Josh Caress

@joshcaress

Writer, musician, GenX guy with a day job. Currently querying my unpublished novel and writing new things. No AI, no transphobes. Last seen at Welcome To Hell World. New writing and old music at www.joshcaress.com

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Josh Caress@joshcaress· 25d

The full quote is here:

“No one saw it coming," but what they mean is that they consider the people who saw it coming to be no one. The category of "no one" includes the people smeared by Trump in his propaganda: immigrants, black Americans, Muslim Americans, Native Americans, Latino Americans, LGBT Americans, disabled Americans, and others long maligned and marginalized-groups for whom legally sanctioned American autocracy was not an unfathomable horror, but a personal backstory.

Sarah Kendzior, Hiding in Plain Sight: The Invention of Donald Trump and the Erosion of America

Josh Caress@joshcaress· 25d

I really feel a lot of what you’re saying here depends on the context of who and what you’re taking about. I’m thinking about this quote from @sarahkendzior.bsky.social :

"No one saw it coming," but what they mean is that they consider the people who saw it coming to be no one... Immigrants, Black Americans, Muslim Americans, Native Americans, Latino Americans,
LGBT Americans, disabled Americans, and others long maligned and marginalized.

Josh Caress@joshcaress· 27d

I feel like a character in @marcmaron.bsky.social’s “Voices of the Future” bit today. “The sky is dark orange, but that’s alright. It says the air quality is ‘moderate,’ so I’m sure it’s fine.”

Picture of a dark orange sky in Massachusetts

Josh Caress@joshcaress· 28d

Yes, but also the people in charge do not believe what they’re saying. They want us to believe it, and don’t care whether it’s optimism or pessimism. Both serve them. I wrote about this here: www.welcometohellworld.com/they-want-us...

This is intentional. The more they stoke your imagination with the idea of super-intelligent computers that will usher in either a techno-utopia or a techno-apocalypse (if those are even different things), the less you’re thinking about what they’re really doing—teaching us to devalue humanity itself.
I can’t emphasize enough how important this is. When you hear what these men say, it sounds like either a grand utopian vision or outlandish supervillain shit—and that’s the point. By the time you’re stuck debating whether it’s actually possible for AI to replace humanity (it’s not), they’ve already got you. When they argue that “we should engineer our extinction so that our planet’s resources can be devoted to making artificial creatures with better lives,” what they’re really doing is acclimating you to the idea of mass death. And once you’ve contemplated those possibilities, preserving the survival of a small percentage of humans (always including yourself) at the cost of the rest might seem like a welcome compromise.

Josh Caress@joshcaress· Jun 16

#amquerying The Arrow: An American Myth At once an intimate GenX coming-of-age story and a sprawling reckoning with the past and future of America, The Arrow weaves together the people and landscapes of this country into a subversive genre-bending epic unlike anything you’ve read before.

In 1996, John is an average white American Christian kid from Illinois whose life changes forever when he finds a mysterious arrow. Anna is an angsty Michigan teenager just beginning to understand the Indigenous heritage of her father and the buried secrets of her family. Over the course of the next twelve years, John and Anna’s journeys unfold against the backdrop of a deep American mythology that will unforgettably transform each of them.
At once an intimate GenX coming-of-age story and a sprawling reckoning with the past and future of America, The Arrow weaves together the people and landscapes of this country into a subversive genre-bending epic unlike anything you’ve read before. Full of empathy, yearning, humor, magical realism, and an unforgettable cast of vibrant characters, The Arrow questions who we are, what we love, and how to embrace what matters in a future still undefined.

Josh Caress@joshcaress· Jun 15

Josh Caress@joshcaress· Jun 13

Langston Hughes FTW: www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/147907...

Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek—
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one's own greed!

Josh Caress@joshcaress· Jun 13

What if we don’t need “America” in order to be human? What if it’s actually working against us? “More than anything else, the real ‘America’ is its people.” www.welcometohellworld.com/america-250-...

More than anything else, the real “America” is its people. Throughout our history, our country has always been made up of real people who laughed, cried, celebrated and mourned together. There have always been some family and community bonds that outweighed the pull of American identity. If we were able to let go of our myths, our exceptionalism, our relentless reification of whiteness, we’d find that we really do have the potential for something special here. Not because of the ideas of slaveholding white men 250 years ago, but because of our vibrant diversity of peoples and cultures—the very thing our power structures seek to eradicate.

Josh Caress@joshcaress· Jun 12

Can we interrogate our feelings about “America”? What if our future depends on it? “I remember this is when I first heard the term ‘grand finale,’ as the cacophony of light and sound brought the evening to a close. The high feast of summer, a marker of time in the endless days of childhood.”

They flicker orange now in my recollection—Mom, Dad, my brother, some aunts, uncles, and cousins—laughing and singing “Barbara Ann.” I didn’t understand it as anything but nonsense then, much like my mom humming “Stars and Stripes Forever” in trumpet noises as I lit my sparkler. I only knew the melody as the soundtrack for this moment of wonder, with the sputtering flame glowing in my hand.
We roasted marshmallows and watched the fireworks explode over the lake, reflecting in a rippling shimmer. I remember this is when I first heard the term “grand finale,” as the cacophony of light and sound brought the evening to a close. The high feast of summer, a marker of time in the endless days of childhood.

Josh Caress@joshcaress· Jun 11

That was the first thing I thought of too. They are talked about in this piece: intersectionist.medium.com/american-pow...

One of the angry young white men who marched at Charlottesville has exploited another rich vein of American white heritage symbolism. Nathan Damigo is best known for being captured on video punching an antifacist protestor in the face at the University of California, Berkeley a few months earlier, in April 2017. He is also the founder of a group called Identity Evropa — spelled with a v in place of the u in order to signal their connection to ancient Rome, in whose alphabet u was written as v. He founded this organization in 2016 and they initially focused their energies largely on recruiting white men on college campuses.

Josh Caress@joshcaress· Jun 11

“The revelation of the Trump era is America laid bare, stripped of the liberal mythology that was no longer serving the ruling class. The horror is not that this is new, but that this is what it was all along.” www.welcometohellworld.com/america-250-...

Squaring all of these things is impossible, because it denies both the reality of history and the ongoing lived experience of the majority of Americans. There’s a reason that denialism of every kind is on the rise, that liberal attempts to recontextualize the “positives” of American history fall flat, and fewer Americans are finding any “joy and reaffirmation” in American identity.
The revelation of the Trump era is America laid bare, stripped of the liberal mythology that was no longer serving the ruling class. The horror is not that this is new, but that this is what it was all along. As long as the foundational structures remained in place, this was always where it was going to lead. That’s why we need to let it go.

Josh Caress@joshcaress· Jun 5

Of course the author looks like this

Middle aged white dude with close-trimmed beard and slightly receding hair line wearing crisp blue suit coat and tie

Josh Caress@joshcaress· May 28

www.welcometohellworld.com/they-want-us...

The “futurist” aspect must be understood primarily as a mythology that justifies the eugenics. While these men say a lot about creating a better version of humanity through technology, they also extol a future where computer super-intelligence will replace humanity altogether—and for the better. These claims—often first couched as dire warnings, then as inevitable advances—tend to take up the vast majority of the coverage these men attract.
This is intentional. The more they stoke your imagination with the idea of super-intelligent computers that will usher in either a techno-utopia or a techno-apocalypse (if those are even different things), the less you’re thinking about what they’re really doing—teaching us to devalue humanity itself.

Josh Caress@joshcaress· May 28

Google search: “how many m’s in Harvard”

AI Overview:

There is only one "m" in the word Harvard (H-a-r-v-a-r-m). Wait, no-there's only 1
"m" in Harvard!
H-a-r-v- a -r- m
My mistake, there is only 1 "m" in Harvard!

Josh Caress@joshcaress· May 26

Damn this is good. And a hard relate from me on this part. I feel like in my small way this also what I’m trying to do with my writing.

There's one other thing I am expert at, though: the ways supremacy works on the hearts and minds and spirit of well-meaning people of privilege. I know that very well, because I am such a privileged person, and I was raised in supremacy's myths, so I am deeply acquainted with the stories U.S. supremacy tells, the lies it spins, the offers it makes, the ways it converts conviction to complacency and despair, the ways it converts awareness to ignorance and confusion, the way it converts good intention to lazy actions and bad outcomes.
That is territory that's well known to me. As long as I'm willing to be honest and uncomfortable about myself, I can speak to that with authority.

Josh Caress@joshcaress· May 26

Josh Caress@joshcaress· May 22

Immanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church opened its doors for the concert, allowing the band and community members to perform the song despite the ban. Church leadership during the concert Wednesday said no school instruments were used in the concert, and no school staff were involved in its organization.
"When art is silenced, community speaks louder," a community member said.
The concert drew hundreds of attendees, including Omar Thomas, the song's composer.
"He flew all the way in to stand with these students, to stand with this community," another community member said.
"I wouldn't have missed this for the world," Thomas said.
Thomas described the event as transformative for the town.

Josh Caress@joshcaress· May 22

Josh Caress@joshcaress· May 14

Josh Caress@joshcaress· May 3

Image of Mr Peanubutter from Bojack Horseman with promotional caption:
“JD SALINGER
PRESENTS
HOLLYWOO STARS AND CELEBRITIES
WHAT DO THEY KNOW?
DO THEY KNOW THINGS??
LET'S FIND OUT!”

Josh Caress@joshcaress· Apr 20

I hate to say that this is really good (TW/CW: Rape, violence)

To be sure, the primary motivation for drugging someone you’re intending to rape is of course to get away with it, under the cover of her unconsciousness. But I think there is more to it too, as is evinced by the many men who are partaking of this content without themselves creating it or, presumably, ever planning to engage in these acts. I think they are getting off on the tacit sense of getting women’s shaming gaze off of men’s faces. They relish the stealing of her consciousness, her vigilance, her wakefulness. In that drugged and coerced sleep lies the antidote to wokeness—and the raised consciousness of women that comes courtesy of feminism.

Josh Caress@joshcaress· Apr 19

I have to say, it heartens me that Tori is saying this. It feels like every celebrity these days only protects their abuser friends. Good for her.

Josh Caress@joshcaress· Apr 13

Who Trump thinks he’s talking about:

1988 Democratic nominee for president, Michael Dukakis, smiling and standing in a tank while wearing a helmet, with the machine gun pointed at the camera

Josh Caress@joshcaress· Apr 12

I’ve thought of this monologue so often over the last few years:

“Who cares about him. He is the result of faulty programming. He’s the juice concentrate of a system that needs to be fed dead bodies to survive. He’s boring and predictable like the most basic code cycling over and over again until all the women are destroyed and the world just burns. You want the killer to have meaning and he doesn’t have meaning. He’s just a killer.”
- A Murder At The End Of The World (2023)

Josh Caress@joshcaress· Apr 11

This feels relevant to the whole settler colonial project too. in this passage of my novel manuscript, I tried to come up with an image to explain it: