We are living in an era where reality is not just reported; it is manufactured. When we scroll through our feeds, we aren’t seeing the world as it is; we are seeing a curated reflection of what powerful entities want us to believe. The greatest tragedy of our time isn’t just the conflicts themselves, but the collective amnesia regarding history and the selective outrage that defines our modern geopolitical discourse.

The Architecture of Illusion
What that is, is history is often described as a cycle, but today, it feels more like a script being rewritten in real-time. We are told that certain nations are existential threats while others are benevolent defenders of freedom. Yet, if you peel back the layers of state-sponsored narratives and corporate media consolidation, you find a consistent pattern: the "foe" is rarely a natural enemy. The foe is made by media. It is a construct designed to unify a domestic population against an external caricature, distracting from internal decay, economic inequality, and the erosion of civil liberties.

~/~ Propaganda in the 21st century doesn’t look like the crude posters of the past. It looks like breaking news banners, algorithmic suppression, and the subtle omission of context. It convinces us that complexity is dangerous and that binary choices are the only moral path.

The Paradox of Selective Solidarity

Perhaps the most glaring contradiction in today’s discourse is the selective alignment of public sentiment. We see individuals passionately choose a side in a specific war theater, citing sovereignty and the right to self-defense. Yet, these same voices often harbor deep-seated hatred toward nations or peoples who are, by all strategic and historical metrics, friends rather than foes.
How can one champion the sovereignty of one nation while demanding the subjugation or destruction of another? How can we decry the expansion of military alliances when they do it, but celebrate it as "stability" when we do it? This cognitive dissonance is the fuel that keeps the war machine running. We are tricked into hating those who share our struggles against hegemony, while embracing those who profit from our division is my question next.

The Reality Behind the Curtain

Yeps the reality mainstream herd typos.
The reality is that no modern conflicts are not about democracy or human rights; they are about resources, strategic positioning, and the maintenance of a unipolar world order that is rapidly fracturing. The "axis of evil" changes names every decade, but the function remains the same: to justify endless military spending and the surveillance of the populace.
When we allow media conglomerates to define our enemies, we lose the ability to see the common humanity that binds us across borders. The worker in a sanctioned nation is not our enemy; they are suffering under the same weight of elite manipulation as we are. The soldier on the other side of the front line is often just as trapped by propaganda and conscription as the one we are told to support..
To see the truth, we must be willing to uncomfortable questions: Who benefits from this conflict? Why was this history erased from our textbooks? Why do we hate a nation that has never attacked us, while ignoring the atrocities of our allies?

We must stop accepting the narrative that the world is simply divided into "good guys" and "bad guys." Geopolitics is a chessboard of interests, not morals. Until we recognize that the true foe is the machinery of war and the propaganda that sustains it, we will remain pawns in a game we didn’t agree to play.

It is time to unwrap history from the lies. It is time to recognize friends where we’ve been taught to see foes. And most importantly, it is time to demand a reality based on truth, not convenience.

Few weeks ago I accidentally stumbled upon Project Gemini—I think I was browsing some random links on Wiby.me—and it really surprised me. Not only was I not aware about other Internet protocols (yes, I am ashamed of myself (¬_¬"), but there is a whole culture of the #smallnet hidden in a plain sight. It was like discovering #Fediverse all over again! I quickly found a gemini-compatible browser—Lagrange—and my dive into a new, exciting thing began.

At first, finding things in #Geminispace was challenging. But it felt strangely liberating. The local community is mostly well-educated IT specialists and enthusiasts. One of them has jokingly called Gemini “a place where the old IT seniors come to die”. This comparison made me think of the Grey Wardens from Dragon Age games and their necessity to seek the Deep Roads when they feel like their time is coming to an end. I really liked that image: the IT seniors clad in shiny armour give their final words of wisdom and disappear into the uncharted depths. “They call them Greybeards”, the story tells, “the ever-watchful guardians of cyberspace and cyberfreedoms against the corrupted Big-tech spawns.” Only unlike the Deep Roads, Geminispace is quiet and safe, without a constant horde of trackers, adspawns and other abominations up your back. It has its many limitations, but through them it shall remain a place of sacred refuge from the Big Tech and the noise of modern internet. As long as there is at least one Greybeard to roam its depth. 𓀛

Gemini's obscurity and lack of utility means that there are no analytics, no metrics, no ways to go viral, to monetize people's attention, build a career or even a minimally-functional web platform. No sane business would build on top of Gemini, and that is exactly why it is capable of having the character that it does.
—
“Gemini is Useless” by Alex at gemini://alex.flounder.online/gemlog/2021-01-08-useless.gmi

P. S.: The word “Greybeard” is used as a unisex term, just for the connotation with Grey Wardens, and to link the old meme that deep knowledge of IT systems gets you a beard (˵ •̀ ᴗ - ˵ ). I fully acknowledge that many of the heroes have no beard. ᡣ𐭩ྀིྀི

I’ve decided to add a number to my posts titles just to see how public I can be. I don’t want to spam the server too much, but I also don’t want to occupy the space if I have nothing to say. It’s a way for me to know if I should have a blog at all.

Speaking of which, after my first post I actually got spooked seeing that someone read it and reacted (・_・;). Even though my IF "game" isn’t complete yet, I am already scared of people judging it. I wager most creative minds are haunted by the phantom “I am afraid to disappoint others” to the point that their creations either remain hidden or unrealised forever.

Well, I let myself dwell on that fear for a moment too long, and then I decided to ignore it ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ. It will never go away for me, but that doesn't mean I should just give up on everything. Usually, to motivate myself I look at other creators that I follow, the ones that continue working on their projects no matter what. And their immortal advice is "write/work even just a little every day", it doesn't have to be perfect, all it needs to be is an attempt at making progress. I think they are right, it's the small steps that make a difference in the end.