DocWatts
@docwatts.bsky.social
Writer. Metamodern Philosopher. Pragmatic Leftist. Fierce Advocate For Democracy.
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DocWatts
@docwatts.bsky.social
· May 19
How Broken Ways of Knowing Feed Modern Tyrants: The Case for Attunement
When truth-seeking fails, authoritarians offer poisoned certainty - and we keep eating it. Here's an antidote.
open.substack.com
The rise of authoritarianism worldwide isn't just a political crisis - it's also an epistemic one, rooted in how we respond to uncertainty in a complex world.
January 8, 2026 at 8:24 PM
“One theory to rule them all. One framework to find them. One perspective to make sense of it all, and in the ambiguity bind them.” - Some budding theorist who’s definitely figured it all out
7provtruths.substack.com/p/so-you-say...
7provtruths.substack.com/p/so-you-say...
So You Say You Want A Theory Of Everything
One Theory To Rule Them All: What our attempts at a Grand Synthesis reveal about our hunger for coherence and the partiality of our perspectives
7provtruths.substack.com
December 10, 2025 at 10:48 PM
“One theory to rule them all. One framework to find them. One perspective to make sense of it all, and in the ambiguity bind them.” - Some budding theorist who’s definitely figured it all out
7provtruths.substack.com/p/so-you-say...
7provtruths.substack.com/p/so-you-say...
The current government shutdown in a nutshell:
November 2, 2025 at 5:16 PM
The current government shutdown in a nutshell:
Cruelty is the point: Trump and his enablers are using hunger as a weapon. ☠️
October 31, 2025 at 5:56 PM
Cruelty is the point: Trump and his enablers are using hunger as a weapon. ☠️
Amazing how 7 million Americans had very little difficulty protesting against a fascist regime on No Kings Day without committing any crimes.
Yet if you place 2500 MAGAs at the steps of the Capitol Building, they bludgeon police officers, trample people to death, and try to murder elected officials
Yet if you place 2500 MAGAs at the steps of the Capitol Building, they bludgeon police officers, trample people to death, and try to murder elected officials
October 22, 2025 at 12:50 PM
Amazing how 7 million Americans had very little difficulty protesting against a fascist regime on No Kings Day without committing any crimes.
Yet if you place 2500 MAGAs at the steps of the Capitol Building, they bludgeon police officers, trample people to death, and try to murder elected officials
Yet if you place 2500 MAGAs at the steps of the Capitol Building, they bludgeon police officers, trample people to death, and try to murder elected officials
7provtruths.substack.com/p/malicious-...
A malicious perspective is a calculated distortion of reality - one deployed in service of goals its architects dare not state openly.
Here's a field guide for why we're vulnerable to these manipulative tactics - and what to do about them.
A malicious perspective is a calculated distortion of reality - one deployed in service of goals its architects dare not state openly.
Here's a field guide for why we're vulnerable to these manipulative tactics - and what to do about them.
Malicious Perspectives
Calculated distortions: why we're vulnerable, how to spot them, and what to do about them.
7provtruths.substack.com
October 10, 2025 at 4:55 PM
7provtruths.substack.com/p/malicious-...
A malicious perspective is a calculated distortion of reality - one deployed in service of goals its architects dare not state openly.
Here's a field guide for why we're vulnerable to these manipulative tactics - and what to do about them.
A malicious perspective is a calculated distortion of reality - one deployed in service of goals its architects dare not state openly.
Here's a field guide for why we're vulnerable to these manipulative tactics - and what to do about them.
I'm very open to having a discussion on topics where there's space for good faith disagreement.
But if someone's position is that the president gets to act like a king and immigrants aren't entitled to due process, I'm not going to debate them - I'm going to tell them to get fucked.
But if someone's position is that the president gets to act like a king and immigrants aren't entitled to due process, I'm not going to debate them - I'm going to tell them to get fucked.
October 4, 2025 at 3:49 PM
I'm very open to having a discussion on topics where there's space for good faith disagreement.
But if someone's position is that the president gets to act like a king and immigrants aren't entitled to due process, I'm not going to debate them - I'm going to tell them to get fucked.
But if someone's position is that the president gets to act like a king and immigrants aren't entitled to due process, I'm not going to debate them - I'm going to tell them to get fucked.
September 30, 2025 at 1:30 PM
There can be no negotiating with a fascist regime headed by an abusive narcissist, because any capitulation is only received as an invitation to take more.
The best way to protect our rights is to use them - loudly and unapologetically.
The best way to protect our rights is to use them - loudly and unapologetically.
September 25, 2025 at 11:25 AM
There can be no negotiating with a fascist regime headed by an abusive narcissist, because any capitulation is only received as an invitation to take more.
The best way to protect our rights is to use them - loudly and unapologetically.
The best way to protect our rights is to use them - loudly and unapologetically.
Long-form essay on why bad ideas tend to follow predictable scripts, rooted in a shared set of psychological ploys for Reality denial (and how good ideas avoid falling into this trap).
7provtruths.substack.com/p/evading-th...
7provtruths.substack.com/p/evading-th...
Evading The Harbingers Of Distortion
Why bad ideas follow predictable scripts (while good ones don't).
7provtruths.substack.com
September 23, 2025 at 2:12 PM
Long-form essay on why bad ideas tend to follow predictable scripts, rooted in a shared set of psychological ploys for Reality denial (and how good ideas avoid falling into this trap).
7provtruths.substack.com/p/evading-th...
7provtruths.substack.com/p/evading-th...
Jimmy Kimmel being pulled off the air for criticizing the Dear Leader just goes to show that the far right pretending to care about 'free speech' was always a load of horseshit - this is and has always been about naked, unaccountable power.
September 18, 2025 at 7:30 PM
Jimmy Kimmel being pulled off the air for criticizing the Dear Leader just goes to show that the far right pretending to care about 'free speech' was always a load of horseshit - this is and has always been about naked, unaccountable power.
People sometimes ask me what the 'point' of large protests like No Kings are. A large part of it is to push back against the atmosphere of fear which leads individuals and institutions to obey in advance.
They want us to be afraid, but in actuality this regime is incredibly weak and unpopular.
They want us to be afraid, but in actuality this regime is incredibly weak and unpopular.
Hasan Nails It: Staying Strong In Trump’s Fascist America
YouTube video by The Rational National
youtu.be
September 18, 2025 at 6:06 PM
People sometimes ask me what the 'point' of large protests like No Kings are. A large part of it is to push back against the atmosphere of fear which leads individuals and institutions to obey in advance.
They want us to be afraid, but in actuality this regime is incredibly weak and unpopular.
They want us to be afraid, but in actuality this regime is incredibly weak and unpopular.
substack.com/home/post/p-...
Excellent piece by Christopher Armitage on how de-MAGAing America isn't just a matter of having one on one conversations - it's also a matter of knowing how to defeat movements.
The problem? There's simply no profit in deradicalization.
Excellent piece by Christopher Armitage on how de-MAGAing America isn't just a matter of having one on one conversations - it's also a matter of knowing how to defeat movements.
The problem? There's simply no profit in deradicalization.
Is There Any Path to De-MAGA America?
What Science Says vs. What We Want to Hear
substack.com
September 17, 2025 at 8:29 PM
substack.com/home/post/p-...
Excellent piece by Christopher Armitage on how de-MAGAing America isn't just a matter of having one on one conversations - it's also a matter of knowing how to defeat movements.
The problem? There's simply no profit in deradicalization.
Excellent piece by Christopher Armitage on how de-MAGAing America isn't just a matter of having one on one conversations - it's also a matter of knowing how to defeat movements.
The problem? There's simply no profit in deradicalization.
Robert Evans, who studies online extremism and radicalization, is absolutely on point here.
The reason that we can't talk to each other isn't that we disagree - it's that we're living in two completely different realities.
The reason that we can't talk to each other isn't that we disagree - it's that we're living in two completely different realities.
September 14, 2025 at 11:22 AM
Robert Evans, who studies online extremism and radicalization, is absolutely on point here.
The reason that we can't talk to each other isn't that we disagree - it's that we're living in two completely different realities.
The reason that we can't talk to each other isn't that we disagree - it's that we're living in two completely different realities.
Two things can be simultaneously true:
1) Charlie Kirk was a piece of shit who has a large degree of culpability for the climate of political violence we're living through today.
2) Nothing good will come of his death. Innocent people are going to die if and when this escalates.
1/2
1) Charlie Kirk was a piece of shit who has a large degree of culpability for the climate of political violence we're living through today.
2) Nothing good will come of his death. Innocent people are going to die if and when this escalates.
1/2
September 11, 2025 at 11:02 AM
Two things can be simultaneously true:
1) Charlie Kirk was a piece of shit who has a large degree of culpability for the climate of political violence we're living through today.
2) Nothing good will come of his death. Innocent people are going to die if and when this escalates.
1/2
1) Charlie Kirk was a piece of shit who has a large degree of culpability for the climate of political violence we're living through today.
2) Nothing good will come of his death. Innocent people are going to die if and when this escalates.
1/2
August 20, 2025 at 8:49 PM
The predicament of perspectives is that we don't leave our viewpoints behind as we examine their construction.
Any assessment of these windows into reality must necessarily be taken from within - yet there are better and worse ways to inhabit these viewpoints.
Any assessment of these windows into reality must necessarily be taken from within - yet there are better and worse ways to inhabit these viewpoints.
The View From Within
A ‘View from Nowhere’ promises an impossible escape hatch from our messy, partial perspectives. Here’s a better alternative.
7provtruths.substack.com
August 5, 2025 at 3:23 PM
The predicament of perspectives is that we don't leave our viewpoints behind as we examine their construction.
Any assessment of these windows into reality must necessarily be taken from within - yet there are better and worse ways to inhabit these viewpoints.
Any assessment of these windows into reality must necessarily be taken from within - yet there are better and worse ways to inhabit these viewpoints.
Part of a write-up on the psychological underpinnings of fascism, and the mechanisms behind how social media is exacerbating this trend.
No evil masterminds required. Just the banal mechanics of market incentives, combined with new means for exploiting old vulnerabilities in the human psyche.
No evil masterminds required. Just the banal mechanics of market incentives, combined with new means for exploiting old vulnerabilities in the human psyche.
July 31, 2025 at 9:47 PM
Part of a write-up on the psychological underpinnings of fascism, and the mechanisms behind how social media is exacerbating this trend.
No evil masterminds required. Just the banal mechanics of market incentives, combined with new means for exploiting old vulnerabilities in the human psyche.
No evil masterminds required. Just the banal mechanics of market incentives, combined with new means for exploiting old vulnerabilities in the human psyche.
Breaking - conspiracy theorists shocked to find that Trump isn't entirely forthcoming about his connection to Epstein Island!
If I posted a Fell For It Again Award every time the Orange Shit Stain made idiots of his followers, that would be the majority of my posts on here.
If I posted a Fell For It Again Award every time the Orange Shit Stain made idiots of his followers, that would be the majority of my posts on here.
July 10, 2025 at 1:31 PM
Breaking - conspiracy theorists shocked to find that Trump isn't entirely forthcoming about his connection to Epstein Island!
If I posted a Fell For It Again Award every time the Orange Shit Stain made idiots of his followers, that would be the majority of my posts on here.
If I posted a Fell For It Again Award every time the Orange Shit Stain made idiots of his followers, that would be the majority of my posts on here.
The ghouls who voted for the MAGA Murder Bill knew that it would be incredibly unpopular, which is why they intentionally set it to phase in AFTER the midterm elections.
July 8, 2025 at 2:17 PM
The ghouls who voted for the MAGA Murder Bill knew that it would be incredibly unpopular, which is why they intentionally set it to phase in AFTER the midterm elections.
Reposted by DocWatts
Democracy is dying in America, and resistance begins with language — it shapes what the public sees, and what they’re willing to tolerate.
Resistance begins when we refuse to repeat their lies.
Words become action. Action becomes power. Truth becomes revolution.
Resistance begins when we refuse to repeat their lies.
Words become action. Action becomes power. Truth becomes revolution.
July 4, 2025 at 4:57 AM
Democracy is dying in America, and resistance begins with language — it shapes what the public sees, and what they’re willing to tolerate.
Resistance begins when we refuse to repeat their lies.
Words become action. Action becomes power. Truth becomes revolution.
Resistance begins when we refuse to repeat their lies.
Words become action. Action becomes power. Truth becomes revolution.
If democracy is going to be restored, millions of us will need to be practicing principled yet uncompromising opposition to this regime.
That means NO more humoring folks who want a dictator. People who've chosen to collaborate with the American Nazi movement need to be shunned and ostracized.
That means NO more humoring folks who want a dictator. People who've chosen to collaborate with the American Nazi movement need to be shunned and ostracized.
July 4, 2025 at 2:16 AM
If democracy is going to be restored, millions of us will need to be practicing principled yet uncompromising opposition to this regime.
That means NO more humoring folks who want a dictator. People who've chosen to collaborate with the American Nazi movement need to be shunned and ostracized.
That means NO more humoring folks who want a dictator. People who've chosen to collaborate with the American Nazi movement need to be shunned and ostracized.
The main takeaway of the MAGA Murder Bill:
17 million Americans are being kicked off from their health insurance and $3.5 trillion is being added to the national debt to build concentration camps.
And Trump being given a private military to fill those camps.
17 million Americans are being kicked off from their health insurance and $3.5 trillion is being added to the national debt to build concentration camps.
And Trump being given a private military to fill those camps.
July 3, 2025 at 8:03 PM
The main takeaway of the MAGA Murder Bill:
17 million Americans are being kicked off from their health insurance and $3.5 trillion is being added to the national debt to build concentration camps.
And Trump being given a private military to fill those camps.
17 million Americans are being kicked off from their health insurance and $3.5 trillion is being added to the national debt to build concentration camps.
And Trump being given a private military to fill those camps.