What Are We Even Doing Here?

thought digest, 11.10.2025

Good afternoon, Deeists.

I don’t want to be a hater, but how many times are we going to do this?

Seriously.

How many times are we going to reheat the same Gender Wars leftovers that Donahue and Dr. Phil were serving as filler content decades ago? How many times are we going to “discover” that political commentators aren’t driven by conviction or ideology but by the attention economy, on the micro (scenes and parties) or the macro (large, hopefully paying audiences)? Or that once you’ve drained social media dry, the only thing left to sell is your disappearance—the mystique of withdrawal?

What are we even doing here?

How long can we pretend to be shocked that people chasing clout in the only media market that still matters—the internet—convert it into real-world power? People have been making MILLIONS OF DOLLARS online for decades. Most of Substack’s six- and seven-figure creators started as internet personalities. The rest were journalists who turned their institutional credibility into internet credibility.

Where have you all been?

Are we actually in denial about what we built, or trapped in Samsara—doomed to “wake up” every few months only to fall back asleep, asking again how any of this happened?

Look at the Right, tearing itself apart over Fuentes, pretending he was engineered by some shadowy cabal instead of emerging from the same attention economy everyone else feeds. Everyone’s struggling—everyone’s always struggling in media.

All my love to the mainstream opinion writers still writing explainers about the Online Right, forcing right-wing influencers into schizophrenic monologues about the wizard behind the curtain trying to discredit MAGA. Most of that “analysis” is just commentary on whatever their For You page served them. Oh, that clip got engagement? Must be what’s happening. It’s not a conspiracy. It’s not some Soros-funded plot grooming Fuentes into a wrecking ball. It’s just how digital media works. You think Richard Spencer was “elected” to be the face of the alt-right by some nefarious forces or he was a good headline? Be so fucking for real.

Because like I said, we do know what’s up. Every few months someone “wakes up” and announces it again to great applause, as if they’re the first to notice that living like this corrodes the spirit. As if Neil Postman were some rarefied angel who appeared to one Substacker and one Substacker only, standing before their bed like Moroni before Joseph Smith.

The cycle continues. The medium rewards spectacle because no one can sustain attention. Everyone thinks they’re one viral post away from becoming the protagonist. One more prayer, one more line in the manifestation journal, one more sigil — then it’s your turn for 15 minutes of fame.

Now Gen X and geriatric millennials are shitting their pants because the medium shifted from blogs to video. Attention still flows to whoever makes the most noise until we unplug the whole thing. Everything’s an industry now—even commentary on commodification is commodified. Commentary on commentary on commentary on commentary. Meta-commentary. Mapping the commentary ecosystem. Spiritual tools to guide us through the commentary.

If you play it right, you can still pay your rent off the back of it.

My friend Paul Franz challenged me to write a rant. He didn’t say I had to post it, but I am.

Anyway, I’m taking a break for the week. I’ll still host the call-in show—Thursday, 7:30 Central, broadcast here, Twitch, and X as usual—but I’m turning off the laptop.

Catch you when I catch my breath!

KD