The architecture of derision: a DEMAND that Facebook and its overlord Zuckerberg allow content creators to control which reaction emojis may be used on their posts — especially the grossly abused ‘laugh’ emoji

image generated via Meta AI

Facebook: as the creator/administrator of two Pages, in addition to running a Group and maintaining my personal account — and whereas grown adults in Trumpistan may no longer be trusted to comport themselves towards one another with respect and dignity — I demand the ability to disable that f**king laugh reaction upon any given post of my choosing. DEMANDING IT! Some matters are no laughing matter, and no function upon this hellsite hath been more routinely abused. 

It was a wretched idea ever to introduce the thing, ten years ago, just as Trump first embarked upon his political ascent. Curious, is it not, that Zuckerberg and Musk should preside over platforms wherein bullying and harassment flourish, whilst Meta and Musk have poured money into Trump’s political orbit — and far worse besides, at least where Musk is concerned? Almost as though they had arrived at the selfsame conclusion as Trump: that greater riches and power are to be won by keeping folk bitterly divided and by manufacturing a perpetual state of strife beyond even that which mankind naturally engenders of its own accord. Amazing, in the bleakest sense, how readily a bloody emoji may be made to serve such ends.

I do not want to hear any ‘lighten up, Francis’ rejoinders; spare me that bulls**t. If we are to restore even some poor semblance of class and civility to this rotten society, we must first practise these virtues ourselves, and require them likewise of others.

No Facebook user, myself included, ever stood in need of aught beyond the humble ‘thumbs up’ reaction. Should I find a connexion’s post interesting, in whatsoever fashion, I may always leave a comment saying as much, or simply bestow upon it a ‘thumbs up’. No: instead, we must have the ‘love’ emoji, the damnably silly ‘care’ emoji, the ‘wow’ emoji, the ‘sad’ emoji, and the ‘angry face’ emoji. (I shall admit to having used that last one myself; perchance we may suffer it to remain, but not the others.)

So grievously hath this platform been mucked up, and so long in the tooth hath its user base become, that I marvel we remain here at all, and that FB hath not already gone the way of Myspace. That platform likewise groaned beneath a mountain of needless rubbish which no soul truly required, whilst its functionality was dreadful.

We know, in broad measure, why Zuckerberg hath rendered FB increasingly hospitable to far-right political content; but why must the platform likewise imitate Myspace in all this childish tomfoolery? Doth Zuckerberg actually want Facebook to die? At times it seems as though he hath simply lost interest in it, and bestowed his greater attention upon Meta’s other endeavours. Precious few improvements of any consequence have been made to the platform in years; I cannot even think of one offhand. If the design be to murder his own creation by making it as toxic as ingenuity allows, he is well on his way to achieving that nefarious purpose.

Anyway, to hell with the laugh emoji. Those who have abused it — including those who laugh-react to posts concerning the Holocaust and other crimes against humanity; yea, I do encounter this with depressing regularity — may one day discover that cruelty proves rather less amusing when at last it comes home to roost.

Karma is a cruel mistress, after all.

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🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Copyright 2026, Arthur Newhook.

The ruins we chose: whilst Ukraine stands, America unmakes itself

image generated via Grok

The former US afforded Kyiv a mere hour’s warning before Monday’s Russian ballistic-missile assault, attributing the intelligence ‘failure’ to a ‘software problem’. {The Telegraph 19 October}

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/27da1caf805aff89

Apparently, Trump believes that throwing in his lot wholesale with Putin and Russia, so close upon these wretched midterm elections — wherein he and his corrupted party are so desperate to cling to power — constitutes a sound idea. Yet, given how thoughtlessly the American people betrayed the Ukrainian people by restoring Trump to power — and putting aside the 99.9% certainhood that Putin hath been blackmailing him for years — might he be making a shrewd, though entirely unconscionable, political calculation?

Recall what preceded Trump’s return to the presidency: nearly three years, whilst Biden was in office and America remained Ukraine’s friend and protector, of incessant whining over the money expended in defending Ukraine, from millions upon millions of citizens forever susceptible to mindless right-wing populism and blatant propaganda. Perhaps Trump knows his constituency better than those of us who persist in expecting reason, consistency or elementary decency from it. Or, perhaps some of our number only understand his constituency all too well by now; enough to realise the vast majority of MAGA voters are never coming back from the abyss.

How else did Trump come to power in the first place — and, inexplicably, for a second time after a historically rotten first term that ended amid a pandemic, mass protests, and the political violence of 6 January 2021 following his sustained effort to overturn the election result? How is it that basic vaccines, once almost entirely uncontroversial, are now regarded as a demonic plot by our friends and family members? How is it that seemingly everything unfolding around us now appears to defy common logic and reason? Collectively, the American people find themselves in a very dark place: psychologically, spiritually, morally, physically, economically, and more besides.

As such, the people are being played like a fiddle by some of the most evil and ruthless men on earth: Trump and his cadre, certainly, but also Vladimir Putin, Elon Musk, Xi Jinping and, arguably and regrettably, Benjamin Netanyahu (though we are not having that argument at present), among many others. 

Arguably, meanwhile, the Trump régime is itself being outfoxed and outmanoeuvred by the very allies it hath stabbed in the back, Ukraine among them. The reorientation of US foreign policy towards Putin doth wound Ukraine, yet its people are proving themselves the most resilient on earth, and shall stand triumphant in the end. Unquestionably, they have grown stronger in adversity and are going to prevail. As for #Muricans? No chance; we are ultimately killing ourselves first and foremost, and are not of the calibre of the generations who preceded us — when there actually was much to be proud of. 

I cannot endure much more of this.

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🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Copyright 2026, Arthur Newhook.

Unto him, and unto him alone

image generated via Grok

Howsoever absurd the notion may even now appear, and notwithstanding how impractical its execution would prove, I remain convinced that Trump doth ultimately intend to exact from every American citizen a pledge of loyalty — of fealty — unto him, and unto him alone. I have been predicting some version of this for years — to the point that I have had many near heart attacks, and that is not an exaggeration. It hath not come just yet, I know; yet with every fibre of my being do I sense that it is coming in short order. My heart attack and Trump’s demand for loyalty both. 

Perhaps the dumbest bloody country of all time — albeit China gave itself over to Mao, Russia to a succession of despots, and so forth — to have sacrificed everything for this thoroughly mediocre, elderly conman. It merely demonstrates how much the majority of the country hates liberalism, hates progress, and hates difference of opinion. 

My entire life, I have carried this vague sense that our professed ideals of individuality and freedom of thought and expression were always hated by the most ostentatiously ‘patriotic’ types, even during the years prior to 2016, when I fancied myself a ‘patriot’. What is there to be patriotic about now?  Donald Trump’s ascension, and the cult-like devotion millions bear towards this motherf**ker, confirmed for me that most people want conformity, not actual freedom. And they are getting what they voted for. 

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🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Copyright 2026, Arthur Newhook.

The road to ruin runs on Russian diesel

image generated via Qwen

{AP 9 October} ‘Trump strikes deal with Putin to get diesel in sharp reversal of US policy weeks before midterms’ — 

https://apnews.com/article/trump-russia-diesel-midterms-12baccc7aade559bf329079b0548c9da

Americans shall forever be hated by the people of Ukraine, and all of Europe, for their treachery in returning a known Putin stooge to high office. We are a nation of cowards, backstabbers, lunatics, and freaks. Much like Russia. Nikita Khrushchev famously declared: ‘We will bury you’, in regards to the United States, and it would appear Donald Trump is doing everything in his power to help finally make that happen.

If Zelensky continues to strike Russian oil refineries — as Ukraine hath every right to do in a war it did not begin — what happens when those attacks collide directly with Trump’s new arrangement with Putin? I fear where this road may lead. Washington is already pressuring Kyiv over its refinery campaign; should Trump ever go so far as to order American military action against Ukraine, the resulting breach with Europe and NATO would be of a magnitude scarcely imaginable. I shall not pretend to know precisely where such madness would end, only there shall be serious consequences for every American citizen, and billions others besides. A vastly wider conflict may become a likelihood.

One way or the other, it is not likely to mean lower diesel prices.  Was whining and moaning for nearly three years — whilst Mr Biden was still in office and US-Ukraine relations were still warm — about the money spent on Ukraine’s defence worth the dissolution of the post-war, Western alliance that hath largely kept peace and brought prosperity for eighty years? Was betraying Ukraine really worth risking a global war, you dumb f**ks? I honestly believe Trump may be deliberately leading America in that direction. He is a destroyer of nations, most especially his own.

This American’s conscience is clear; if worst comes to worst, as I now fear it will, then all Americans who are opposed to this treason and sickening evil shall be compelled to take some sort of action in protest. A general strike, mass protests… hell if I know what is going to happen: we only know that any uprising shall be bloody, with no guarantee that liberty and common sense will save the day. And, I believe, an uprising is exactly what Trump and his allies want. He and they have been licking their lips, ever since he was restored to power, awaiting an all-out crackdown on American society, and it matters not what the current poll numbers may be, the majority of Americans are going to go along to get along once this crackdown is implemented. Many eagerly so.

Remember, ‘y’all’ voted for this. We had already suffered through one term of this fool, which ended in disaster yet very well could have been worse still had some people possessing a degree of competence and character not remained around him to impose restraint (is anybody at all serving that role in the current regime?) Then — after four years during which he officially became a convicted felon and spent the whole time undermining President Joe Biden at every turn (in which the media was entirely complicit) — ‘y’all’ brought him back anyway; anything to avoid being governed by a black female Democrat (whom I harbour no love for, by the way). Anything to be entertained and have your favourite circus clown back on the main stage. 

The rest of us warned you exactly what was going to happen. We see it all playing out: our place in the world hath been ruined, probably beyond repair. We are at odds with Canada now, for f**k’s sake! Our military might is rapidly being depleted, our economy is collapsing (in large part due to this regime’s imbecilic fiscal policies), preventable diseases are spreading, our natural resources are being plundered, and our civil liberties are being eroded.

Was this all worth it? Is silencing and punishing fellow Americans worth the very real pain that hath already been felt, but in earnest is only just beginning? I suspect, for all too many and perhaps for some reading this, the answer is an unequivocal ‘yes’. 

The biggest lie in the universe is that people are basically good by nature. No: human nature is rotten, and human beings shall forever hurt themselves in order to hurt their enemies more grievously. Present-day #Murica may yet go down in history as one of the prime examples of this eternal truism. It is going to be an ugly fall, and I pray I somehow shall not have to bear witness to it.

Visit reddit.com/r/TheWireDesk

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🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Copyright 2026, Arthur Newhook.

Packed like sardines: the crowded Commonwealth

Via the Boston board on Reddit: MA Ballot 7 Small Lot — https://www.reddit.com/r/boston/comments/1x1sj9g/ma_ballot_7_small_lot/

Am not advocating for forcing people to depart Massachusetts. Perchance we might strongly encourage the MAGA folk to seek out some locale more amenable to their politics, but I digress, for such a measure would be neither lawful nor terribly democratic. Nor is there, I suppose, a great deal that may presently be done about the root problem at hand. Nevertheless, we have simply far too many individuals living within this geographically diminutive state, most especially in and around Boston. In truth, throughout this entire region of the country, we have too many people occupying too little space.

image generated via ChatGPT

The older I get, the less I am able to abide being packed together like sardines; yet I am in no position to leave, and whither, in any case, doth one go? The whole blasted country is falling apart, whilst neither Canada nor Europe appears especially eager to receive an influx of Americans, for which, frankly, they cannot be blamed.

But there it is: overpopulation lieth at the root of all of the world’s miseries. More people, more problems; thus hath it ever been. It is why seemingly every remaining inch of land in Eastern Massachusetts is being devoured, and why getting from Point A to Point B proves a wretched ordeal each time one ventures forth. Why, even getting around my town at present is a royal pain in the arse, with so many streets closed off for roadwork. More cars and more people mean more congestion, greater wear upon infrastructure, and ever more demands upon the roads themselves. I never want to leave my abode anymore, and I am stressed to the gills every single time I am compelled to do so. Thankfully — in a sense, at least — my health and circumstances allow me to remain at home most of the time, yet I do not envy those who must be out there as a matter of daily necessity (most people). This is torture, and not exactly how human beings are hardwired to live.

Overpopulation is a nightmare, and its consequences manifest themselves everywhere upon this beleaguered planet: from climate change, to crime, to chronic housing shortages, and unto every manner of societal ill. More people, more problems.

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🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Copyright 2026, Arthur Newhook.