The giddy circus of pathologised frailty

Modernity is so obsessed with labels because it is terrified of mystery: is anyone else thoroughly sick of these sanctimonious little memes that continually choke our timelines on Facebook, and elsewhere? Who even is producing this bloody drivel!? And why is it always so predictably tethered to some solemn pronouncements about alleged “narcissists”? Somewhere within the last ten to fifteen years, give or take, “narcissism” hath expanded from a specific, scientific descriptor rarely used by the general public into a universal solvent and catch-word buzz-word, dissolving every nuance it touches. I scarcely recall encountering the term in ordinary conversation, real life, before that period; now it is deployed with monotonous certainty to explain virtually everything.

Any personality disorder, any genuine injury or merely imagined affront, any defect that is real, exaggerated, misread, or simply inconvenient gets bundled into the same accusatory category — particularly when the subject is male (women, I’ve gathered, are more often labeled as “hysterical” or “unsafe”; in both cases, the individual is erased). It hath become less a diagnosis than a fashionable epithet: a moral cudgel masquerading as insight. And is it any wonder, under such conditions, that trust has withered — that people approach one another as potential threats rather than imperfect fellow creatures — when this poisonous, pseudo-therapeutic slurry is everywhere, presenting itself as “self-help” while quietly training everyone to interpret human frailty as pathology?

These bloody memes — like the ones in the screenshot with their "early red flags" and "humiliation" tactics — are the aesthetic opposite of glamour. Flat, ugly, and devoid of the nuance that once made human connection beautiful. The word "narcissist" is all too often a shield to avoid the messy work of actually knowing someone. Enough. Full stop to this f**king nonsense! I have had my fill of the whole giddy, self-righteous circus. And if I am a "narcissist" for saying so, oh bloody well! 

"We do not see things as they are, we see them as we are." — Anaïs Nin.

Copyright 2026, Arthur Newhook.

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO THE ALGORITHM

image generated via Google Gemini

Even those among thee who command the greatest engagement across social media are, in truth, seen and valued by scarcely five per cent of thy followers. If that! So know this: the whole enterprise—social media, the Internet, the infernal little devices to which we have shackled our lives—was a monumental mistake. Even if a few scattered blessings have arisen from it, in the grand reckoning it has proved a calamity for humankind. Over the span of thirty years, technology has inflicted grievous psychic harm upon me; I see that more and more clearly now. This wicked little genie will not return to her bottle, yet every life is the poorer for her escape.

I speak without exaggeration when I say I feel as though I inhabit a universe of the living dead. I shall not be dragged, kicking and screaming, into accepting this deranged nonsense as some ‘new normal’, for it is nothing of the sort. I refuse to feign happiness in a world that never wanted me to begin with. And as for Jesus—if He is indeed coming—then let Him come swiftly and lay waste to all of this. And if tribulation must precede redemption, then let those already exhausted of will and spirit be permitted to depart before the final horrors begin. I did not start any of this. So, for God’s sake—let me be.—Arthur Newhook, 7 October 2025.

{alternate text for the above image} In a desolate digital wasteland beneath a tempestuous sky, a spectral woman stands alone, cloaked in flowing, monastic robes that billow in the cold wind. Her pale face is upturned toward a fractured heaven streaked with falling satellites and flaming debris, her expression one of solemn revelation. Around her feet lies a vast, ashen expanse of discarded smartphones and shattered screens—an ocean of dead technology still flickering faintly with the ghostly glow of social media icons. The landscape stretches to infinity, symbolising the graveyard of a civilisation consumed by its own inventions. Crimson trails burn through the clouds like apocalyptic omens, while she, the last prophet or mourner of the digital age, stands at the centre of the storm—at once priestess and survivor, elegist and avenger of the fallen world.

Copyright 2025, Arthur Newhook. FULL LIST OF LINKS - linktr.ee/arthurnewhook. DONATIONS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED on Cash App ($ANewhook).

A plea directed at the overlords of social media to abolish the 'laugh' emoji, alongside an exhortation for adults to cease using emojis entirely—indeed, to abandon behaviour reminiscent of schoolyard bullies in its entirety

Allow me to say this to one and all: if I had my way, every one of the social media platforms—starting with blasted Facebook—would chuck out that damned 'laugh' emoji. It is nothing but a tool for sneering at people, tearing them down, and stripping away their humanity. And do not consider for a second that Zuckerberg, Elon, and the rest of that wretched lot know not what they are doing. Of course they know—they’re the masters of pandemonium, the very architects of destruction.

Social media users? Do not get me started. Most of them are lemmings, gleefully marching to their doom, following these tech overlords straight into the flaming pit. This lunacy must cease forthwith, before we have got rivers of blood in the streets—mark my words, that is precisely where we are headed if this carries on.

Another thing—are you not supposed to be grown adults? Bloody adults! So, for heaven's sake, STOP USING EMOJI! Yes, I mean every damned word of it. Laughing at people—real people—who have lost everything to fires, floods, wars, or whatever else the world throws at them? What's wrong with you? Were you not taught as a child that kicking someone when they're down is the lowest of the low? Judging by what I am seeing, we've got precious few proper grown-ups left these days.

If you are one of those smirking sods indulging in this vile nonsense, let me spell it out for you: there is something rotten in your head and black in your heart. Huge swathes of society are beyond saving now, and this is exactly what a crumbling civilisation looks like.

So do us all a favour: grow up—properly this time—and, more importantly, find a shred of humanity in that shrivelled excuse for a soul of yours.

Copyright 2025, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 and @FloydEtcetera on X, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, BLUESKY - @arthurnewhook.bsky.social. DONATIONS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED at https://tinyurl.com/ArthurNewhook.

Killing Pepe

Illustration: stripe500 on Deviant Art

At the point where I’m preemptively blocking anyone on social media (predominately on Twitter) promoting Bitcoin, Pepe the Frog and the assorted neo-fascist weirdos and Jew-haters on the far-right, the self-proclaimed socialist authoritarians and ‘free Palestine’ Jew-haters on the hard-left, grifters of any sort (such as the douchebags making a living of telling others how to live), ‘stan’ accounts of inane pseudo-celebrities, the anime freaks, all the gutter trash porn that has zero sex appeal whatsoever, the appalling lack of respect for President Biden, the traditionalist types bemoaning everything about modern society as they play with their cell phones all day and night, the ‘s**tposters’: Need I go on? Who else am I missing? About 95% or more of social media - which still could have such great potential if used properly - is garbage. I am here for the handful who actually have something worthwhile to say, or something of interest to share; for those who are at least trying to work for solutions, instead of becoming the problem as these assorted sickos have. As much of a misanthrope as yours truly can be many times, I do not want to bear witness to genocide in my land and time …

Just about every society in history that has been an autocracy to one degree or another has failed, and these idiots are willing to repeat that tragic history in order to satiate their bloodlust, envy, and bitterness. To justify the vital lies they’ve been fed that their innate confirmation bias holds them slaves to; hence why Trump’s fervent supporters remain so pathetically fervent. Or why televangelist crooks will always get away with siphoning money from their desperate followers. All the while as too many of these people - left and right - are hailing Vladimir Putin, and the slaughter of the Ukrainian people, as well as calling for pogroms against unfavored groups here at home. Leave me out of that nation-killing, soul-destroying nonsense. At least 95% of everyone who uses social media can kiss my royal a**, for real. True colors have come through the past seven years, terminal cancer has set in, and Americans have nobody to blame but themselves.

Copyright 2023, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 and @FloydEtcetera on TWITTER, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, and POST - @arthurnewhook.

Reviewing Jonathan Haidt’s vitally important article, ‘Why the past ten years of American life have been uniquely stupid.’ And speaking of ‘stupid,’ Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis crosses another line of decency in the GOP moral crusade against Mickey Mouse

Jonathan Haidt - Why the past ten years of American life have been uniquely stupid (The Atlantic 4/11)

Pixabay

A long article that is worth the time and effort. Ideological conformity on the left and right is stupefying our institutions and overall society, while the voices of reason in the middle have been almost completely drowned out. Americans of all stripes better start arresting their totalitarian impulses, because we’re already far too down that rabbit hole. And when one is in a hole, the logical thing to do is to stop digging. Logic, however, doesn’t play much of a role in #Murica, and we may very well be f**ked. America’s collective stupidity is a matter of life and death. Everything from national security, to education, to health care, to infrastructure, and so forth is now in severe peril. And we are collapsing fast, as Jonathan Haidt makes clear in this excellent piece. A couple of excerpts -

The story of Babel is the best metaphor I have found for what happened to America in the 2010s, and for the fractured country we now inhabit. Something went terribly wrong, very suddenly. We are disoriented, unable to speak the same language or recognize the same truth. We are cut off from one another and from the past.

It’s been clear for quite a while now that red America and blue America are becoming like two different countries claiming the same territory, with two different versions of the Constitution, economics, and American history. But Babel is not a story about tribalism; it’s a story about the fragmentation of everything. It’s about the shattering of all that had seemed solid, the scattering of people who had been a community. It’s a metaphor for what is happening not only between red and blue, but within the left and within the right, as well as within universities, companies, professional associations, museums, and even families.

Babel is a metaphor for what some forms of social media have done to nearly all of the groups and institutions most important to the country’s future—and to us as a people. How did this happen? And what does it portend for American life?

***

American politics is getting ever more ridiculous and dysfunctional not because Americans are getting less intelligent. The problem is structural. Thanks to enhanced-virality social media, dissent is punished within many of our institutions, which means that bad ideas get elevated into official policy.

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WE CAN NEVER return to the way things were in the pre-digital age. The norms, institutions, and forms of political participation that developed during the long era of mass communication are not going to work well now that technology has made everything so much faster and more multidirectional, and when bypassing professional gatekeepers is so easy. And yet American democracy is now operating outside the bounds of sustainability. If we do not make major changes soon, then our institutions, our political system, and our society may collapse during the next major war, pandemic, financial meltdown, or constitutional crisis. (Read more)

Getty Images

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis pushes to strip Disney World of autonomy over its 27,000 acres - Exactly the actions of a textbook Fascist. DeSantis is out of control. Why are the GOP falling on their swords over this nonsense, anyway? The ‘don’t say gay’ bill is reasonable enough in of itself, as little kids do not need to be learning about sexual matters. What is not reasonable is the vitriol its proponents have displayed toward anybody - even one of their state’s biggest employers - who may have concerns. I’ve noticed a massive uptick in anti-gay rhetoric of late from the nationalist populists, and that is not accidental. If I were a gay man, or a lesbian, or otherwise on the LGBTQ spectrum, I’d be thinking about arming myself. Anybody opposed to these a**holes should be considering gun ownership. #JustSaying. (AP 4/19)

Copyright 2022, Sunking278. Stay up-to-date: Twitter – @Sunking278 and Facebook – click here. DONATIONS - click here.