We Do Not Take Sides – We Take Notes
Covering disease, environmental exposure, misinformation, and the surprising durability of bad ideas.
Hatred is often treated as a moral failing. This framing is comforting. It suggests that hostility emerges from character, ideology, or isolated malice. It implies that if better people held better beliefs, the problem would resolve itself. The current pattern does not support this interpretation. What we are observing behaves less like ideology and more …
Disinformation remains the most efficient contagion currently in circulation. This is not a metaphor strained for effect. It spreads faster than biology, adapts more readily than viruses, and encounters fewer barriers to transmission than anything I have previously documented. It requires no incubation period, no physical proximity, and no host awareness. It travels willingly, often …
Misinformation does not create crises…that would be inefficient. Instead, it arrives early, embeds itself quietly, and ensures that whatever crisis follows will be louder, faster, and harder to contain. In military terms, this is called a force multiplier. In public health, it is called a recurring obstacle. In practice, it has become core infrastructure. The …
Personal responsibility has proven to be one of the most versatile substances in modern governance. It dissolves complexity. It neutralizes accountability. It adapts effortlessly to any crisis, regardless of scale or origin. When introduced into a system under strain, it clarifies outcomes by relocating them neatly onto individuals, where they can be managed privately. This …
Environmental exposure is often discussed as a problem. This is a misunderstanding. Problems are unintended. Environmental exposure, by contrast, is the predictable output of systems that have been operating consistently, profitably, and with remarkable tolerance for collateral effects. From a performance standpoint, the results have been impressive. Air, water, soil, and food systems now carry …