Well, things continue to go well with this novel. So well, in fact, that I find myself idly thinking about what happens if I actually sell the thing. Now, some context — it could be a loooooong time between when I start to query and when I get any sort of book deal. And, what’s more, from the point that I get a book deal, it could be 18 months before the novel is actually on bookshelves.
As such, for all my “hysterical doom shit” about there potentially being a Second American Civil War, on a personal basis, I’m definitely acting as if that isn’t going to happen. There wouldn’t be much of a market for a novel such as mine if we’re all too busy dodging explosions to go to the bookstore.
At least if we slip peacefully into autocracy the general gist of the series, which is all about how much I fucking hate MAGA Nazis and extremism in general — will grow very, very relevant.
MAGA Nazis are such fucking crybabies. They are equal to some of the more extreme elements of the Trans movement when it comes to being willing to destroy everything in the name of “vibes.” Take, for instance, their reaction to the prospective new CEO of Twitter.
MAGA has some sort of vague sense of ideological purity that if they don’t get they freak the fuck out. They also love to gaslight when it comes to the issue of “free speech.” They want the absolute right to spread hate to the point that if you even bring up the idea of some of guardrails, they freak the fuck out. They see “free speech” as nothing more than an means to and end when it comes to establishing a fascist MAGA Nazi state.
The tragedy of the commons and all that.
The whole thing is completely fucking bonkers. It proves a point I’ve been making for some time — MAGA Nazis are politically ascendant and it could be that if we have a “National Divorce,” it will be Blues, not Reds who decide to serve papers.
I will note in passing that I’m worried about the next Republican president establishing an autocratic state using hard power, at the same time my conservative relatives — who I love dearly — are freaking out about “woke” corporations ruining their lives.
While I love them dearly, talking to my conservative relatives can be frustrating at times. Take, for instance, global climate change. They tell me on one hand that, in the end, technology may solve the crisis and, yet, when the free market comes up with things like ESG to facilitate that very thing — they get really, really angry.
So, it seems as though the only acceptable solution to global climate change for conservatives is, much like the gun violence crisis — no solution.
The only thing that most modern conservatives care about at the moment is “owning the libs.” That’s it. Over 200 children could die in a mass casualty event involving an AR-15 and conservatives would shrug, say “thought and prayers” and then piviot to this or that thing that they felt the libs had screwed up.
The earth could grow so hot that it was obvious that life on earth would soon be extinguished and conservatives would pivot to talking about the border crisis or the excesses of the Trans movement.
It’s shit like this that I find very troubling. It definitely seems that the absolute need to “own the libs” could very well force the existential choice of autocracy or civil war in late 2024, early 2025. That definitely seems to be the endgame for that particular urge on the part of Republicans.
I don’t have a ready answer for you. It just seems like we’re fucked.
I’ve gotten into something of a groove when it comes to the first stage of writing this Beta Draft. I HOPE that I can wrap up a “private” Second Draft within a week or so, which would give me a solid month to really work hard on editing and rewriting things as necessary before I began to Beta Reader process.
I fucking hate this test.
That’s the hope at least.
Once I turn the Second Draft over to Beta Readers, I’m going to begin not only think seriously about how I’m going to go about the querying process, but also think seriously about what novel I’m going to start working on next. I thought I had a really solid scifi novel concept to work on, only to discover that there’s a very popular series that uses the exact same concept.
As such, I think I may say fuck it and start to work on the second book in this projected six novel project. I need something to keep my writing momentum going, regardless.
I would also note that even though I FUCKING HATE the Bechdel Test — this novel actually passes it! I just have so many female characters in this novel that I’ve managed to come up with a conversation — or two — where two women are talking about something other than a man.
I’m sure I’ll fucking get canceled for some other fuck reason — probably for the simple fact that I’m a smelly boy frequently writing from a female POV — but whatever the fuck woke people. It’s always the most frustrating to me when people come at me from the cultural Left. I’m on your side! Maybe if you didn’t have your head up your ass with such a strict orthodoxy, we wouldn’t be facing the prospect of living in a fucking fascist state.
Welp, it definitely seems we’re lurching towards MAGA Republicans impeaching Biden in the very, very near future. In fact, if they did impeach Biden quick enough, they could very well impeach him TWICE within the next few months.
Once for the bullshit they’ve just come up with and another time for him using the 14th Amendment to avoid a debt default. Or maybe all of the bullshit Republicans have stirred up the last few days is simply prepping the way for an impeachment of Biden for SOMETHING, ANYTHING, so they don’t have to talk about all the criming that Trump continues to do on a nearly daily basis.
The only surprise in all of this is it’s taken MAGA Republicans this long to get around to impeaching Biden. It was inevitable that this was going to happen. Republicans are so devoid of any meaningful policies — that are popular, at least — that an impeachment or two is the political equivalent of crack. They get a quick, cheap way to juice the base and if they impeach Biden enough times, take away a talking point from the libs they so want to “own.”
The clock is ticking, regardless. It’s just a matter of time at this point. It will be interesting to see how long it takes the process to unfold going forward.
I generally like Jason Calacanis and his array of tech-themed podcasts. I blanched when the All-In podcast had kook Robert Kennedy Jr. on, but I’m willing to forgive such a dumb mistake.
Anyway, the point of this post is to address how Calacanis’ seems to have a rainbows and unicorns take on AI and the future of work. As the on-going Writers’ Strike indicates — AI isn’t going to make people more productive, it’s simply going to transform the economy to the point that a lot of people simply won’t have a job anymore.
Now, I’m a strong believer in the notion that technology generally generates more jobs than it destroys. But the reason why I fear the AI revolution may be different is it’s all happening so fast that this process won’t have time to happen.
As such, I keep hearing Calacanis talk about how it’s going to make people more productive, and yet, he doesn’t seem willing to admit that lulz, if that productivity happens overnight that the capitalist imperative would be to simply restructure businesses so they have less workers.
And the way I could see this happening very, very rapidly is in the context of, say, a debt default by the Federal government leading to a Second Great Recession which, in turn, would cause a lot of businesses to look for ways to get rid of workers. All these people lose their jobs virtually overnight as a part of some sort of Petite Singularity…and those jobs just never come back. But we wouldn’t realize what was happening until the recession was over.
Anyway. I’m wrong all the time and maybe I’m just being hysterical. That is known to happen.
I’m growing more and more alarmed at what might happen in late 2024, early 2025. Here are the reasons why I fear 2024 could be the most historic presidential election since 1860.
Biden’s Age Remember, there is a pretty wide amount of time where if anything, God forbid, happens to Biden, the entire election process will be thrown into chaos. From the moment the ballets are printed to Certification Day, if Biden abruptly shuffles off this mortal coil…we’re fucked. The system simply isn’t designed for the abrupt departure of the head of the ticket. Add to this that Harris hasn’t really impressed me as a Veep and…oh boy. Any student of history will tell you that often bad things happen in quick success during a crisis.
Trump’s Radical Agenda Ding-Dong has made it very, very clear that any second term on his part will be based on revenge. In fact, his second term agenda is so radical that America will be at a crossroads. Either we have a civil war or we turn into a MAGA-themed autocracy. Given that the onus would be on Blues to decide if we have a civil war or not, I tend to believe we’re just going to turn into an autocracy. Blues just don’t have it in them, collectively, to leave the Union. What’s more likely to happen is a lot – A LOT — of smug Twitter liberals are going to flee the country en masse. Trump will transition us into an autocracy and whomever he picks as his veep will be our new Caesar Augustus.
Trump’s Criminal Problems The thing about Trump is it possible that by the time the 2024 election rolls around, he will be under indictment for a number of Big Boy Crimes and yet he could still win the election. That’s the kind of shit that puts a lot of extra pressure on the system that is already at a breaking point.
Economic Unknowns Two major issues could throw everything in the air. In the near term, we have to worry about a debt default that could crash the global economy in a rather abrupt manner. Meanwhile, at some point between now and early 2025, we have to worry about the possibility of some sort of Petite Singularity happening that would cause the economy to shed millions of jobs in a rather abrupt manner.
I on occasion find myself talking to a conservative relative of mine. While I love them dearly, the two of us could not be more different. In fact, in some ways, we’re on the exact opposite ends of the political spectrum. So, talking to this person is an insight into “how the other half lives,” if you will.
Here are some first-blush things I’ve noticed.
First and foremost, the Republican nomination is Tucker Carlson’s to lose. Even though my relative is not really MAGA but rather “MAGA adjacent” when asked, they were all-in on voting for Carlson if he runs for the nomination. Carlson has all the ingredients of Trump in 2015-16 and pretty much all he has to do is throw his hat into the ring and he will go toe-to-toe with Trump. It would be easy for Carlson to paint Trump as a “loser” who has lost a number of elections for Republicans.
So, for me at least, it’s curious that we’re not hearing more about Carlson’s presidential ambitions.
The next thing I found interesting is how the Trans movement is used to juice the conservative base on conservative podcasts. My relative, in fact, said they were rather tired of that being the only thing that anyone on his conservative podcasts are talking about. The thing about the Trans movement, which I generally support, is it is too often used as a bludgeon by conservatives against moderates and centrists to sort of force the issue of “which side are you on?”
We’ve reach a point where there is absolutely no middle ground on ANY issue of the day. None. Either you’re all in for the Right or you’re all in for the Left. The center has not held. What makes this whole situation even worse is there is a lot of agitprop about the Trans movement being pushed by all these popular Right wing podcasts to the point that the whole issue is so muddled to the point that it’s difficult for anyone to get a handle on what is really going on. (Which, of course, is the whole point.)
Another thing I notice is how potent the Gay Scare is within Republican ranks. What’s more, it is clear that even with your run-of-the-mill conservative that the idea of the state enforcing a Christian morality on secular society is very, very popular. It’s a catch all solution for anything that conservatives don’t like or can’t explain any other way.
They don’t like gay people because it’s a “sin.” They hate any form of gun control, so they say we have a “mental health crisis” or we all just need more of the Good Lawd in our lives. They hate the right to chose because they believe life begins at conception, so they all all for squashing female agency, even though they, themselves say they “just want to be left alone.”
The list goes on.
But the key takeaway from my conversation is how my center-Left echo chamber no longer has any overlap with my relative’s center-Right echo chamber. None. We can’t even agree on the facts anymore. There are basic ideas that make the Right seethe with rage, even if they little no basis in reality.
It definitely seems to me that we’re careening towards the existential choice of autocracy or civil war starting in late 2024, early 2025 in the context of the 2024 election cycle.
The thing about a so-called National Divorce, even if it was reasonably clean and reasonably bloodless is it would be just the beginning of a protracted era of chaos in North America. The reason is simple — both sides of the political equation in now-united America need each other for political, social and economic reasons.
The moment Red and Blue America officially cleave into two, independent nations, the age-old dynamics of rival nations would kick in. Add to this that all metrics point to Red America becoming inward looking, religious and a lot poorer, suggests that any “National Divorce” would inevitably prompt a re-match of some sort.
Red America, facing growing poverty in the context of finally being able to establish white minority autocratic Christian rule would have every reason to want to reunite the country at some point soon after the initial National Divorce.
But I’m working on the absolute best case scenario. Any National Divorce would be messy and chaotic and probably be happening in the context of WW3 breaking out. What happens if, say, the DPRK decides to lob a few H-Bombs on Blue America during the process of a very blood divorce? Then what are we going to do?
It seems to me that any divorce, for any reason, would cause a civil war / revolution of some sort to a scale and impact not seen since the French Revolution. The whole world would rumble as it began to sink in to various hostile powers across the globe that they now had free reign to do whatever the fuck they wanted while America was busying eating itself.
The point is — I really hope we don’t have a civil war, for whatever reason. I’m growing comfortable with the other possible choice America may make in late 2024, early 2025: autocracy. At least if we slide peacefully into a MAGA-themed autocracy, it’s less likely that millions will die. Though, in all honesty, I do fear that it would be inevitable that some MAGA Pol Pot might appear who starts to round up all the “woke” people he can find and we end up with American Killing Fields.
Anyway. I’m always wrong. Hopefully we will someway manage to avoid either autocracy or civil war….but something pretty spectacular would have to happen.
I’m growing alarmed at the prospect that just as the discovery of evolution lead to Social Darwinism and, as such Nazism, it seems possible the darkener element of MAGA might fuse with the rise of AI.
My fear is that because humans are lazy and have a natural inclination to “triangulate” with AIs, there will come a point when MAGA Nazi will use AI as validation for God only know what. We already have a situation where fucking fascist cocksuckers get really worked up with there are guardrails on AI. They want AI to be as racist, misogynistic and bigoted as they are.
And they can get really upset if they don’t get what they want. They call any form of guardrail on AI as “woke.” America is already careening towards a fascist one party state that establishes white Christian minority rule. It seems possible that if that is the new reality of America that our new autocratic overlords might throw AI into the mix and defer to AI in their efforts to justify genocide.
If you have “unwoke” AI established as the only “objective” outcome of that the state will allow, then, oh boy, are we fucked. I only raise this as a possibility because it definitely seems as though we’re rushing towards a perfect storm of a Petite Singularity and the Fourth Turning starting in late 2024, early 2025.
Anyway. I’m really worried about the unintended consequences of the intersection of AI and society. Things could get dark.
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