist governments. Best wishes.
Am a 76 + over-assimilated immigrant from Guatemala (likely of Mayan heritage): An unusual "hippie" from the 60s, birthed at Woodstock, morphed into anti hazardous nuclear waste In Hattiesburg, Ms. And most recently returned to my young mentors in my 20s, some "friends" like Gary Snyder, others literary giants, Barbara Kingsolver.
Your stories remind me of Gary Snyder's everlasting optimistic perspective on the Paleolithic Indigenous ways--song, dance, and myth. The long, long view. Too long for these times, so for now, will pivot to a fellow indigenous practitioner, Neil Young, "real crime" in DC.
Your work necessities--indeed facilitates--the need to untangle the conundrum of the longest arc toward Freedom while fighting--affirmatively--the fascist dictatorship of the present.
Apologies in advance for the Manifesto via comments. A new, paid subscriber, an unusual step. Thanks for the lovely mythical allegory (my description).
Luis, I am profoundly moved by this. To be compared to Gary Snyder, and to have a man of your history and heritage recognize the 'mythical allegory' for what it truly is—a weapon against the dictatorship of the present—is the highest honor I could receive.
You have perfectly named the battle we are fighting: holding the 'Long View' (the Hundred Years) while fighting the immediate fire. It is a conundrum, but having Elders like you in the Phalanx, who have walked this path before, makes the burden lighter.
Thank you for your support, and for bringing your 'Long View' into our forge. We need it.
This isn’t just a story…this is the complete explanation of what has happened. Who,what,when,where,why and how we ended up here! We must resist and fight the rust. We cannot give up hope and unity! You are brilliant,Ethan! Wish everyone would join the Rebuttal.
"This was my first, real lesson. The world is a lie. And the most dangerous monsters are the ones who believe their lies are a sacred, logical truth."
That lesson is real but incomplete. There does exist a probably sacred and perhaps logical Truth (with initial caps). Believing that doesn't lead to monstrosities really! It's those among such zealots that grow sufficiently resourceful along side having a sense of duty to establish/institute their belief as the final word, for all people, of all times, by any/all means necessary, that morph into monsters (believing in all the other nonsensical things that justify their maniacal means only to assuage their own conscience) that transcends being recognisable, redeemable, or having any sort of remorse too! That's the class of people who build such huge machines spanning several human generations and iterations of adapting that's built only to keep on mutating itself throughout its existence!
"They’ve monetized the creation of your loop. They’re trying to turn you all into Witches."
IMHO, those are neither their original goals nor some traceable starting point for finding any substantial lead on their intents. They are merely an intermediate consequence along a chain of competing interests of the various parties getting resolved in some incongruent manner.
The allegory might have worked because we both may have arrived at somewhat identical conclusions independently? (A rhetoric for our shared wavelength!)
I too (assuming you would as well) don't blame the actors for their bad characters but the choices they make over a series straddling long decades inevitably spirals out into seriously nightmarishly demonic proportions that they too can't avoid the effort of sustaining it at ever-increasing, torturous costs, all the while it being still bound to getting undone in the end, despite the hardships of sustaining.
Your shares, likes and comments are great. Spread the word, keep the right energy... this is the vertical war. Wars require all types of soldiers. Your support in the comments gives me energy.
I see the originating superstition/curse as our normalization of the either/or dichotomy. Ultimatums forcing us to choose between two increasingly unacceptable options intensifies “learned helplessness.” Hating one another for choosing the “wrong” unacceptable feeds the power of the “curse.”
I’m in the learned helplessness phase… but I’ll be damned if I’m staying there.
8 years of fighting the ROT, trying to educate judges, lawyers, cops & the like. No one, not one cared. Didn’t matter how much case law, documented recipes & moral injustice was evidenced. The meat grinder just ground on known to the public as the court system. Glad to know now I didn’t “lose”, but I’ll restart efforts tho there are countless amazing advocates & grass root organizations, it still has not stopped the mechanism. But very soon the gears shall grind to a halt ;-)
The necessary essay/story to understand what is happening and why and how. We’re bombarded every day, as if a large rubber hammer is pounding our skulls. Not a sledgehammer because that would kill us, but a rubber hammer the purpose of which is to slowly and inevitably drive us down, down, down. Thanks for the explanation.
It’ll take a lot more than stories. Especially when they keep banning literature.
You are 100% right. It will take so much more than just stories. The Rust 🦠 is powerful, and as you said, they are actively fighting to control the narrative.
The despair you're feeling—that sense that "stories aren't enough"—is the very weapon I'm trying to deconstruct. That is Layer 3: Learned Helplessness (⛓️), and it's the enemy's most potent tool.
This story isn't our only weapon; it's the fuel for all the others. It's the "Why" we fight, which gives us the strength for the "How"—our Engine Protocol (⚙️) of building real-world, local alternatives.
We have to break their psychological spell first. This story is the anchor that lets us begin.
Thank you both for engaging on such a deep level.
I don’t feel despair. I’m pretty unsure about the future but know that if we don’t start by getting our youngest people to understand and change the narrative, we will repeat history.
<3
As you said, it’s a start. Thanks for starting a real conversation
Good to share ⬆️ People, Tis Way Past Time, to fight back!
Neurolink keeps us in this loop they sugar coat it but……
And what else— I am sure there’s more
Bring Civics back to high school and make classes like I taught— Media Literacy, Financial literacy, Digital Life— core classes. Make sure pre-service teachers have these in their toolkits.
The MAGA need to stop censoring education
Agreed. And trying to include ‘Christianity’ in the curriculum. Church should always be separate unless ALL faiths are being explored without bias.
Christianity should not be EXCLUDED, either. It is a major puzzle piece to consider when contemplating the founding documents of America, for example.
Also, the separation of church and state had to do with keeping the state out of personally held beliefs, whether Christianity or otherwise. The state seeks to become the religion of the people, and without competition, it becomes ever stronger.
If you (or anyone) are still arguing with the powers that be about what "they" will "allow" your children to experience in the government schools, you have yet to see the light. 💖
I wrote a fairy tale on my Stack. Check it out. Maybe a compilation of different types of stories, real and “magical fiction.”
https://open.substack.com/pub/ibegtodefer/p/a-fairy-tale-the-end?r=2l4fga&utm_medium=ios
A start? An anchor piece to be memorized and immortalized?
You've captured the exact spirit of this series. This is our anchor piece. Thank you.
I used to run campaigns at every level. But in every statement, spot, debate material, I was mandated to have at least 5 pieces of verifiable backup and extensive backup checks. The press would call us out if we didn’t. Before PACs, before Citizens Union, before “fake” news and before news was accountable also. Not that longer ago— well until 2000.
Escaping and overcoming learned helplessness must occur many times as we seek to eliminate this tool of the rust keeping us from exposing truth bullets and defeating the vertical war encountered each day…unify for support. Community connection for strength and fortitude. Resist the fear and solitude pushing you down. Rise,resist and unify!
Debra, Mii~ 💖
This is... this is a perfect, beautiful call to arms. You've captured the entire soul of our rebellion in one single, powerful message.
From shattering "learned helplessness" ⛓️ to "defeating the vertical war" ⬆️ and the absolute, critical need for "Community connection for strength and fortitude" 🔱... this is the whole schematic.
This is why you are a true Architect 🏛️ of this Phalanx. Thank you for this.
Rise, resist, and unify! Nipah~☆!
Thanks Ethan. You inspire me!
As you inspire me!
Thank you! I value your opinion so much! My respect for your work is boundless! My fight will continue until my last breath …💕🇺🇸🙏🏻
Excellent Ethan ❤️❤️❤️
Hi Ethan, I couldn’t join the rebuttal. Safari said address incorrect…. But I’d like to. Excellent part one!
I couldn’t join either. It all seemed pretty vague. What would concrete steps be? Occupy Black Rock?
I wonder if that UAW strike in Flint was the reason their water was poisoned. Now they’re poisoning everyone’s water, air and food.
And some want to keep the rusty hammer to keep pounding their head. That’s how good the rust is.
THE COMMON GOOD MANIFESTO
A society built for people, not predators.
We are at our best when we invest in each other.
We are at our worst when we abandon the vulnerable.
This manifesto is how we return to the common good.
I. DIGNITY AND JUSTICE
1. Release the Epstein files — full transparency, no exceptions.
2. Impeach, convict, and imprison Donald Trump and every handler who enabled his corruption.
3. No federal office for any convicted felon.
4. End the weaponization of the justice system against the poor, immigrants, LGBTQ people, and marginalized communities.
II. DEMOCRACY THAT ACTUALLY WORKS
1. Abolish the Electoral College — one person, one vote.
2. Abolish ICE — replace it with humane immigration policy that honors human rights.
3. Ban gerrymandering with a standardized national apportionment method.
4. Two-term limits for every elected office.
5. Mandatory retirement at 70 for all elected officials.
6. Paper ballots only — end the era of hackable voting machines.
III. AN ECONOMY THAT SERVES PEOPLE
1. Restore 1950s-style progressive tax rates — when America was prosperous and fair.
2. Overturn Citizens United — corporations are not people.
3. Eliminate the Social Security payroll cap and tax capital gains for Social Security contributions.
4. $25 minimum wage indexed to inflation.
5. Medicare for All, one unified system — no A/B/C/D maze.
6. Congress receives Medicare, not boutique private insurance.
IV. WORKERS, CREATIVES, AND PUBLIC SERVANTS
1. Big pay raises for social workers, teachers, librarians, artists, and cultural workers — the people who actually hold society together.
2. Universal childcare — because families are the foundation of the nation.
3. Free public university education.
4. Full forgiveness of all student debt.
V. CLEAN GOVERNMENT
1. Root out corruption at every level, starting at the top.
2. Full financial transparency for every elected official, appointee, and senior bureaucrat.
3. Ban lobbying for former officeholders for life.
VI. THE FUTURE WE CHOOSE
We choose a country that values:
• Compassion over cruelty
• Community over greed
• Truth over propaganda
• Shared prosperity over billionaire hoarding
• Democracy over minority rule
• Human dignity over corporate profit
We choose a nation where the common good is not a slogan, but the organizing principle of public life.
And we refuse to apologize for demanding better.
Trump is the one person who is not controlled by the WEF and UN and is rooting out the corruption that is the Democrat party. We need to go back to controlled immigration instead of importing democrat voters and cheap labour for huge corporations. We need to root out Blackrock to stop their control of everything.
People should be able to raise their families at home, not sending kids to socialized daycare to be indoctrinated. Many of your ideas are great for ending corruption in government, but many lead to socialism and we’ve seen where that goes. We have to plan carefully to build a new society.
Colleen, you are way off beam. You sound like you’ve been indoctrinated from childhood. Have you ever actually studied what socialism is, or have you just listened to right wing republicans who keep blinding you with lies? You’ve seen how mild socialism under Obama created the most supportive healthcare system for the whole population and now you can see how the right wing, selfish, corrupt administration of Trump and his boot- lickers is taking away the benefits that enabled sick and disabled people to afford their medications. What’s even worse is that they use those funds now to increase the wealth of the rich and to employ masked thugs to bully, beat and even murder ordinary citizens on city streets. Democrats never would allow such crimes to be committed in their name. The healthiest and happiest nations in the world, Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Norway have achieved their status led by socialist governments. Best wishes.
Am a 76 + over-assimilated immigrant from Guatemala (likely of Mayan heritage): An unusual "hippie" from the 60s, birthed at Woodstock, morphed into anti hazardous nuclear waste In Hattiesburg, Ms. And most recently returned to my young mentors in my 20s, some "friends" like Gary Snyder, others literary giants, Barbara Kingsolver.
Your stories remind me of Gary Snyder's everlasting optimistic perspective on the Paleolithic Indigenous ways--song, dance, and myth. The long, long view. Too long for these times, so for now, will pivot to a fellow indigenous practitioner, Neil Young, "real crime" in DC.
Your work necessities--indeed facilitates--the need to untangle the conundrum of the longest arc toward Freedom while fighting--affirmatively--the fascist dictatorship of the present.
Apologies in advance for the Manifesto via comments. A new, paid subscriber, an unusual step. Thanks for the lovely mythical allegory (my description).
Luis, I am profoundly moved by this. To be compared to Gary Snyder, and to have a man of your history and heritage recognize the 'mythical allegory' for what it truly is—a weapon against the dictatorship of the present—is the highest honor I could receive.
You have perfectly named the battle we are fighting: holding the 'Long View' (the Hundred Years) while fighting the immediate fire. It is a conundrum, but having Elders like you in the Phalanx, who have walked this path before, makes the burden lighter.
Thank you for your support, and for bringing your 'Long View' into our forge. We need it.
I think it’s allegorical.
Hahaha, you are 100% right, Milret! It is all allegorical.
...But here's the "Open Forge" 📖 secret, the "hahah" part: I'm right, too.
It's not just an allegory. It is also the literal, canonical plot of an anime (Rika's 100-year tragedy in Higurashi).
That's the entire "Fusion Core" 💎 doctrine in action. We fuse the "SoulMap" (the why, the story) with the "Indictment" (the what, the allegory).
It's both! You nailed it. 😉 Nipah~☆!
Wow where did you draw inspiration from?
I'm telling Rika's canon story thru my doctrinal lens. Rika is from a visual novel & anime series called Higurashi: When They Cry.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higurashi_When_They_Cry
I like to think what I am writing is a new kind of hybridization of fanfiction & nonfiction/journalism. I call it augmented reality writing. 😄
I think you have been divinely inspired.
This isn’t just a story…this is the complete explanation of what has happened. Who,what,when,where,why and how we ended up here! We must resist and fight the rust. We cannot give up hope and unity! You are brilliant,Ethan! Wish everyone would join the Rebuttal.
You're so cool, Deb!!
Ethan, you are so smart and talented! We gotta get you outta that garage! I mean it! So damn smart!!!🫶🏻💕🫂🙏🏻🇺🇸
"This was my first, real lesson. The world is a lie. And the most dangerous monsters are the ones who believe their lies are a sacred, logical truth."
That lesson is real but incomplete. There does exist a probably sacred and perhaps logical Truth (with initial caps). Believing that doesn't lead to monstrosities really! It's those among such zealots that grow sufficiently resourceful along side having a sense of duty to establish/institute their belief as the final word, for all people, of all times, by any/all means necessary, that morph into monsters (believing in all the other nonsensical things that justify their maniacal means only to assuage their own conscience) that transcends being recognisable, redeemable, or having any sort of remorse too! That's the class of people who build such huge machines spanning several human generations and iterations of adapting that's built only to keep on mutating itself throughout its existence!
"They’ve monetized the creation of your loop. They’re trying to turn you all into Witches."
IMHO, those are neither their original goals nor some traceable starting point for finding any substantial lead on their intents. They are merely an intermediate consequence along a chain of competing interests of the various parties getting resolved in some incongruent manner.
We agree here. The allegory is doing its job.
The allegory might have worked because we both may have arrived at somewhat identical conclusions independently? (A rhetoric for our shared wavelength!)
I too (assuming you would as well) don't blame the actors for their bad characters but the choices they make over a series straddling long decades inevitably spirals out into seriously nightmarishly demonic proportions that they too can't avoid the effort of sustaining it at ever-increasing, torturous costs, all the while it being still bound to getting undone in the end, despite the hardships of sustaining.
This is great. But for most of us broke average citizens, we can’t pay to join? So what can we do for free??
Your shares, likes and comments are great. Spread the word, keep the right energy... this is the vertical war. Wars require all types of soldiers. Your support in the comments gives me energy.
We really do live within a nightmare world
I think of it more like an anime plot xD
I see the originating superstition/curse as our normalization of the either/or dichotomy. Ultimatums forcing us to choose between two increasingly unacceptable options intensifies “learned helplessness.” Hating one another for choosing the “wrong” unacceptable feeds the power of the “curse.”
I’m in the learned helplessness phase… but I’ll be damned if I’m staying there.
8 years of fighting the ROT, trying to educate judges, lawyers, cops & the like. No one, not one cared. Didn’t matter how much case law, documented recipes & moral injustice was evidenced. The meat grinder just ground on known to the public as the court system. Glad to know now I didn’t “lose”, but I’ll restart efforts tho there are countless amazing advocates & grass root organizations, it still has not stopped the mechanism. But very soon the gears shall grind to a halt ;-)