The Packet Rat

The complexities of caring for a parent you don’t like.

October 1st, 2025

I just spent five days on a rescue mission. Immediately after returning home from a business trip, my wife and I loaded up and drove to distant upstate NY to retrieve my parents to bring them back with us for medical reasons. The primary one is that my dad’s vascular surgeon decided he would be better off coming to Maryland for treatment of his peripheral artery disease- a surgery he was supposed to have there this week. The decision came as a random phone call after my dad’s pre surgical exam, while I was in the third row of an Uber on the way back from a meeting with colleagues.

“Just take him to an emergency room down there, they’ll know what to do,” the surgeon who clearly doesn’t understand the medical system said.

For further disclosure, I do not have a particularly warm relationship with my father, a narcissistic rageaholic whose main skill has always been the use of apoplectic explosions of shouting to intimidate people into bending to his will. Now in his 80s with exceedingly poor health due to never listening to anyone about how to manage diabetes, failure to seek help for medical conditions because just ignoring them was easier, and generally otherwise not taking care of himself, he is embarrassed to have me assuming power of attorney to handle his shit.

Among his failures is also his failure to do anything to advocate for my mom, who started having memory issues last year and now is somewhat officially diagnosed with Alzheimer’s related dementia. I knew there was something up last year when I found out my dad was in the hospital for 3 days from my mom’s Facebook post…because she didn’t remember how to call me , it seems.

My mom decided to stop driving late last year because she forgot how she got home one day. My dad became her only connection to the world. And my dad rarely got out of his La-z-boy.

So when my dad injured his foot and it didn’t heal, and it turned out the thing he kept calling “plantars fascia” was in fact a diabetic ulcer on his heel, he was forced to call me to get him to surgery and watch over my mom.

Things did not go according to his plans, and now he faces amputation of at least 4 toes—if not much of his foot or more. After his first vascular surgery, which removed a 90 % blockage of his femoral artery but did not restore blood flow to his foot, his surgeon told he that my father- a man with an Ed.D and two masters in Biology, who had done population genetic studies for NIH at one point in his life—did not know that he had diabetes. (He heard “pre-diabetes” years ago from a doctor and assumed that was what he had, even after being told he was type-2 diabetic, which he apparently assumed was the same thing and every time anybody tried to correct him he yelled at them.)

So now here I am, having put my parents in a long stay hotel nearby because the last time my dad visited he fell on top of me from the porch steps and broke his small toe. (There is a whole side story there that I could go into, but I’m already giving too much exposition.) Tomorrow I go to shower him, re-bandage his foot ( including his gangrenous toes that the surgeon’s PA told me might just fall off on their own), and shuttle him to an initial appointment with a vascular surgical clinic here.

During the whole trip down—two days and 9 hours of driving—he has said nothing longer than a declarative sentence to me. I tried repeatedly to engage him in conversation; either he’s in too much pain to converse, or doesn’t feel like it’s important to talk to the only person who is left to stand up and help him about anything. Most of what he said to me were curt requests/demands, while he left debris from his snacks all over the back seat of my car. He is officially in his second toddler-hood.

I love my dad, but it’s because he’s blood. I don’t necessarily like him, though. I mean, I actually don’t like him, and haven’t for years. He was the first bully in my life, and outlasted all the others. I strove to make myself the exact opposite of him.

And now I am responsible for seeing to medical care that will prolong his life. He very rarely lets gratitude show. But he usually does it when he has brief periods of self-awareness.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
Spilling the Tea

July 28th, 2025

A security failure in a safety app creates the opposite of safety (thx 4Chan)

[editor’s note: this is an anonymous submission from an anonymous friend of the Rat. Information is provided as is with no warranty]

What Happened?

Last week one of the more dangerous hacks happened.

Tea, an application used by women to trade information on potential harms and dangers, had a major security lapse. Their database was left open, and hackers who use 4Chan to communicate now have copies of the drivers’ licenses and selfies used to validate that they were female.

This is likely one of the most consequential security lapses we have ever seen because:

• The lack of security puts the information of over 1 million people in the hands of motivated people with an agenda who will use this information to “dox” and harm.

• 4Chan is one of the places where people who actively act out against women spend much of their time online. The users of this site encourage each other to act out. Giving them the personal information of thousands of women is going to result in continual threats to their identities for the rest of their lives.

• 4Chan is one of many sites where people have been “doxed” over the years. Kiwi Farms, 8Chan/8Kun, and many others have done this back to the BBS days.

• Many of the 4Chan dwellers align themselves with the current US Presidential administration, which has actively been pursuing an agenda aimed at suppressing LGBTQ+, minorities, women, and their opposition.

• This sends a signal that organizing to protect oneself will make you a target, and that your information will be used against you with little/no recourse against your attackers. Already there’s been many people playing down the effects of this attack and blaming the victims.

• Attacking this site sends a message that defending yourself and speaking your mind will lead to greater harm.

• The attackers are empowered because of who is in power and because they know they will likely get away with it.

Why did this happen?

This happened because the site required a photo ID and selfie, and did not delete them immediately after verifying. There is no reason to keep this information any longer than needed. Even GDPR specifically indicates that personal information only needs to be kept for the duration that it is needed.

Keeping information in a cloud service without security is a broken record at this point. This has been an issue that has befallen the largest companies. This does not excuse the owners of Tea for not doing right by their customers and exposing them to significant ongoing harm.

The sites that host the attackers don’t log this info.

How to move forward?

You cannot assume safety whatsoever. Assume that there will always be people within the communities looking to attack you. Assume you are a target.

• Leverage invite-only communities of interest where people know each other to invite new members in

• Utilize VPNs or proxy servers to access any shared information sites indirectly

• Never use real names in the communities or sites

• Use secure messaging services to contact anyone else directly

• Only give out your personal ID to sites that will delete them immediately after usage

• Leverage two-factor authentication using an authenticator app such as Microsoft Authenticator, Google Authenticator, or Duo everywhere possible. This means for home phone services, Google Voice, banking, brokerages, utilities, and employee benefits. Do not use SMS-based authentication whenever possible.

• Use a security key, such as a Yubikey or Google Titan Key for all social media, email, and Google services. Keep a backup or two.

• Use Google Advanced Protection Program for all Google Services, especially Google Voice and Gmail

• Use a Google Voice or similar phone number to call or text people you do not know, or for services that require SMSfor two-factor authentication

• Leverage Advanced Data Protection for iCloud for all Apple devices

• Use Advanced Protection for Android for all your Android devices

Why am I doing this?

I am doing this because I don’t like seeing people getting hurt because they tried to protect themselves and others and want to assist. I don’t like that people are using technology as an aid in oppressing others, especially those who have been marginalizedand used as scapegoats to advance hateful agenda. I am no saintand have been the opposite. I believe the right way to do so is to give people the means to protect themselves and others who are in bad situations.
Existing

June 6th, 2025

I quit a job recently and started a new one. It was an act of surrender and of hope.

Surrender because I had reached a point where I had fought to try to take control of my destiny at a company that, like many others, did not care about my dreams or feelings.

Hope because I believed I could still grow somewhere else.

The rest of my life feels like it is about surrender and hope-surrender to the overwhelming bullshit we’re living through, and hope that somehow we’ll get through it. We have to hope to even exist.
The Garden After the Burn

June 3rd, 2025

Another anonymously contributed post from one of our anonymously anonymous authors.

Three months ago, I said it was time to admit how bad it’s gotten. I dragged the truth out into the daylight, bruised and blinking, for anyone still willing to look it in the eyes. I named the rot. I pointed at the collapse behind the curtains. I said the quiet part aloud because silence had begun to feel like complicity. And I thought that would be enough. That if I carved the truth deep enough, something clean might come from the wound. That something might grow in the clearing. That the silence would finally shift.

But nothing bled out. The wound just scabbed over in the shape of another news cycle.

I’ve spent the time since watching the machine grind on. Same cacophony, but with more agency, as if the noise had learned to move on its own. People still lurch from one outrage to the next, attention hurled like spare change at whichever spectacle screams loudest. Behind it all, the structures that were already cracking now tilt at angles so grotesque we pretend it’s a feature, not a flaw.

The industry, the institutions, the discourse itself – they keep moving, animated by something synthetic. A sort of AI-fueled muscle memory. A body repeating its rituals long after the soul has left the room.

I no longer feel anger the way I used to. Not the righteous kind that sharpens your vision and sets your jaw. What remains is quieter. A slow ache in the bones. A recognition that what once felt shared was never mutual. That many paths cross only briefly, and not always in common cause.

There was a time I carried that anger like a torch, convinced it would light the way forward. But much of it was born from misplaced expectation — from believing that proximity implied purpose. Disappointment grows sharp in that confusion. And lately, I’ve been thinking about how little time we have. About how often fear dresses up as pragmatism. About how many of us are just trying to survive the fire, unsure where it began or where it ends.

Resentment is a slow and bitter poison. It is tempting to hold it close, to call it clarity, but it offers nothing that endures. It dulls the senses and hollows out the heart. I still believe something better can take root. That even now, empathy can stretch across the wreckage. That it can remind us what it means to be human.

The truth is, most people are not cruel. They are afraid. They are exhausted. They stand at the edge of the abyss and convince themselves it’s just a shadow – not the echo of something hollowed out. Because admitting its depth would mean confronting what’s been lost…or what never existed at all.

Some days, I am one of them. Other days, I still shout into the void.

There are bridges I no longer walk. Roads that once seemed necessary but now circle endlessly back on themselves. I’ve used depression as a curtain to hide behind, and cynicism as a torch to burn paths that led nowhere. It is easier to be clever than it is to be kind. The weight of what has been abandoned still lingers. Not as punishment. As a reminder.

But I am trying now. Not to pretend things are fine. Not to paint rot in softer colors. But to remember that the people on the other side of this fracture – whatever it has become – are still people. Some are scared. Some are lost. Some are complicit. Some are cruel. And some are just tired of standing in the smoke.

It is a strange thing to admit that the fire might not stop. That the systems we built our lives around are not just creaking, but collapsing. It is tempting to think the best we can do now is roast marshmallows on the embers. But I want more than that. I want something to grow again. To feel the green beneath my feet.

Not quickly. Not neatly. Gardens do not bloom in days. Especially when the soil is choked with salt and seeded with bones. But seeds can still take. Even now.

This is not a call to unity. I do not believe in unity without accountability. This is not a sermon or a blueprint. It is only a truth: grief and rage can share a table with mercy. And even as we resist, we can leave space for what might someday return, uncertain, unformed, and perhaps finally open to repair.

There is no grand fix coming. No cavalry. No cathartic third act where the good prevail and the corrupt are swallowed by the earth. This is the long haul. And what we do next will not be judged by history, because history no longer has the luxury of distance. It will be judged by each other. In boardrooms and basements. In confessions. In confrontations. In the moments we choose to listen, or not.

So what now? That question haunts me. Every day. Some mornings, the answer is “put pen to paper.” Other days, it’s “hold your ground.” Sometimes, it is just “get through the day without betraying yourself.”

But today, the answer is this: speak gently where you can, firmly where you must. Give truth even when it shakes. And if the garden ever grows again, may it bloom not from synthetic noise, but from the quiet brilliance of a mind that remembers how to dream.

We lost something these past few years. Not innocence. That was gone long before. We lost the assumption that people meant well. We lost the shared myth that progress is inevitable. What remains is the question: can we still be decent in a time that rewards cruelty?

I don’t know. But I believe the attempt still matters.

The fire may have moved on. But the smoke still clings, and the garden waits – even now.
It has happened here, and has been happening.

March 31st, 2025
Trump has managed to do one thing for a lot of people: dispel the illusion that America is somehow special and immune to autocracy. Now we get a chance to get people to look clearly at American history and realize that…this is the way it has always been, except more subtle.

Most of us grew up getting our brains filled with bullshit propaganda about how America was The Greatest Country Ever because WWII and apple pie and freedom and shit. But even the surface truths that hid the lie are now in tatters.

We have our own Nazi authoritarians now, so we don’t have to go to Europe to punch anyone and if we punched a Nazi we would probably end up in a concentration camp in Gitmo or El Salvador. We can’t make apple pies because no eggs to wash the pie crust.

So we have to now assess our country with clear eyes. Objectively. And welp, it isn’t exactly great. We have left too many people behind, we have not dealt with hatreds that have been born out of racism, evangelical cultism, regionalism, xenophobia or imaginary threats to someone’s piles of gold.

We don’t even have a free market (of ideas, labor, goods or anything else). We don’t have democracy (it’s a marginally representative republic with two institutional parties that would require billions of dollars and lawyers to displace). We don’t have the best healthcare or education or opportunity.

These things can be observed objectively. The only relative advantages we had over the world up to the last century was a vast supply of natural resources (that drove industrialization), an agricultural cornucopia (that drove industrial exploitation of agricultural goods) & a relatively open society with some marginal class mobility if you managed to pass for ruling class material.

That led to the industrial might that really won World War II, and if there hadn’t been a reactionary swerve away from the path being set post Great Depression through the war years, we might have had socialized medicine and other nice things everybody else has.

But we still had racism (born from colonialism), a legacy of rural poverty, unsolved issues from the abandonment of Reconstruction, and political structures designed for when we had an agrarian economy and were ruled by landed elites. And reactionaries. So we are where we are now—totally fucked.

At least most of the world is just as fucked in some ways as we are. Other places have nice things, but they are not necessarily responding to the challenges created by global migration due to displacement by economic and physical violence.

So maybe we should start thinking about MAGFA – Make America Great For All — instead of trying to go back to something that never really existed other than as some nostalgic vibe. </rant>

Reading list:
- A People’s History of the United States, Howard Zinn
- Working, Studs Terkel
- “Can the US resist fascism?”, The New Statesman
- More references to come.

Kompromat no longer will restrain Combover Caligula

March 12th, 2025

This is an anonymously submitted guest post. It is posted without editing or further comment. To submit guest posts, anonymously or otherwise, send them to packetslost at falling-anvil dot com or via Signal to thepacketrat dot 26.

I lack the tech but can you find a way to anonymously share this?

It’s a last ditch. I’m afraid that I would disappear with it given my Tech capacity. But it can only escalate turning traitor to the US, UN and NATO. No power will be absolute enough for him. SCOTUS and Congress will inevitably defy him, be labeled traitors for refusing to nuke Boston or Gaza or Ukraine and face a firing squad or Gitmo. He is a vindictive, sadistic, sociopath with insane ego rapidly declining mentally, in power forever and taking us with him before he lets go with more tech and military and nuclear power than any mad tyrant in human history. The earth has had manmade changes to her orbit documented and firing every nuke anyone has is going to be inevitable when he launches the first and it won’t be at a hurricane. He sees no point having them and not using them. Even if everyone bows down eventually it’ll happen “just to see.”

***

Semion Mogilevich, Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong, Xi, Elon etc, if you are listening, while you may have installed him as your lackey. He’s now able to exact revenge on you for your control of him! Not only can’t we control him, therefore also neither can your kompromat. Who can you give it to? Oops. And now he commands loyal assassins and the best security on earth and enough nukes to alter the shape of the planet. Potentially alter its shape, weight distribution and therefore orbit. Possibly even the loss of atmosphere and gravity. The entire planet could escalate over a tweet and set off every nuke only to lose our orbit and get flung into Mars or outer space. Never thought of that? Is your bunker built for interstellar travel? Did you pack space suits? You were very thorough but Honey, he has zero loyalty. Zero safety rails now. Good chance he ordered classified assassinations of everyone who put him in power or could remove him the minute he took the oath. Matter of time for SCOTUS and Congress. He isn’t going to give you anything because to him everyone is as insignificant as the most disabled trans lesbian Muslim on earth. He needed MAGA, he needed you but he doesn’t need you anymore. He told you he was a snake. He believes he is omnipotent and he wants to be #1 and destroy anyone close behind. You are out of power the minute he gets mad, he doesn’t care about consequences, laws or bystanders. You can’t find safety in populated areas. He will not play second fiddle to anyone including you. And there’s nobody you can flip to. You are good as dead since 1/20. Congratulations on your pyrrhic victory. Take a good look at Paul Ryan, Rudy, Manafort, the fired MAGA voters. You think the kompromat still matters? Who can you tell? He will nuke you or us first but eventually he will nuke everything and everyone. You are going to miss Joe and Obama and Kamala and HRC and Reagan and laws sooner or later. You proved you could do it but you really didn’t consider what you were creating and who he is. Daenarys all over. Have a nice final season of the GRRM world you have created. 💐

Letter from the dead, or exorcizing haunted tech.

March 11th, 2025

I recently acquired a “Smart Keyboard” at an apartment estate sale in New York. We were visiting a friend and she saw the sign in the doorway of a building near her co-op while we were walking to lunch, so we went in. And there was this bit of old tech sitting there, looking for a new home.

The AlphaSmart Pro as found.

So I grabbed it, along with its external power supplies—one for a cigarette lighter socket!—-and we paid $40 for it along with a few other small items, including what turned out to be a faux-leather jacket that fit my wife but then began to disintegrate as she wore it.

Fast forward to our return home a few days later. I plug the AlphaSmart in and discover there are still two text files on the thing. I have no idea how long they have been there…the AlphaSmart Pro was sold between 1995 and 1997, and I have no information on the previous owner other than what was in the files.

One file was clearly a sort of initial test. The other reveals the owner to be a struggling (perhaps self-published ) author, a writer who has published at least one book—which honestly could be half of the people who live in upper west side Manhattan. Other references (like “selfie”) place it at least after 2002.

Here is that file, with very minor edits.:

How did you do it all? How did you manage things?

All in good time, I know – there there – the last words of the day – I could write a lot more this evening.

The new protocol is no caffeine after 6 pm…. No e-mail or news – reading or television or writing – wind down smoothly, without the stress of the day filtering / bubbling up into the evening time.

One more thing – one little thing –

And some of the first – a screech fro the hallway – the little person is either really happy or really unhappy – you can’t really tell at this remove….

Was that a productive day? Maybe it was – maybe so…

And some of the first – you know all my usual feints and tricks and subterfuges – the old legerdemain that I have used too often, and for far too many shows – magic ceases to amaze after a few viewings, like jokes or old stories with a surprise twist at the end – once your seen or heard them more than one, twice, the effect is muted entirely…. It is erased – it doesn’t work – it was a good joke, a fine trick but now its cliché and much be discarded into the dump with all the other broken things that have been worn out by too much use….

There there there – one thing and another….

We’ll move in the usual directions now – we’ll get some real energy for the journey….

I need a few more dreams – I need some new obsession of things that I am interested in….

Be an American, someone devoted to the present and the future, not the past. The past has no place – it has to be denied – I think that’s a wondrous thing – increasingly though the young are mired in getting angry about the past – it’s an excuse for all sorts of shoddy beiahvior now – and to convinced oneself that there’s nothing left to do except to dwell on past wrongs and start thinking you are trapped b the system –a nd there’s no point in doing anything grand or even meaningful – that doom loop of the Past and all the obsessing about it.

For a long time, Americans were uniquely able to look forward, though – and to let bygones be bygones – without a long history like the Europeans, there was less raw material to forget – the Past wasn’t’ so nearly as important as the Present and the future of course….

There there – one thing more – a full word hoard – a full Hercule for the day…

That much was the easy part,all told.

Do what you can with every day….

Make the most of every occasion – all the cliches are true you see – they’re cliches because they have been true for a very long time for many many people….

We get spoiled and think our wisdom has to be unique – just for us – concocted out of many original stories and set of knowledge assembled by us – unique to our sensibility.

But it’s actually a lot easier than that – you can learn a great deal fro the ordinary, from ordinary things and the wisdom of ordinary language – it’s not as quotable, but it’s still a form of wisdom in a way…

I take a good looking selfie right now – if I arrange my face in the frame in a certain way….

Well, I wrote and never heard back. So I just forgot about the situation. Was that careless? Maybe it was a little bit careless.

It’s still raining and will be for hours. The heavy stuff is coming this evening – that’s going to be something, indeed.

One thing after another – there there – we’ll all get along from here….

I think I have been a very kind and generous father – I have enjoyed every moment when I could. It has been a brilliant, unbelievable adventure and I wouldn’t trade that for anything in the world.

Oh look at me tearing up again – I promised I wouldn’t’ do that, but there I go again…

Well back to duty and love / love and duty – I have been lucky in many many ways – and I am truly thankful for it all.

Send a book to Brian M. Send a book to Robin S. Send a book to Uncle Dick and Sandra. Send a book to Edward M. Send a book to 3 old friends.

Send a book to that agent from the conference. Two agents, three. Keep going at all costs. There there.

There’s a momentum here, there’s a certain velocity to things…

Keep going, keep moving. Use your talents every day no matter what…. Keep going – keep going and you’ll see where this goes.

You’re not done yet. You’re just getting started as a writer with an audience, wit a voice, with a tiny reputation.

Write all evening like this and see what transpires – you’ll get along from here – there’s progress to be made – there’s the honest truth if you dare confront it…. And there you go…..

Wods for a new mood….

{Words After the Dark Night of the Soul}

He puts down his metaphorical pen – and rests a bit – catches his breath for what’s next.

That’s enough work for the afternoon….

Having released these words from the non-volatile memory of the keyboard, I now exorcise them and hope the soul of the author has found rest. I suspect my children will someday forensically find my digital detritus as well, so this serves as a reminder to me to delete my search history, shopping lists, and random musings from my devices early and often-so that the ephemera of my life does not outlive me and haunt them.
Guest post: Trump’s war on veterans

March 7th, 2025

The following is a guest post. To submit guest posts, anonymous or otherwise, contact the editor at packetslost at falling-anvil dot com or via Signal at thepacketrat dot 26.

The United States has always had a pact with its veterans: if you serve, we take care of you. Has the government always done a great job at that? Hell no. Just ask any Vietnam or Gulf War vet who got spit on, ignored, or left to rot. But after 20+ years of endless war in Iraq and Afghanistan, things finally started to change. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) wasn’t perfect, but it was improving. PTSD and other mental health issues were finally being taken seriously. Veterans were finally getting more of the care and benefits they deserved.

And now? That progress is getting shredded right in front of us.

The latest gut punch: the VA is looking at laying off 82,000 employees. That’s not a typo. Eighty-two thousand. The government is crumbling, and veterans are going to be among the hardest hit.

Some estimates say that about 30% of federal employees are veterans. So, when the government decides to slash its workforce, who do you think is going to feel the pain first? The very people who served.

This isn’t just some bureaucratic reshuffling – it’s a full-scale dismantling of the systems that keep veterans alive. The VA is already stretched thin. Veterans already face ridiculous wait times for care. And now, the solution is to fire tens of thousands of people who help keep it running? Make it make sense.

And let’s talk about the cruel irony here. A huge chunk of veterans voted for Trump. Why? Because they got sucked into the Fox News outrage machine cult, convinced that Orange Cheeto “supports the troops” while Democrats want to turn America into a socialist hellscape. And now? Those same veterans are about to get their benefits gutted and their support systems obliterated. “Leopards Eating People’s Faces Party” strikes again.

This is personal. I served. I bled for this country. I lost brothers and sisters in arms. And for what? So that a bunch of billionaire fascists can loot the country while convincing working-class people to cheer them on? So, the government can be stripped for parts while politicians line their pockets and veterans get kicked to the curb?

We are watching the United States get dismantled in real-time, and almost no one is doing a damn thing to stop it. Other than a handful of billionaires (some not even from the USA), I don’t see anyone benefiting from this.

If you’re a veteran reading this, if you’re someone who actually cares about this country, wake the hell up.

The destruction of the government isn’t just going to hurt some faceless bureaucrats – it’s going to devastate the people who put their lives on the line to defend it. And once those support systems are gone, they’re not coming back.
Guest post: It’s time to admit how bad it’s gotten.

March 4th, 2025

The following is a guest post. To submit guest posts, anonymous or otherwise, contact the editor at packetslost at falling-anvil dot com or via Signal at thepacketrat dot 26.

We argue over policies, personalities, and party lines, but no one wants to say out loud that the system itself is the problem—not just the corruption, not just the gridlock, but the foundation. The truth is, the system isn’t broken at all; it’s functioning exactly as intended, keeping power in the hands of the few while the rest fight over scraps.

Every cycle, we’re told this is the most important election of our lifetime, like democracy is some EV low on charge, one bad choice away from stalling on the shoulder of autocracy. The generational promise of better outcomes came with fine print: *not you. We’re not voting for leaders; we’re voting against nightmares. Charisma always beats competence.

And me? I’m fucking exhausted. We’ve been lied to, drained, manipulated. We work harder for less, drowning in debt, in fear, in disillusionment. It feels like I’m being forced to pick a side in a war I never signed up for, between parties that spend more time fundraising off their failures than actually fixing anything.

Remember when journalism was the much-heralded “fourth estate”? What happened to that? Outrage fuels engagement, engagement fuels profit, and truth is collateral damage. Every scandal, every crisis, every lie—no consequences, no accountability. Just another cycle of noise, another distraction. The signal is lost in the shuffle, decisions made in the shadows.

This isn’t the White House I remember working in. Political campaigns weren’t always this full of vitriol. Or maybe the ideology of my own faulty narrator shielded me. And maybe I still don’t want to admit how bad it’s gotten. Because once I do, I can’t unsee it. And once I see it, I have to decide what I’m going to do about it.
Everything you probably avoided knowing about the collapse of mass media journalism integrity (a work in progress)

March 4th, 2025
Two years ago, I gave a presentation at a little gathering we like to call ThruntCon entitled “Everything you need to know about the inevitable collapse of journalism as we know it.” For reference, these are the slides I spoke to in that talk:

That talk was very 2023. Two years later, the inevitable collapse is well underway, and there’s not a blessed thing that can be done to reverse it without substantial change in the economic model of media and the displacement of the “broligarchy” that has poisoned it.

To review:
- Jeff Bezos decided he could, in fact, interfere in the editorial mission of the Washington Post if it was what he needed to do to deflect the ire of Donald Trump.
- Every major media organization sanitized Donald Trump and acted as a stenographer for him, his campaign and his White House, because they feared being kicked out of the WH Press Corps like the Associated Press. Spoiler: it didn’t matter.
- Social media companies X and Meta have quadrupled down on tolerance of disinformation and hate speech, algorithmically promoting it while limiting establishment media access to their platforms.
- Major news platforms have continued to move their opinion and editorial content toward the right with a “fine people on both sides” excuse of balance.
- Actual reporting on subjects of importance has been driven to the margins and now occurs mostly in publications and platforms that are outside of the traditional mainstream of mass media journalism.
- Media is dependent on Trump for its content, which focuses on the “wow that just happened” cycle of Trump’s stream-of-consciousness assault on governing and diplomatic norms, just as is intended. The more time they spend on catching up, the less time they have to analyze what’s actually going on and disseminate that information to the viewing/reading/listening public.
- Web platforms are gorging themselves on the clicks and ad views.
So, in short, media companies found it profitable for Trump to be around, if only for the rage watching/reading/clicking. But those returns are narrow and diminishing, because many people are just *not reading/watching/listening to the news anymore* to avoid being triggered by Orange Caligula.

This is also in line with Trump’s plan. It’s a weird corollary to the media strategy George W. Bush’s team devised : “If you tell a lie often enough it becomes accepted as the truth by media.” The Trump Corollary is “If you make people who don’t like you uncomforatable enough with your constant lies they get tired of trying to correct them and eventually they just stop listening so you can do whatever you want.”

I’ll be gathering data for an updated version of my talk, and will post the final version here. If you’ve got any media analysis data, sources or opinions you’d like to share for a shout-out in the talk, please leave comments here or email me at packetslost at falling-anvil dot com.