You’ve Got the Nope!

Poke Holes in Reality

Think pieces are THINKING and here’s what I THINK! (Or Fink, if said in the style of @carloandsarah)

(Prompted by a post by @messyeverafter on Threads, which felt like someone scooped out my brewing think piece and did it better.)

I’m not a content farmer, a content serf, a content lord, a content queen, king, prince, pope, bishop, governor, councilmember, waitress, train operator or doctor. Neither are you, unless you identify as such.

So how did we get here, a place where if you aren’t a designated creator, traffic pointed right at you, you’re expected to be a consumer, with huge chunks of your freedoms replaced by algorithms and ads they serve? A world where algorithms can kill(more on that below)?

The same way we ruined every “industry” (innovation made by human hands) — via practiced and deliberate exploitation under a self-serving ruling class.

I’m here on an ‘alternative platform’ where I still have the illusion of freedom, provided I don’t come into the crosshairs of it’s TOS (like I have with every other platform) just for existing.

It’s not a conspiracy anymore: the internet has been molded from its original sense to steal and extract from you instead of to do what you want it to do, entertain, inform, build community or otherwise.

Resist or continue to get served up shitty AI articles, ads, products, and services from billionaires who fired all the humans, it’s actually up to you 😩.

The links in this month’s missive dissect these concepts, and I’m glad to have, for now, a place to reach you that is unfettered by the whims of a bunch of rich guys.

Kindly share this newsletter with someone else who shares an interest in the type of content I make so I can keep going! Free.99 with thoughts and prayers, product reviews AND events, value all around.

With a taste of sunshine finally hitting the east coast, let us go forth and touch grass, for summer is almost upon us. Congrats to ME for not writing five posts about how it’s almost summer and how much I hate the cold.

LATEST WORK: 😎📜

Did I write this article to hold myself accountable to this process and reapply to school to (finally) finish my degree? YOU BET! Do other writers do shit like this to light a fire under a process they’ve been avoiding? PROBABLY! Is this full of legit information on how to actually, really, do the thing? YES! 😂

INFLUENCED: Buying Insights 📲 Baby’s first NEGATIVE REVIEW

Weed Water Cannabis Infused Water in Gelato

NO THANK YOU. Respectfully, I’m a beverage connoisseur. Not just a cannabis bev conny. A friggin (almost) EVERY bev conny. But I draw the line at alternative sweeteners — which my tastebuds just reject outright— no matter their source. Is this the beverages’ fault? Usually! It’s a choice to include alt sweeteners, and while the reasons can be sound, they are not for everyone. They are not for me.

In this case, I was so, so, pumped to try this Weed Water drink. Because I loathe alt sweeteners, hate wasting money, and don’t want to unfairly rip drinks outside my personal tastes, I read the label and saw no indication of the usual suspects, sucralose, stevia, monk fruit, etc.

Now, the budtender warned me of its ‘piney’ flavor, which as a fan of Lagunitas Hoppy Refresher, I was ready for, but I wasn’t ready for it to taste like sweetened vape juice. Like literally tastes like a leaking vape!! NAURRR. I was so sad. Maybe it’s glycerin which counts as a flavor, but sheesh that should be on the label. Not the fault of my local, Late Bloomers, who tried to steer me right, but nonetheless, this is a gross product. Maybe someone else likes it. Someone who doesn’t mind alt sweeteners, which one can avoid if presented on the label.

$5 for 7.5oz can at Late Bloomers NYC

1/10 🫣

MagSafe Fun on Lifehacker - Multiple reviews!

🧲🧲🧲🧲🧲🧲🧲🧲🧲🧲

EEEEvents

Check out these fun events in NYC, California, and beyond!

Links to Love 💕 or Hate 🫀

The internet is ruint. I helped ruin it with every crappy SEO gig that was the only way to get money to eat food. I helped ruin it by adapting my content to their crappy algorithms at every turn instead of staying true to what I wanted. We helped ruin it by submitting to ‘pivots to video’ and ‘subscription models’ and ROAS 😤and bots and billionaires and LET’S just get weird again, shall we? The repeated centralization only leads to more feudalism and fascism. 🙄

Speaking of fascism: an algorithm can decide that 100 people are collateral damage and human beings take the word of a machine model as an order and then kill those 100 people and we get to watch it on social media but be told we’re not watching what we’re watching. That we’re not being dehumanized while others are unalived. I’m pushing back on algorithms as cultural criticism and as antifascist practice. Will you?🤬

Reading this gave me a familiar feeling. Being in a room full of folks divorced from the reality of their actions, their decisions, and their humanity. Why did this remind me of the cannabis conference circuit 😅?

Interesting beverages have been the best little treats of my 30s. And the worst! I like to try new things but I also am ready to not like something freely 🤣. Retailers are scoring higher tickets by those little treats. Grabbing a kombucha or coconut water while you shop is religion now. Here’s hoping for proper entheogen integration here like CBD, THC, and maybe even psychedelics 🧐.

DJ Schedule (yes, I DJ live and IRL now 😇)

• Follow me on Twitch - @realdanhell

• JUNE Weekend Gig announcement SOON! 😎

• NEW PARTY IN THE WORKS for hot summer days 🌿

• book me for your event by REPLYING to this email💋

Ciao amici 😘😘