2025.05.DisappearingMoment
A problem with leasing a Cybertruck?
You might like it.
Appreciate its comforts.
It might be your favorite place to listen to music.
Feel like you’re in full control.
You might find reasons to keep it.
What’s the harm in making a dangerously rich man even richer?
With subsidizing and expanding his influence?
Sure, he’s a toady.
He spreads hate and deadly disinformation to the willing and credulous.
Sure, he enables autocracy and promulgates tyranny.
You’re not defending him.
He’s a bad person and you’re a good person.
You know the difference.
You Experience the difference.
Oh for fuck’s sake. This again?
We vote dozens of times each day. By making or following rules. How we treat people. With our attention. We vote when we volunteer or make donations.
We vote with every purchase.
The GE Boycott and Deadly Deception shaped me. It matters when musicians care who licenses their art. When people protest at Tesla dealerships.
If torturing animals is less profitable, there will be less torture. If it is less profitable to abuse workers, abuse will decrease. If it is less profitable to employ bigots and lickspittles, their power will diminish.
That means sacrificing material comfort. Disappointing people. Saying what you want. Shunning the grotesque.
Google is evil. Meta is vile. Spotify is putrid. Substack is destroying politics and the English language.
Hate and lies and sycophancy are easy. Small children can handle it.
Truth and reconciliation are painful. They require courage, discernment, and effort.
Welcome to May 2025’s Disappearing Moment, an inventory of my experiences. I hope you enjoy it.
Podcasts
The Moth (featuring Kyp Malone), “My Unhurried Legacy” (A Personal Favorite): It’s 14 years old and still makes me cry every time.
Nerdy Software
Free Font
The Taiwan Space Agency commissioned the TASA Explorer and Orbiter typefaces. Government work needn’t be an oxymoron.
Bougie Products
I’m experimenting with Retinol, so I need better sunscreen for when I run. Supergoop Play is SPF 50 that doesn’t sting my eyes.
Personal Finance and Investing
I keep cash I don’t need to pay bills in the iShares 0-3 Month Treasury Bond ETF (SGOV), my favorite money market fund.
Reading
- Kathleen Belew, Bring the War Home (2019) (I Liked It): Weird little white power guys.
- Terence Eden, “Silence Isn’t Consent” (I Liked It): I’ve committed this crime. I’ve abouted without, failed to gather authentic consent. I’m going to do better.
- Anelise Feldman, “Rep. Libby’s rhetoric spoils high school running” (A Personal Favorite): “we are all harmed by the hateful rhetoric of bullies”.
- Paul Graham, “Good Writing” (Worth My Time): PG independently derives Orwell’s “Politics and the English Language.”
- Howard Marks, ”Ruminating on Asset Allocation” (I Liked It): "a new way to combine old ideas into a unified theory."
- Mike Monteiro, “How to survive the weight of an entire industry trying to convince you that you're inadequate” (I Loved It): Fuck Monteiro for writing essays that get better the second, third, and fourth times you read them.
- Heydon Pickering, “Principles of Web Accessibility” (I Loved It): “Don’t martyr yourself trying to redeem the irredeemable.” Experience the difference.
- Matt Ström-Awn, “The History of Album Art” (I Loved It): What I remember wishing I had gotten from Ways of Seeing.
A Modern American Bestiary
- Abuser
- Accelerationism
- Advertorial
- Aggression
- Annex
- Antisemitism
- Antivaxxer
- Apartheid
- Appropriation
- Assault
- Authoritarianism
- Autocracy
- Ban
- Baseless
- Belittle
- Big Lie
- Bigot
- Border Watch
- Bribe
- Bully
- Capitulation
- Carceral
- Cartel
- Censorship
- Charlatan
- Chauvinism
- Christian Identity
- Coercion
- Colonialism
- Complacency
- Confederate
- Conformity
- Conservative
- Conspiracy
- Corporatism
- Corruption
- Coup
- Crime
- Cronyism
- Cupidity
- Defamation
- Deforestation
- Defraud
- Dehumanize
- Demagogue
- Democide
- Deportation
- Despotism
- Detention
- Dictatorship
- Discrimination
- Disenfranchise
- Disinformation
- Disingenuous
- Disparate Impact
- Disregard
- Dissemble
- Dog Whistle
- Domestic Terrorism
- Domination
- Doublespeak
- Dubious
- Dysphemism
- Dystopian
- Egotism
- Embolden
- Emolument
- Enhanced Interrogation
- Ethnostate
- Exceptionalism
- Exclusion
- Exfiltrate
- Exploitation
- Expropriation
- Expurgation
- Extrajudicial
- Extraordinary Rendition
- Failing Up
- False Flag
- Fascism
- Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (FUD)
- Felony
- Filter Bubble
- Fox
- Friedman Doctrine
- Gaslighting
- Genocide
- Great Barrington Declaration
- Great Replacement
- Grievance
- Grope
- Harm
- Hawk
- Heedless
- Hegemony
- Heritage Foundation
- Homophobia
- Illegitimate
- Impeach
- Imperialism
- Inappropriate
- Incel
- Indicted
- Indoctrination
- Inept
- Injustice
- Insurrection
- Intimidation
- Intolerance
- Jackassery
- Jackboot
- Jaded
- Jingoism
- Just Asking Questions
- Justiciable
- Kakistocracy
- Kleptocracy
- Ku Klux Klan
- Labeling
- Land Grab
- Libertarian
- Lickspittle
- Litigious
- Lynching
- Malevolent
- McCarthyism
- Mendacity
- Meretriciousness
- Meritocracy
- Microaggression
- Militarize
- Militia
- Millennialism
- Misinformation
- Misogyny
- Narcissism
- National Rifle Association
- Nationalism
- Neo-Nazi
- Neoconservative
- Neoliberalism
- Neopatriarchy
- Neoreactionarism
- Nepotism
- Nihilism
- Objectify
- Obstruction
- Ochlocracy
- Odious
- Oligarchy
- Oppression
- Originalism
- Othering
- Paramilitary
- Partiality
- Paternalism
- Patriarchy
- Penal
- Perjury
- Persecution
- Plutocracy
- Policing
- Populism
- Post-Truth
- Proliferation
- Propaganda
- Protectionism
- Punishment
- Punitive
- Puppet
- QAnon
- Quango
- Querulous
- Quisling
- Racism
- Rape Culture
- Reactionary
- Rebel
- Regime
- Relocation
- Reprisal
- Retaliation
- Revisionist
- Saboteur
- Sanctimony
- Scab
- Sedition
- Segregation
- Sexism
- Sexual Harassment
- Shill
- Slavery
- Smear
- Spurious
- State Terrorism
- States’ Rights
- Stooge
- Surveillance
- Tariff
- Technocrat
- Temerity
- Threaten
- Torture
- Totalitarianism
- Trafficking
- Traitor
- Transphobia
- Treason
- Truthiness
- Tyranny
- Unequal Exchange
- Unfit
- Unitary Executive Theory
- Unsafe
- Unstable
- Usurp
- Vacuous
- Vapid
- Veiled
- Venal
- Vigilante
- Vile
- Violation
- Violence
- Virulent
- Vitriolic
- Weaponize
- Whataboutism
- White Power
- White Supremacy
- xAI
- Xenophobia
- Yeasayer
- Yes Man
- Zealotry
- Zillionaire
- Zionism
Thank you for spending a few moments with me. I appreciate you and look forward to corresponding again next month.
Brett
Want to discuss this newsletter or anything else with other Disappearing Moment readers? Please sign up for Perpetual August. It might be fun.
No large language models were used in the production of the Disappearing Moment newsletter or website (inspired by RFC 9518 Appendix A ¶ 4 and Tantek Çelik).