Baledraug

Safety Expert in Telegraphy, Semaphore, and Postcard. Knower of Knowledge. Thinker of Thoughts. The least intelligent of all extraterrestrials stranded here.

[Baledraug @Baledraug]

@ggreenwald She is so deep into her access bubble she has no idea how odd and disturbing this sounds to us normies on the outside. I used to have a freind that worked in hardcore porn - his bubble was less disturbing than this.

[Baledraug @Baledraug]

@Blackmoor_Film My way of playing Checkers is better than yours.

[Baledraug @Baledraug]

@Blackmoor_Film Now experiencing it's long overdue comeback!

[Baledraug @Baledraug]

@gunpolicy This is what I signed up for.

[Baledraug @Baledraug]

@Blackmoor_Film @SWCultureLive It's too close to reality, which pushes it into tragic territory rather than comedic

[Paul Graham @paulg]

Ideally you want to be dismissed as being on the right by people on the far left and dismissed as being on the left by people on the far right. This is not a sufficient condition for getting things right (choosing positions randomly would achieve it too) but it's a necessary one.

[Gurwinder @G_S_Bhogal]

It doesn't take much censorship to create a culture of self-censorship. And self-censorship is the most dangerous form of censorship because it looks exactly like freedom.

[County Highway @countyhwy]

What if we aren’t a nation in decline, but in fact far more powerful than we dare to imagine?

What if the images of weakness, insane conspiracy theories and recycled political failures of the past century that we are being fed from both the left and the right represent the last-ditch efforts of our enemies to divide and control us, because they know that otherwise they’ve lost the handle?

What if we could build a better future together over the next five years — using the unique strengths of our own culture, combined with new technologies that give us unrivaled power to deter our enemies, cure diseases, eat healthier food, and live freer, better and more interesting lives?

Imagine what would happen if Americans focused on our strengths, and our enormous capacity for progress, instead of on personal selfishness, political hatreds and ideological insanity?

It starts with respecting the rights and freedoms that make this country the most powerful engine of human progress that the world has ever seen. Or we can choose to be divided and miserable.

[Baledraug @Baledraug]

@Blackmoor_Film @Mad__Overlord And modern faucet.

[Baledraug @Baledraug]

@Blackmoor_Film @Mad__Overlord Also note the modern backpack and box of matches.

[Bryan Johnson @bryan_johnson]

I did a 40 hr and then a 70 hr social media fast.
I’ve come to believe that social media is pollution. 

Not a vice or guilty pleasure.
It’s closer to water toxins, air pollution and microplastics.

Social media has been on my mind because I can feel how bad it is for me. For my health and agency. I am a professional rejuvenation athlete. For five years, I’ve engineered my life around biological renewal and the elimination of decay. After hundreds of experiments across food, sleep, exercise, therapies, and toxins, I’ve developed both data and intuition about what strengthens or degrades my system.

I can viscerally feel that social media is bad for me.  It erodes my autonomy and increases cognitive entropy.
Like other toxins, it accumulates. You can’t unsee or unfeel what you’ve consumed. It settles into mental tissue like heavy metals, producing chronic low-grade inflammation.  Evidence suggests even after you stop scrolling, attentional fragmentation and emotional priming persist. Your thoughts begin to mirror the algorithm’s incentives. Independent cognition quietly erodes and you don’t notice the loss.

Time away and getting lost in deep focus is the only remedy.

When something erodes your agency, the rational response is elimination. The problem is, elimination isn’t realistic. “Just put the phone down” is as practical as telling someone in 19th century London to stop breathing coal smoke.

You need to know what’s happening in the world, be in touch with your friends and be part of the tribe.

That necessity is what allows companies to harvest your emotions, intellect and time for their profit. You are their raw material they exploit. Then in an ironic twist, the system gets you to exploit yourself by engineering an environment where it takes more effort to stop than to continue scrolling.  Pollution exposure by default.

What specifically makes social media toxic is that value and poison are inseparable by design.  You go to hear from friends and you leave an hour later absorbed in outrage that serves no biological interest of yours. The water is real. The lead is in the pipes.

The performance metrics (likes, views, etc.) bleed you of independent thought. They create quantified social proof, triggering ancient hierarchy reflexes. You no longer evaluate signal from noise; the engagement metrics do it for you.

Like all toxins, the damage is cumulative. We live inside the exposure long enough that it feels normal.  The 40 and 70 hour social media fasts did that for me. Gave me just enough separation to feel and diagnose the poison. The obviousness of it feels like when I went to India and saw their humanitarian crisis of air pollution which no one sees anymore.

So what do we do?

Neither platforms nor individuals are likely to change on their own. AI may be the countermeasure. An AI layer between you and the feed. Filtering rage, removing vanity metrics and translating sensationalism into calm, factual language. Preserving signal and eliminating noise.

I want social media to become a longevity intervention, not a longevity threat. I never want to see the raw feed. I want an AI agent to read it for me, strip the engagement metrics that hijack my judgment, filter the rage, and return only what I actually came for.

Every generation faces its pollutants. When cholera spread through London's water, the answer wasn't telling people to drink less. It was building filtration. The same logic applies here. Best next move is to design the filter to avoid being the raw material.

[XZIBIT @xzibit]

Being hated by idiots is the price you pay for not being one of them.

[The Fellowship of the Thing - Official Blackmoor @Blackmoor_Film]

We have been waiting to announce this guest.

Time to decide if you plan to attend Arnecon 4 - It's going to be a good one!

Please Like and Share our post, help us get the word out.

Thank you.

[ArneCon @ArneconTFotT]

ArneCon 4 Special Guest: Richard Whitters @WhittersRichard

Richard Whitters is a concept artist, art director, and world builder that has worked on D&D, Magic the Gathering, and with Larian Studios. He’s currently working on his own TTRPG project called Ruttigers with three of his oldest friends. Winston is their puppy mascot!

Get your badges at https://t.co/gxkkIXy9Pz

October 9-11, 2026

[Baledraug @Baledraug]

@ARRGETSTUFFED @Blackmoor_Film Follow the link in the first comment. 🧙‍♂️

[Baledraug @Baledraug]

@G_S_Bhogal @gaborgurbacs Also, note the issues with the "To", "From", and "Sent" parameters.

[Baledraug @Baledraug]

@Blackmoor_Film I had one of these. I would sit on top of it and ride around.

[Gurwinder @G_S_Bhogal]

The most important quality for a smart person is courage because without it their intellect will be leveraged to rationalize their fears and concoct the most convincing excuses not to act.

[Baledraug @Baledraug]

@RepLuna Half the country? That's quite the hyperbole.