In 1989, Serbian leader Slobodan Milošević delivered a speech that would become a harbinger of the Balkan bloodshed to come. His invocation of Serbian victimhood, ethnic grievance, and national rebirth tapped into a collective trauma, weaponized not to heal, but to rally, divide, and conquer.

I want essays with nonlinear thinking. Writers who don’t center their work on themselves. Stories that blend the macro with the micro. Arguments that don’t pander or preach. Perspectives that feel risked not rehearsed. I want oracles not influencers.

Stop asking “How is this legal?!” The game has changed. Laws no longer apply. Rules no longer apply. The Constitution no longer applies. We need to adapt. Be dynamic. Alter our tactics.

It's October 4th. We've learned that the Trump administration wants to deploy the 82nd Airborne to Portland. I wrote an essay titled The Barnes Doctrine 8 days ago in which I said:

“We never saw this coming…”. Well, you should have.

If you are waiting for the rule of law to reign Trump in, if you are waiting for institutional norms to slow down the slide into authoritarianism, if you are waiting for the Supreme Court to check his dictatorial leanings…you will be disappointed. Look at this photo. What do you see? “Trump 2028”.

This is not just a story about technology. It is a reckoning with who we have become—and who we still need to be.

Trump just called Portland “war-ravaged” and ordered the Department of War to send “troops.”
Not National Guard. Not police. Troops.

That’s how you occupy a city.

Wake the fuck up every veteran who ever swore an oath. And wake the fuck up every active duty military member.

The only thing that can kill Barnes…is Barnes.

Ever feel like you’re switching between different realities?

This essay explores that fractal madness: how politics, AI, and social identity weave conflicting hallucinations we call “truth”… and how the real war is over whose dream wins.

open.substack.com/pub/polymath...

Religion, politics, science, tech, philosophy… all just echoes of a vanished blueprint.

Curious what you all think: are we building for ourselves, or still waiting for inspection?

open.substack.com/pub/polymath...

New essay: The Great Siphoning

We’ve moved past scraping clicks and likes. The real prize is mapping inner dialogue.

When power shifts from extracting labor to siphoning thought, what happens to autonomy?

open.substack.com/pub/polymath...