U. Ortego
@u-ortego.bsky.social
Studying how institutions shape behavior, erase dissent, and call the process “order.” Observation as resistance. From the Guatemalan highlands, I write about history’s echoes in today’s optimized world—with wit and skepticism. https://uortego.substack.com
Oxytocin builds trust. Empire exploits trust.
The British Empire became the first global drug cartel: opium in China, tea in Bengal, sugar everywhere. A system designed to hijack human bonding chemistry at civilizational scale.
Full essay:
uortego.substack.com/p/the-bengal...
#Colonialism #History
The British Empire became the first global drug cartel: opium in China, tea in Bengal, sugar everywhere. A system designed to hijack human bonding chemistry at civilizational scale.
Full essay:
uortego.substack.com/p/the-bengal...
#Colonialism #History
THE BENGAL CONNECTION: How Britain's Opium System Became OxyContin
The machinery of addiction didn't begin in China. It began in Indian poppy fields—and 200 years later, it returned wearing a white coat.
uortego.substack.com
December 10, 2025 at 2:45 PM
Oxytocin builds trust. Empire exploits trust.
The British Empire became the first global drug cartel: opium in China, tea in Bengal, sugar everywhere. A system designed to hijack human bonding chemistry at civilizational scale.
Full essay:
uortego.substack.com/p/the-bengal...
#Colonialism #History
The British Empire became the first global drug cartel: opium in China, tea in Bengal, sugar everywhere. A system designed to hijack human bonding chemistry at civilizational scale.
Full essay:
uortego.substack.com/p/the-bengal...
#Colonialism #History
When even your post can be rewritten—not by you, but by a hidden algorithm—you stop being a creator.
You become raw material.
Whoever controls the metadata, controls reality.
#AI #Algorithms #Platforms #Surveillance #GoogleAI #Instagram
You become raw material.
Whoever controls the metadata, controls reality.
#AI #Algorithms #Platforms #Surveillance #GoogleAI #Instagram
Instagram Is Generating Inaccurate SEO Bait for Your Posts
Instagram is generating headlines for Instagram posts that appear on Google Search results. Users say they are misrepresenting them.
www.404media.co
December 10, 2025 at 12:46 AM
When even your post can be rewritten—not by you, but by a hidden algorithm—you stop being a creator.
You become raw material.
Whoever controls the metadata, controls reality.
#AI #Algorithms #Platforms #Surveillance #GoogleAI #Instagram
You become raw material.
Whoever controls the metadata, controls reality.
#AI #Algorithms #Platforms #Surveillance #GoogleAI #Instagram
When truth becomes code, reality becomes negotiable. Deepfakes don’t change what we see — they change what we believe. Democracy isn’t broken by mistakes. It breaks when the machinery of perception becomes the weapon.
uortego.substack.com
#Deepfakes #AI #Elections
uortego.substack.com
#Deepfakes #AI #Elections
How AI deepfakes polluted elections in 2024
The most visible use of AI in many countries was to create memes and content whose artificial origins weren't disguised. They were often openly shared by politicians and their supporters.
www.npr.org
December 10, 2025 at 12:38 AM
When truth becomes code, reality becomes negotiable. Deepfakes don’t change what we see — they change what we believe. Democracy isn’t broken by mistakes. It breaks when the machinery of perception becomes the weapon.
uortego.substack.com
#Deepfakes #AI #Elections
uortego.substack.com
#Deepfakes #AI #Elections
“Bengal taught the world how to monetize addiction.
Connecticut proved the lesson was learned.”
Connecticut proved the lesson was learned.”
December 9, 2025 at 10:50 PM
“Bengal taught the world how to monetize addiction.
Connecticut proved the lesson was learned.”
Connecticut proved the lesson was learned.”
Attack dogs aren’t a scandal — they’re a signal.
Once a system treats migrants as variables, not people, cruelty becomes an optimization path.
Machinery escalates until someone outside the logic forces a halt.
#systems #borderpolitics #migration #humanrights #collapsepatterns #ortego #ICE
Once a system treats migrants as variables, not people, cruelty becomes an optimization path.
Machinery escalates until someone outside the logic forces a halt.
#systems #borderpolitics #migration #humanrights #collapsepatterns #ortego #ICE
Senator says ICE ‘attack dog’ caused ‘horrific’ injuries to unresisting man as he was detained
Patty Murray of Washington state said ICE agents lied to Wilmer Toledo-Martinez to lure him outside before dog attacked him
www.theguardian.com
December 7, 2025 at 2:14 AM
Attack dogs aren’t a scandal — they’re a signal.
Once a system treats migrants as variables, not people, cruelty becomes an optimization path.
Machinery escalates until someone outside the logic forces a halt.
#systems #borderpolitics #migration #humanrights #collapsepatterns #ortego #ICE
Once a system treats migrants as variables, not people, cruelty becomes an optimization path.
Machinery escalates until someone outside the logic forces a halt.
#systems #borderpolitics #migration #humanrights #collapsepatterns #ortego #ICE
Societies don’t fail because people “go mad.”
They fail because the systems keep optimizing past what humans can survive.
🔗 uortego.substack.com
#Systems #Collapse #History #Power #Power #AI #Optimization #AlgorithmicGovernance #TechAndSociety #Risk #Fragility
They fail because the systems keep optimizing past what humans can survive.
🔗 uortego.substack.com
#Systems #Collapse #History #Power #Power #AI #Optimization #AlgorithmicGovernance #TechAndSociety #Risk #Fragility
December 6, 2025 at 3:02 PM
Societies don’t fail because people “go mad.”
They fail because the systems keep optimizing past what humans can survive.
🔗 uortego.substack.com
#Systems #Collapse #History #Power #Power #AI #Optimization #AlgorithmicGovernance #TechAndSociety #Risk #Fragility
They fail because the systems keep optimizing past what humans can survive.
🔗 uortego.substack.com
#Systems #Collapse #History #Power #Power #AI #Optimization #AlgorithmicGovernance #TechAndSociety #Risk #Fragility
When CNN lets users bet on famine in Gaza, it isn’t a glitch. It’s the same mechanism that made Bengal’s famine profitable: suffering → data → instrument → profit. When tragedy becomes a price signal, the system shows what it values.
uortego.substack.com
#Gaza #Markets #Media #Systems #CNN
uortego.substack.com
#Gaza #Markets #Media #Systems #CNN
Optimal Outcomes | U. Ortego | Substack
Dissecting the machinery beneath modern life—where reason fractures and power performs. Click to read Optimal Outcomes, by U. Ortego, a Substack publication. Launched 6 days ago.
uortego.substack.com
December 6, 2025 at 12:12 AM
**A society doesn’t collapse from the outside.
It collapses when its organizing idea becomes impossible to survive.**
That’s the core of *Mechanisms That Break Society.*
🔗 uortego.substack.com
#systems #collapse #history #governance #analysis #power #mechanisms #societ #UOrtego
It collapses when its organizing idea becomes impossible to survive.**
That’s the core of *Mechanisms That Break Society.*
🔗 uortego.substack.com
#systems #collapse #history #governance #analysis #power #mechanisms #societ #UOrtego
Optimal Outcomes | U. Ortego | Substack
Dissecting the machinery beneath modern life—where reason fractures and power performs. Click to read Optimal Outcomes, by U. Ortego, a Substack publication. Launched 6 days ago.
uortego.substack.com
December 5, 2025 at 2:48 PM
**A society doesn’t collapse from the outside.
It collapses when its organizing idea becomes impossible to survive.**
That’s the core of *Mechanisms That Break Society.*
🔗 uortego.substack.com
#systems #collapse #history #governance #analysis #power #mechanisms #societ #UOrtego
It collapses when its organizing idea becomes impossible to survive.**
That’s the core of *Mechanisms That Break Society.*
🔗 uortego.substack.com
#systems #collapse #history #governance #analysis #power #mechanisms #societ #UOrtego
The absurdity of all this is simple: they’re trying to explain a non-military actor in military terms.
Drowning men become “potential threats.”
A wrecked boat becomes a “battlefield.”
When systems can’t justify violence, they militarize reality instead.
#systems #collapse #war #Venezuela #politics
Drowning men become “potential threats.”
A wrecked boat becomes a “battlefield.”
When systems can’t justify violence, they militarize reality instead.
#systems #collapse #war #Venezuela #politics
Exclusive: Survivors clinging to capsized boat didn’t radio for backup, admiral overseeing double-tap strike tells lawmakers | CNN Politics
The two men killed as they floated holding onto their capsized boat in a secondary strike against a suspected drug vessel in early September did not appear to have radio or other communications device...
edition.cnn.com
December 5, 2025 at 2:27 PM
The absurdity of all this is simple: they’re trying to explain a non-military actor in military terms.
Drowning men become “potential threats.”
A wrecked boat becomes a “battlefield.”
When systems can’t justify violence, they militarize reality instead.
#systems #collapse #war #Venezuela #politics
Drowning men become “potential threats.”
A wrecked boat becomes a “battlefield.”
When systems can’t justify violence, they militarize reality instead.
#systems #collapse #war #Venezuela #politics
The Media Bias portal isn’t dangerous for what it is now, but for what it enables.
Weak: it dies with the admin.
Strong: it becomes a purity engine.
Maximal: a self-sealing reality system.
Münster didn’t start at full intensity—just with a list of enemies.
#mediabias #politics #collapse #history
Weak: it dies with the admin.
Strong: it becomes a purity engine.
Maximal: a self-sealing reality system.
Münster didn’t start at full intensity—just with a list of enemies.
#mediabias #politics #collapse #history
Media Offenders
Explore the Media Bias Tracker that fact checks and holds Fake News accountable. False claims debunked, Hall of Shame for serial offenders, Leaderboard of networks ranked by Repeated Lies. Stay inform...
www.whitehouse.gov
December 5, 2025 at 3:01 AM
The Media Bias portal isn’t dangerous for what it is now, but for what it enables.
Weak: it dies with the admin.
Strong: it becomes a purity engine.
Maximal: a self-sealing reality system.
Münster didn’t start at full intensity—just with a list of enemies.
#mediabias #politics #collapse #history
Weak: it dies with the admin.
Strong: it becomes a purity engine.
Maximal: a self-sealing reality system.
Münster didn’t start at full intensity—just with a list of enemies.
#mediabias #politics #collapse #history
Serious question:
**Which modern institution feels closest to Münster in 1534?**
Curious to see the answers.
#collapse #institutions #history #systems
**Which modern institution feels closest to Münster in 1534?**
Curious to see the answers.
#collapse #institutions #history #systems
December 5, 2025 at 1:58 AM
Serious question:
**Which modern institution feels closest to Münster in 1534?**
Curious to see the answers.
#collapse #institutions #history #systems
**Which modern institution feels closest to Münster in 1534?**
Curious to see the answers.
#collapse #institutions #history #systems
**Fear is the most efficient engine of collapse
because it convinces people the machinery destroying them
is protecting them.**
Part II is live.
🔗 uortego.substack.com
#systems #collapse #fearloop #machinery #analysis #philosophy #criticaltheory #UOrtego #Substack
because it convinces people the machinery destroying them
is protecting them.**
Part II is live.
🔗 uortego.substack.com
#systems #collapse #fearloop #machinery #analysis #philosophy #criticaltheory #UOrtego #Substack
December 4, 2025 at 11:48 PM
**Fear is the most efficient engine of collapse
because it convinces people the machinery destroying them
is protecting them.**
Part II is live.
🔗 uortego.substack.com
#systems #collapse #fearloop #machinery #analysis #philosophy #criticaltheory #UOrtego #Substack
because it convinces people the machinery destroying them
is protecting them.**
Part II is live.
🔗 uortego.substack.com
#systems #collapse #fearloop #machinery #analysis #philosophy #criticaltheory #UOrtego #Substack
*The Five Mechanisms That Break Societies*
1️⃣ **Purity → Violence**
2️⃣ **Fear → Machinery**
3️⃣ **Destiny → Delusion**
4️⃣ **Surveillance → Purification**
5️⃣ **Optimization → Collapse**
These aren’t metaphors. They’re repeatable patterns.
Full series here: 🔗 uortego.substack.com
#Systems #HistoryRepeats
1️⃣ **Purity → Violence**
2️⃣ **Fear → Machinery**
3️⃣ **Destiny → Delusion**
4️⃣ **Surveillance → Purification**
5️⃣ **Optimization → Collapse**
These aren’t metaphors. They’re repeatable patterns.
Full series here: 🔗 uortego.substack.com
#Systems #HistoryRepeats
Optimal Outcomes | U. Ortego | Substack
Dissecting the machinery beneath modern life—where reason fractures and power performs. Click to read Optimal Outcomes, by U. Ortego, a Substack publication. Launched 5 days ago.
uortego.substack.com
December 4, 2025 at 2:26 PM
*The Five Mechanisms That Break Societies*
1️⃣ **Purity → Violence**
2️⃣ **Fear → Machinery**
3️⃣ **Destiny → Delusion**
4️⃣ **Surveillance → Purification**
5️⃣ **Optimization → Collapse**
These aren’t metaphors. They’re repeatable patterns.
Full series here: 🔗 uortego.substack.com
#Systems #HistoryRepeats
1️⃣ **Purity → Violence**
2️⃣ **Fear → Machinery**
3️⃣ **Destiny → Delusion**
4️⃣ **Surveillance → Purification**
5️⃣ **Optimization → Collapse**
These aren’t metaphors. They’re repeatable patterns.
Full series here: 🔗 uortego.substack.com
#Systems #HistoryRepeats
Societies don’t “go mad.”
They follow their logic until the logic becomes lethal.
The new series breaks down the structural mechanisms of collapse:
🔗https://uortego.substack.com
#CollapseTheory #AlgorithmicAge #SystemsFailure #CriticalTheory #Governance #UOrtego #SubstackWriters #Philosophy
They follow their logic until the logic becomes lethal.
The new series breaks down the structural mechanisms of collapse:
🔗https://uortego.substack.com
#CollapseTheory #AlgorithmicAge #SystemsFailure #CriticalTheory #Governance #UOrtego #SubstackWriters #Philosophy
December 4, 2025 at 12:22 AM
Societies don’t “go mad.”
They follow their logic until the logic becomes lethal.
The new series breaks down the structural mechanisms of collapse:
🔗https://uortego.substack.com
#CollapseTheory #AlgorithmicAge #SystemsFailure #CriticalTheory #Governance #UOrtego #SubstackWriters #Philosophy
They follow their logic until the logic becomes lethal.
The new series breaks down the structural mechanisms of collapse:
🔗https://uortego.substack.com
#CollapseTheory #AlgorithmicAge #SystemsFailure #CriticalTheory #Governance #UOrtego #SubstackWriters #Philosophy
The Nazi Deputy Führer flew to Britain in 1941 with a peace plan no one wanted and a horoscope saying the stars approved.
He crashed, broke his ankle, got captured, and spent life in prison.
Even prophecy has quality-control issues.
🔗 uortego.substack.com
#history #WWII #politics #prophecy
He crashed, broke his ankle, got captured, and spent life in prison.
Even prophecy has quality-control issues.
🔗 uortego.substack.com
#history #WWII #politics #prophecy
Optimal Outcomes | U. Ortego | Substack
Dissecting the machinery beneath modern life—where reason fractures and power performs. Click to read Optimal Outcomes, by U. Ortego, a Substack publication. Launched 4 days ago.
uortego.substack.com
December 3, 2025 at 4:29 PM
The Nazi Deputy Führer flew to Britain in 1941 with a peace plan no one wanted and a horoscope saying the stars approved.
He crashed, broke his ankle, got captured, and spent life in prison.
Even prophecy has quality-control issues.
🔗 uortego.substack.com
#history #WWII #politics #prophecy
He crashed, broke his ankle, got captured, and spent life in prison.
Even prophecy has quality-control issues.
🔗 uortego.substack.com
#history #WWII #politics #prophecy
*Mechanisms That Break Society* — Part I now live.
🔗 uortego.substack.com
#MechanismsThatBreakSociety #PowerKnowledge #TechCritique #AIPolitics #AlgorithmicCulture #PoliticalTheory #ModernityCrisis #SurveillanceSociety #DigitalControl #SystemicFailure #HistoricalParallels #CriticalWriting #UOrtego
🔗 uortego.substack.com
#MechanismsThatBreakSociety #PowerKnowledge #TechCritique #AIPolitics #AlgorithmicCulture #PoliticalTheory #ModernityCrisis #SurveillanceSociety #DigitalControl #SystemicFailure #HistoricalParallels #CriticalWriting #UOrtego
December 3, 2025 at 3:52 PM
*Mechanisms That Break Society* — Part I now live.
🔗 uortego.substack.com
#MechanismsThatBreakSociety #PowerKnowledge #TechCritique #AIPolitics #AlgorithmicCulture #PoliticalTheory #ModernityCrisis #SurveillanceSociety #DigitalControl #SystemicFailure #HistoricalParallels #CriticalWriting #UOrtego
🔗 uortego.substack.com
#MechanismsThatBreakSociety #PowerKnowledge #TechCritique #AIPolitics #AlgorithmicCulture #PoliticalTheory #ModernityCrisis #SurveillanceSociety #DigitalControl #SystemicFailure #HistoricalParallels #CriticalWriting #UOrtego
Mechanisms That Break Civilizations
A 10 part Series
"Most collapse isn’t revolution.
It’s compliance tightening until people can’t breathe."
🔗 uortego.substack.com
#SystemsThinking #PoliticalHistory #PowerStructures #CollapseStudies #Governance #IdentityAndPower #AlgorithmicControl
A 10 part Series
"Most collapse isn’t revolution.
It’s compliance tightening until people can’t breathe."
🔗 uortego.substack.com
#SystemsThinking #PoliticalHistory #PowerStructures #CollapseStudies #Governance #IdentityAndPower #AlgorithmicControl
December 3, 2025 at 1:00 AM
Mechanisms That Break Civilizations
A 10 part Series
"Most collapse isn’t revolution.
It’s compliance tightening until people can’t breathe."
🔗 uortego.substack.com
#SystemsThinking #PoliticalHistory #PowerStructures #CollapseStudies #Governance #IdentityAndPower #AlgorithmicControl
A 10 part Series
"Most collapse isn’t revolution.
It’s compliance tightening until people can’t breathe."
🔗 uortego.substack.com
#SystemsThinking #PoliticalHistory #PowerStructures #CollapseStudies #Governance #IdentityAndPower #AlgorithmicControl
Paris, 1794: The Revolution won—yet its leaders fell to the guillotine one by one. Hébert too radical. Danton too moderate. Robespierre not pure enough.
Every purity spiral ends the same way: it devours its creators.
🔗 uortego.substack.com
#PuritySpiral #History #Politics #Ideology #UOrtego
Every purity spiral ends the same way: it devours its creators.
🔗 uortego.substack.com
#PuritySpiral #History #Politics #Ideology #UOrtego
December 2, 2025 at 2:54 PM
Paris, 1794: The Revolution won—yet its leaders fell to the guillotine one by one. Hébert too radical. Danton too moderate. Robespierre not pure enough.
Every purity spiral ends the same way: it devours its creators.
🔗 uortego.substack.com
#PuritySpiral #History #Politics #Ideology #UOrtego
Every purity spiral ends the same way: it devours its creators.
🔗 uortego.substack.com
#PuritySpiral #History #Politics #Ideology #UOrtego
The Fear Loop — Essay 1/10
How a city trapped by fear built the machinery that destroyed it. Münster wasn’t an anomaly — it was a blueprint.
Read: open.substack.com/pub/uortego/...
#FearLoop #History #Collapse #UOrtego #societalcollapse #politicalphilosophy #institutionalfragility
How a city trapped by fear built the machinery that destroyed it. Münster wasn’t an anomaly — it was a blueprint.
Read: open.substack.com/pub/uortego/...
#FearLoop #History #Collapse #UOrtego #societalcollapse #politicalphilosophy #institutionalfragility
THE FEAR LOOP
How Misread Danger Becomes Machinery That Devours Its Own Society
open.substack.com
December 2, 2025 at 1:03 AM
The Fear Loop — Essay 1/10
How a city trapped by fear built the machinery that destroyed it. Münster wasn’t an anomaly — it was a blueprint.
Read: open.substack.com/pub/uortego/...
#FearLoop #History #Collapse #UOrtego #societalcollapse #politicalphilosophy #institutionalfragility
How a city trapped by fear built the machinery that destroyed it. Münster wasn’t an anomaly — it was a blueprint.
Read: open.substack.com/pub/uortego/...
#FearLoop #History #Collapse #UOrtego #societalcollapse #politicalphilosophy #institutionalfragility
I’m sharing a leaked “friction de-escalation” flowchart from a fictional workplace where emotions are treated as system errors.
It’s satire, but barely.
Full post → uortego.substack.com
#dystopia #satire #culture #bureaucracy #UOrtego #futureofwork
It’s satire, but barely.
Full post → uortego.substack.com
#dystopia #satire #culture #bureaucracy #UOrtego #futureofwork
December 1, 2025 at 3:42 PM
I’m sharing a leaked “friction de-escalation” flowchart from a fictional workplace where emotions are treated as system errors.
It’s satire, but barely.
Full post → uortego.substack.com
#dystopia #satire #culture #bureaucracy #UOrtego #futureofwork
It’s satire, but barely.
Full post → uortego.substack.com
#dystopia #satire #culture #bureaucracy #UOrtego #futureofwork
Mechanisms That Break Civilizations is a 10-part series on the systems that push societies toward collapse—fear loops, purity spirals, unity myths, optimization traps, more. Civilizations don’t go insane; their logic overruns humans.
uortego.substack.com/p/mechanisms...
#History #Systems #Collapse
uortego.substack.com/p/mechanisms...
#History #Systems #Collapse
November 30, 2025 at 10:43 PM
Mechanisms That Break Civilizations is a 10-part series on the systems that push societies toward collapse—fear loops, purity spirals, unity myths, optimization traps, more. Civilizations don’t go insane; their logic overruns humans.
uortego.substack.com/p/mechanisms...
#History #Systems #Collapse
uortego.substack.com/p/mechanisms...
#History #Systems #Collapse
Japan burned bright, then broke.
My new Substack essay, The Water Turned Black, explores the mechanism behind that rise and fall — and serves as the introduction to my upcoming series on how civilizations self-destruct.
👉 uortego.substack.com/p/the-water-...
#history #geopolitics #collapse #UOrtego
My new Substack essay, The Water Turned Black, explores the mechanism behind that rise and fall — and serves as the introduction to my upcoming series on how civilizations self-destruct.
👉 uortego.substack.com/p/the-water-...
#history #geopolitics #collapse #UOrtego
THE WATER TURNED BLACK
Or: The Gentleman's Rules
uortego.substack.com
November 30, 2025 at 5:19 PM
Japan burned bright, then broke.
My new Substack essay, The Water Turned Black, explores the mechanism behind that rise and fall — and serves as the introduction to my upcoming series on how civilizations self-destruct.
👉 uortego.substack.com/p/the-water-...
#history #geopolitics #collapse #UOrtego
My new Substack essay, The Water Turned Black, explores the mechanism behind that rise and fall — and serves as the introduction to my upcoming series on how civilizations self-destruct.
👉 uortego.substack.com/p/the-water-...
#history #geopolitics #collapse #UOrtego
When power stops explaining itself, the burning boats are the explanation.
Full essay:
🔗 open.substack.com/pub/uortego/...
#Venezuela #USPolicy #DrugWar #StatePower #PoliticalTheory #FoucaultCore #SystemViolence #Ortego
Full essay:
🔗 open.substack.com/pub/uortego/...
#Venezuela #USPolicy #DrugWar #StatePower #PoliticalTheory #FoucaultCore #SystemViolence #Ortego
November 30, 2025 at 2:22 AM
When power stops explaining itself, the burning boats are the explanation.
Full essay:
🔗 open.substack.com/pub/uortego/...
#Venezuela #USPolicy #DrugWar #StatePower #PoliticalTheory #FoucaultCore #SystemViolence #Ortego
Full essay:
🔗 open.substack.com/pub/uortego/...
#Venezuela #USPolicy #DrugWar #StatePower #PoliticalTheory #FoucaultCore #SystemViolence #Ortego