Billionaires have seized control. The media pretends it’s business as usual, politicians aren’t fighting back. Nobody’s coming. If you were waiting for permission to fight, you’ve had it all along.
Both parties were taken decades ago. There's no way to vote outside of that uniparty box, that will change the major agenda that serves the oligarchy. They own the mass media perception weavers that divide the country into oligarch team blue or oligarch team red, and keep them polarized, fighting with each other. Cheerleaders for red or for blue.
All telephone calls in the US are recorded and transcribed by computers. All snail mail is photographed by sorting marchines and databased. (You can even get a copy of what's coming to your mailbox yourself at the post office website) All electronic communications are recorded. All of it is presumably subject to A.I. analysis. Smart mass video surveillance has risen. Law enforcement shoves intelligence data gathering cameras in your face, soon to be smart eyeglasses and XR tech. Vehicle movements are tracked by plate scanners, and virtually everyone voluntarily carries around a networked pocket surveillance device that harvests all their data, where they go, who they're with, what they're doing. Every politician, judge, juror, journalist, lawyer, academic, doctor, scientist, law enforcement officer, military, everyone, and their families. And they voluntarily install networked microphones and cameras into their own homes, doorbells and workplaces, loving their servitude just as Aldous Huxley foresaw.
There is no way freedom, or separation of powers can exist under those circumstances.
Perhaps, with a blitzkrieg of doublespeak, and severe damage to the bureaucracy and jurisprudence, compromising every arm of government including the military he has taken over at least for now.
But the Rebellion has started and will inevitably grow. “May the force be with you”
Again, just wow. A brilliant & incandescent tour de force of trenchant and spot on analysis. But your writings need to be out there & read by many many more people and I think that’s something that you and your followers need to really be figuring out how to make that happen.
I have a major caveat, though, about but how you frame your argument in this piece. You exaggerate to in my view, to too much of an extreme and say there’s no way to avoid the coup, it’s already taken pace. It can be necessary and helpful to exaggerate for effect. But to say you say that we no longer have a democracy? True in one sense, but not in another . If nothing can be done than what’s left besides grabbing a passport and a gun. I say we need to do what we can to slow and stop the continuing the onslaught against democracy, support those who are were waging the struggle, wage our own and honor the remnants of democracy that still exist and plant the seeds of a new democracy to come. Jermiads have their place, but the prophetic tradition (part of TRADITION that truly deserves to be conserved not worshiped as a false god) points beyond rage and despair toward embodied hope and effective action.
While I agree with your criticism of this brilliant article, I think history has taught us that a “balanced” response to such political power grabs is insufficient. It may already be too late for this very slick coup. What is going on here is more than political shits of power. It is about illegal and dangerous empire building by people with little empathy or appreciation of anyone other than themselves.
Let’s start calling out the families of the oligarchs that want to live in the west.
Why do oligarchs pillage their own nations, bleeding them dry in pursuit of unrelenting greed, only to send their wives, mistresses, and children to the comfort and safety of Western countries? With their vast fortunes, they could cultivate centers of excellence—investing in science, technology, the arts, and intellectual discourse—transforming their homelands into thriving, enlightened societies. Instead, they hoard wealth, stifle progress, and leave their people in stagnation, while their own families enjoy the very freedoms and opportunities they deny others.
Why, then, do Western nations tolerate this hypocrisy? Why are these enablers of corruption welcomed while their people suffer under regimes they help sustain? Let them reap what they have sown. Let them remain in the wastelands they have created, rather than enjoying refuge in the societies they neither built nor deserve. Let a thousand flowers bloom and millions of lights shine—but not for them.
“If you understand the thievery that underpins this entire administration, you’ll understand that Trump’s recent executive order aimed at destroying independent regulatory agencies is an essential part of the overall plot. Independent regulatory agencies are things like the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Federal Elections Commission. These institutions were set up by Congress and are made up of commissioners appointed by the president. They are authorized to promote regulations over the industries and business sectors they oversee. They are the parts of the federal government most businesses interact with. They are the only real day-to-day check on unrestrained capitalism in our system of government.”
I used to believe the MAGA fascist neo-Nazis voters were the Republican fringe voters. Now I realize they are the Republican mainstream.
I used to think something could ignite a spark of American patriotism in a Republican politician, now I realize this Musk, Trump, MAGA, Fox News, fascist regime is exactly what they all want.
Republicans hate democracy as much as they hate Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, as much as they hate LGBTQ+ people, as much as they hate woke people, as much as they hate any and all immigrants, as much as they hate the needy and less fortunate and and as much as they hate all suffering humanity.
To hate those liberal principles is to hate human kindness and compassion. To hate those liberal principles is to be a MAGA neo-Nazi. To hate those liberal principles is to be a Republican.
They have been secretly and not so secretly planning this coup for well over 50 years. Unlimited power and control has always been their ultimate goal. But their realization of demographic facts has powered them to this state today and made their goal of a “permanent Republican majority” as Hugh Hewitt warned us in 2006.
Democrats, marxists, leftists... They all deny the realities of human nature and insist they know how to make a better world. But it always has costs they refuse to acknowledge, and reality always wins.
Some truth for your stupid little mind:
1) Trump won the presidency via the popular vote and the electoral college. Somehow, this is not democracy. What truly isn't democracy is the idea that no matter who wins, the permanent bureaucracy gets to decide what the president can and cannot do. This is an unacceptable state of affairs and was a hairs breadth away from becoming even more permanent.
2) Trump's cabinet and inner circle is literally full of women, minorites/ immigrants. DEI is evil not because it benefits colored people, it's evil because it divides Americans based on unchosen biological characteristics. It also DE FACTO makes all systems it touches worse, because it facilitates selecting personnel based not on merit but on racial quotas. This CANNOT do anything but degrade complex systems, and make trenchant systems like academia even more difficult to navigate.
You should actually get to know some right leaving people, you'll find that in general they care very strongly about those around them and that they are people of good character. The one thing you won't find is them thinking they are better than other people based on some political beliefs or a piece of paper from a degree granting institution that is falling further and further into irrelevancy. I say this as a PhD in biochemistry. It took a while for the scales to fall from my eyes, but they finally did
Neither of this argument has anything to do with the points I make in the article.
Don't assume my politics. I don't think liberalism was perfect. But that doesn't make every other answer *better*.
If you think my piece demonizes every right-leaning person into a heartless monster, or even just "oh no, the right won!" I return your opening compliment.
I don't have a PhD in biochemistry (or scales in front of my eyes).
Yet I can think much desirable alternatives to collapse and capture by oligarchs, and that is what is happening.
That one could even sympathize with the ideology might be even worse indeed, because it's such a left-brain, partial view of life and the universe and our place in it.
I’ll bet you’re the kind of asshole that insists on being called Doctor outside of academia because you enjoy marinating in your own bullshit. I hope you get that infection between your anus and genitalia that the pharma commercials warn about.
What about that comment makes you think that you retard lmao. I have nothing but increasing contempt for people the more letters that they add after their name. Enjoy losing for another 4 years, you got a long time left to cry bitch, you better hydrate
I'm a German malcontent, that wishes Milei's chainsaw on all the big governments of the world. I hope we see that with Musk. You deserve it... though that sounds malicious, but I mean it in a sincere, friendly way. And more of that general thing happening, makes it more likely to happen here. Or failing that, it creates functional, freer, less dystopian places that one can flee to, should my local democratic control go to hell. Well, it has been since reunification really.
We have 181 schools named after Sophie School here, the harmless good girl talking so eloquently about her feelings, that got herself killed buying nothing. That's the democratic model of civic courage. By contrast, we only have one school named after Georg Elser. In 3 out of 4 timelines, he kills the top 50 nazis before WW2. But bad boy scary.
But don't take his example either, mind you.
I think the kleptocrat billionaire clique serves the common good (and mine!) far better than the status quo, so I'd prefer if you left them breathing, if you wouldn't terribly mind. Please?
I'll copy another response below because I think it's relevant here. I don't think they have our interests in mind at all, nor that there is a new invisible hand of the billionaires that will somehow make rule by the wealthy not dystopian.
I'm all for less waste. But this is not it. Musk is not Milei.
--
What good are they doing? Musk can stop world hunger and malnutrition with a fraction of his fortune. Or improve education in a blink for every child worldwide.
These two things would have such an impact on science, research, the arts, and general intelligence levels that the world would be forever changed.
Musk could also reduce government spending by not taking subventions and public welfare. Billions and billions in savings.
Instead we get indiscriminate firings and mass surveillance, and he gets more government contracts.
If someone does good I’ll applaud. But I don’t think renaming a Gulf or firing nuclear warhead operators are the right priorities, and if you do, I have questions.
"What good are they doing? Musk can stop world hunger and malnutrition with a fraction of his fortune. Or improve education in a blink for every child worldwide."
If you're so confident you'd know how to do that with just money, visit your local EA meetup. They'll happily help you get the money, but more likely disabuse you of whatever notion you had in mind. You'll find very sharp people among them, and so saintly they almost creep me out. And they'll have pull in the tech-scene, too. So surely, they could win you the requisite Musk-Twitter-poll, or however things will work these days.
"Instead we get indiscriminate firings and mass surveillance, and he gets more government contracts."
You've had the mass surveillance before, so what else is new? Your democratic control damned Snowden a traitor.
I understand the indiscriminate firings to be mostly a power play. Indiscriminate hiring sprees seem worse to me, in any case.
There's also some method to the madness. Aggressively cut without looking, wait for the backlash to inform you, what you shouldn't have. PEPFAR will probably continue. Let's see, if Scott's early complaint gets traction, when it comes to the science defunding needing to be more discriminate.
"Announcing a flawed list (without taking action yet) isn’t the worst sin, but the USAID experience has suggested they sometimes do take action based on these lists before correcting them, so I thought I would complain early."
"Musk could also reduce government spending by not taking subventions and public welfare. Billions and billions in savings."
Yes, but being deep in bed with the government secures his power. And he's playing for keeps.
"These two things would have such an impact on science, research, the arts, and general intelligence levels that the world would be forever changed."
Figuring out, how to increase general intelligence is my job. Nobody else is even close to figuring that one out. I promise, I'll work faster if you dont'go murdering the new regime just yet.
I know they're not going to be perfectly virtuous, but nobody can seize nor hold power, if they're not going to be somewhat ruthless. It's giving me hope to not see the usual gerontocrat lawyer types in charge. As much.
If you're attached to your "democratic control", don't believe, you're rid of it just yet.
"I don't think they have our interests in mind at all, nor that there is a new invisible hand of the billionaires that will somehow make rule by the wealthy not dystopian."
It was dystopian already. It's just not something you notice, if you grow up in it and take the way things are for granted. Sure, it can get worse and it's also subjective, as one man's paradise is another's hellscape... but things were by most metrics quite bad. And times of change are stressful and chaotic and might turn worse.
------
I know you've got more specific issues unaddressed, that I didn't look into. And some of my answers are more glib, than deeply persuasive or well-reasoned. More of a perspective, I'm trying to bring across. Also something about your nukes. You're right, that sounded important! But aren't presidents supposed to have a 100 day grace period, before people start tearing them apart :)
Sounds like you want people to give up and why? I think you underestimate the will and determination of millions of pissed off Americans. We cannot be stopped!
Both parties were taken decades ago. There's no way to vote outside of that uniparty box, that will change the major agenda that serves the oligarchy. They own the mass media perception weavers that divide the country into oligarch team blue or oligarch team red, and keep them polarized, fighting with each other. Cheerleaders for red or for blue.
All telephone calls in the US are recorded and transcribed by computers. All snail mail is photographed by sorting marchines and databased. (You can even get a copy of what's coming to your mailbox yourself at the post office website) All electronic communications are recorded. All of it is presumably subject to A.I. analysis. Smart mass video surveillance has risen. Law enforcement shoves intelligence data gathering cameras in your face, soon to be smart eyeglasses and XR tech. Vehicle movements are tracked by plate scanners, and virtually everyone voluntarily carries around a networked pocket surveillance device that harvests all their data, where they go, who they're with, what they're doing. Every politician, judge, juror, journalist, lawyer, academic, doctor, scientist, law enforcement officer, military, everyone, and their families. And they voluntarily install networked microphones and cameras into their own homes, doorbells and workplaces, loving their servitude just as Aldous Huxley foresaw.
There is no way freedom, or separation of powers can exist under those circumstances.
10/10, no notes
Nothing is done until we do nothing. Nothing is irremediable. Nothing is permanent.
And nothing is impossible.
No people is weak and immoral in essence. A culture, a cultural moment, values, etc. can be, but the people can always choose, change, evolve, adapt.
And mostly, we can rebuild. But first...
Best to you!
Perhaps, with a blitzkrieg of doublespeak, and severe damage to the bureaucracy and jurisprudence, compromising every arm of government including the military he has taken over at least for now.
But the Rebellion has started and will inevitably grow. “May the force be with you”
With *us*!
Where are you Stay Slick?
I lived in Manhattan for about 2.5 years, and also in London. I'm guessing you're American??
So, what's next?
Let me tell you how this ends, Slick.
Next piece is out: https://open.substack.com/pub/heyslick/p/the-technate-of-north-america
Again, just wow. A brilliant & incandescent tour de force of trenchant and spot on analysis. But your writings need to be out there & read by many many more people and I think that’s something that you and your followers need to really be figuring out how to make that happen.
I have a major caveat, though, about but how you frame your argument in this piece. You exaggerate to in my view, to too much of an extreme and say there’s no way to avoid the coup, it’s already taken pace. It can be necessary and helpful to exaggerate for effect. But to say you say that we no longer have a democracy? True in one sense, but not in another . If nothing can be done than what’s left besides grabbing a passport and a gun. I say we need to do what we can to slow and stop the continuing the onslaught against democracy, support those who are were waging the struggle, wage our own and honor the remnants of democracy that still exist and plant the seeds of a new democracy to come. Jermiads have their place, but the prophetic tradition (part of TRADITION that truly deserves to be conserved not worshiped as a false god) points beyond rage and despair toward embodied hope and effective action.
While I agree with your criticism of this brilliant article, I think history has taught us that a “balanced” response to such political power grabs is insufficient. It may already be too late for this very slick coup. What is going on here is more than political shits of power. It is about illegal and dangerous empire building by people with little empathy or appreciation of anyone other than themselves.
No justice. Just us.
Sad, and true. But it's not "just us"--it's "us".
I am heartened by your repeated push-backs on any comments suggesting the ongoing coup is fait du complet
The coup is done; but it's only the beginning. It's not done until we decide it is.
Let’s start calling out the families of the oligarchs that want to live in the west.
Why do oligarchs pillage their own nations, bleeding them dry in pursuit of unrelenting greed, only to send their wives, mistresses, and children to the comfort and safety of Western countries? With their vast fortunes, they could cultivate centers of excellence—investing in science, technology, the arts, and intellectual discourse—transforming their homelands into thriving, enlightened societies. Instead, they hoard wealth, stifle progress, and leave their people in stagnation, while their own families enjoy the very freedoms and opportunities they deny others.
Why, then, do Western nations tolerate this hypocrisy? Why are these enablers of corruption welcomed while their people suffer under regimes they help sustain? Let them reap what they have sown. Let them remain in the wastelands they have created, rather than enjoying refuge in the societies they neither built nor deserve. Let a thousand flowers bloom and millions of lights shine—but not for them.
It is not a coup but a heist.
“If you understand the thievery that underpins this entire administration, you’ll understand that Trump’s recent executive order aimed at destroying independent regulatory agencies is an essential part of the overall plot. Independent regulatory agencies are things like the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Federal Elections Commission. These institutions were set up by Congress and are made up of commissioners appointed by the president. They are authorized to promote regulations over the industries and business sectors they oversee. They are the parts of the federal government most businesses interact with. They are the only real day-to-day check on unrestrained capitalism in our system of government.”
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/executive-order-independent-agencies-trump/
Yes. It’s only just begun.
So get off X already. Is that difficult? I wouldn't know as I've never been on it
They're not bulletproof. America has 4 hundred million firearms. And nothing ever works the way it was planned.
simple solution. cap his stupid ass and all of his followers. then just seize and nationalize starlink and space x and whatever else
OK but... what do we do with all those cars?
send em into the sun
That will take a lot of thrust, not sure we can pull it off. Would you be OK if we just turned each of the cars into its own mini Sun?
yes and waymos too
Turn Silicon valley into Carthage
Mark Zuckerberg even got the t-shirt! He once wore one saying CARTHAGO DELENDA EST
wtf!!!
ew gross zuck is so gross.
did you know he built building 8 and hired regina dugan to run it?!
you hit everything on the head except for techno-feudalism, which I think is relevant here.
Wait until tomorrow!
First shots have been fired in a Cold Civil War
Louder please
We are in Post-Fall America
Mainstream Republicans:
I used to believe the MAGA fascist neo-Nazis voters were the Republican fringe voters. Now I realize they are the Republican mainstream.
I used to think something could ignite a spark of American patriotism in a Republican politician, now I realize this Musk, Trump, MAGA, Fox News, fascist regime is exactly what they all want.
Republicans hate democracy as much as they hate Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, as much as they hate LGBTQ+ people, as much as they hate woke people, as much as they hate any and all immigrants, as much as they hate the needy and less fortunate and and as much as they hate all suffering humanity.
To hate those liberal principles is to hate human kindness and compassion. To hate those liberal principles is to be a MAGA neo-Nazi. To hate those liberal principles is to be a Republican.
They have been secretly and not so secretly planning this coup for well over 50 years. Unlimited power and control has always been their ultimate goal. But their realization of demographic facts has powered them to this state today and made their goal of a “permanent Republican majority” as Hugh Hewitt warned us in 2006.
Meh, so mid. Enjoy getting fist fucked by our new Dark Enlightenment. Maybe Elon will give you a reach around if you beg hard enough
You are D E R A N G E D.
Democrats, marxists, leftists... They all deny the realities of human nature and insist they know how to make a better world. But it always has costs they refuse to acknowledge, and reality always wins.
Some truth for your stupid little mind:
1) Trump won the presidency via the popular vote and the electoral college. Somehow, this is not democracy. What truly isn't democracy is the idea that no matter who wins, the permanent bureaucracy gets to decide what the president can and cannot do. This is an unacceptable state of affairs and was a hairs breadth away from becoming even more permanent.
2) Trump's cabinet and inner circle is literally full of women, minorites/ immigrants. DEI is evil not because it benefits colored people, it's evil because it divides Americans based on unchosen biological characteristics. It also DE FACTO makes all systems it touches worse, because it facilitates selecting personnel based not on merit but on racial quotas. This CANNOT do anything but degrade complex systems, and make trenchant systems like academia even more difficult to navigate.
You should actually get to know some right leaving people, you'll find that in general they care very strongly about those around them and that they are people of good character. The one thing you won't find is them thinking they are better than other people based on some political beliefs or a piece of paper from a degree granting institution that is falling further and further into irrelevancy. I say this as a PhD in biochemistry. It took a while for the scales to fall from my eyes, but they finally did
Neither of this argument has anything to do with the points I make in the article.
Don't assume my politics. I don't think liberalism was perfect. But that doesn't make every other answer *better*.
If you think my piece demonizes every right-leaning person into a heartless monster, or even just "oh no, the right won!" I return your opening compliment.
I don't have a PhD in biochemistry (or scales in front of my eyes).
Yet I can think much desirable alternatives to collapse and capture by oligarchs, and that is what is happening.
That one could even sympathize with the ideology might be even worse indeed, because it's such a left-brain, partial view of life and the universe and our place in it.
Nothing says it came from a stupid little mind … like remarks that are introduced with: Some truth for your stupid little mind
I’ll bet you’re the kind of asshole that insists on being called Doctor outside of academia because you enjoy marinating in your own bullshit. I hope you get that infection between your anus and genitalia that the pharma commercials warn about.
What about that comment makes you think that you retard lmao. I have nothing but increasing contempt for people the more letters that they add after their name. Enjoy losing for another 4 years, you got a long time left to cry bitch, you better hydrate
"They never made government more efficient—they just made it serve their interests."
Then the question becomes, whether their interests align more with yours than with the previous weak regime, you call "democratic control".
What's your answer?
Also, not so much, because the previous regime is no more.
I'm a German malcontent, that wishes Milei's chainsaw on all the big governments of the world. I hope we see that with Musk. You deserve it... though that sounds malicious, but I mean it in a sincere, friendly way. And more of that general thing happening, makes it more likely to happen here. Or failing that, it creates functional, freer, less dystopian places that one can flee to, should my local democratic control go to hell. Well, it has been since reunification really.
We have 181 schools named after Sophie School here, the harmless good girl talking so eloquently about her feelings, that got herself killed buying nothing. That's the democratic model of civic courage. By contrast, we only have one school named after Georg Elser. In 3 out of 4 timelines, he kills the top 50 nazis before WW2. But bad boy scary.
But don't take his example either, mind you.
I think the kleptocrat billionaire clique serves the common good (and mine!) far better than the status quo, so I'd prefer if you left them breathing, if you wouldn't terribly mind. Please?
I'll copy another response below because I think it's relevant here. I don't think they have our interests in mind at all, nor that there is a new invisible hand of the billionaires that will somehow make rule by the wealthy not dystopian.
I'm all for less waste. But this is not it. Musk is not Milei.
--
What good are they doing? Musk can stop world hunger and malnutrition with a fraction of his fortune. Or improve education in a blink for every child worldwide.
These two things would have such an impact on science, research, the arts, and general intelligence levels that the world would be forever changed.
Musk could also reduce government spending by not taking subventions and public welfare. Billions and billions in savings.
Instead we get indiscriminate firings and mass surveillance, and he gets more government contracts.
If someone does good I’ll applaud. But I don’t think renaming a Gulf or firing nuclear warhead operators are the right priorities, and if you do, I have questions.
"What good are they doing? Musk can stop world hunger and malnutrition with a fraction of his fortune. Or improve education in a blink for every child worldwide."
If you're so confident you'd know how to do that with just money, visit your local EA meetup. They'll happily help you get the money, but more likely disabuse you of whatever notion you had in mind. You'll find very sharp people among them, and so saintly they almost creep me out. And they'll have pull in the tech-scene, too. So surely, they could win you the requisite Musk-Twitter-poll, or however things will work these days.
"Instead we get indiscriminate firings and mass surveillance, and he gets more government contracts."
You've had the mass surveillance before, so what else is new? Your democratic control damned Snowden a traitor.
I understand the indiscriminate firings to be mostly a power play. Indiscriminate hiring sprees seem worse to me, in any case.
There's also some method to the madness. Aggressively cut without looking, wait for the backlash to inform you, what you shouldn't have. PEPFAR will probably continue. Let's see, if Scott's early complaint gets traction, when it comes to the science defunding needing to be more discriminate.
"Announcing a flawed list (without taking action yet) isn’t the worst sin, but the USAID experience has suggested they sometimes do take action based on these lists before correcting them, so I thought I would complain early."
From <https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/only-about-40-of-the-cruz-woke-science>
"Musk could also reduce government spending by not taking subventions and public welfare. Billions and billions in savings."
Yes, but being deep in bed with the government secures his power. And he's playing for keeps.
"These two things would have such an impact on science, research, the arts, and general intelligence levels that the world would be forever changed."
Figuring out, how to increase general intelligence is my job. Nobody else is even close to figuring that one out. I promise, I'll work faster if you dont'go murdering the new regime just yet.
I know they're not going to be perfectly virtuous, but nobody can seize nor hold power, if they're not going to be somewhat ruthless. It's giving me hope to not see the usual gerontocrat lawyer types in charge. As much.
If you're attached to your "democratic control", don't believe, you're rid of it just yet.
"I don't think they have our interests in mind at all, nor that there is a new invisible hand of the billionaires that will somehow make rule by the wealthy not dystopian."
It was dystopian already. It's just not something you notice, if you grow up in it and take the way things are for granted. Sure, it can get worse and it's also subjective, as one man's paradise is another's hellscape... but things were by most metrics quite bad. And times of change are stressful and chaotic and might turn worse.
------
I know you've got more specific issues unaddressed, that I didn't look into. And some of my answers are more glib, than deeply persuasive or well-reasoned. More of a perspective, I'm trying to bring across. Also something about your nukes. You're right, that sounded important! But aren't presidents supposed to have a 100 day grace period, before people start tearing them apart :)
Mostly you assume I’m an absolute fan of whatever was before. I’m absolutely not.
My point is, Musk is half self-serving, half Technate fanatist, totally dangerous and unhinged, and all of these things are bad.
"It was already dystopian."
So you shrug at Project 2025 and consider it unremarkable?
Sounds like you want people to give up and why? I think you underestimate the will and determination of millions of pissed off Americans. We cannot be stopped!
You don't make a great case for 'cannot be stopped' when you don't make it to an article's conclusion 😅
Or which part of "sharpen your blade" says give up?