[Crosspost] Maximum Blowback

Originally written on July 5, 2025.

Seduction, Spillover, and the Systems That Turn on Us

“We made you,” she screams—not just at the machines, but at the consequence. Rage hurled at a system of our own design, now running on autopilot. It isn’t just a breakdown—it’s blowback. Almost like the war machine coming home.

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Reviving Dead Paper

The tragedy in “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman has always been a contentious one. On one level, the devastating psychological torment and breakdown of The Woman is gut wrenching. The betrayal she faces from a spouse who ought to protect her, the inescapable pathologization that seems to get her from all angles by all the male physicians in her life, the eerie infantilization of being kept in the nursery, and the list goes on. Gilman’s short story is harrowing to read and only made more difficult with added historical context and knowledge of the realities of the so-called rest cure. The Woman’s mental suffering after childbirth is exacerbated by isolation, stillness and boredom until she breaks – becoming terribly obsessed with the facelike pattern in the wallpaper that is her only company. Yet, on the other hand – she won in the end, did she not? 

Reviving Dead Paper

Meaning of ‘The Sound of Silence’ by ‘Disturbed’

The song “The Sound of Silence” by Disturbed is a powerful rendition of Simon & Garfunkel’s classic hit. It speaks of alienation, the loss of genuine communication, and the deep chasms created by our society’s reliance on superficial interactions. With its haunting delivery, Disturbed adds a layer of urgency and depth, turning the song into a brooding anthem for the disconnected.

Meaning of ‘The Sound of Silence’ by ‘Disturbed’

Related:

The Profound Meaning Behind Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Sound of Silence”

“The Sound of Silence” comes to a close with a warning, pointedly calling out the all-consuming consumerism and using those already lost to it as an example of what’s to come if we continue to find solace in the silence. And the people bowed and prayed / To the neon god they made / And the sign flashed out its warning / In the words that it was forming / And the sign said, “The words of the prophets / Are written on the subway walls / And tenement halls / And whispered in the sounds of silence.”

Che Guevara: Socialism and man in Cuba

Dear compañero,

Though belatedly, I am completing these notes in the course of my trip through Africa, hoping in this way to keep my promise. I would like to do so by dealing with the theme set forth in the title above. I think it may be of interest to Uruguayan readers.

A common argument from the mouths of capitalist spokespeople, in the ideological struggle against socialism, is that socialism, or the period of building socialism into which we have entered, is characterized by the abolition of the individual for the sake of the state. I will not try to refute this argument solely on theoretical grounds but rather to establish the facts as they exist in Cuba and then add comments of a general nature. Let me begin by broadly sketching the history of our revolutionary struggle before and after the taking of power.

Che Guevara: Socialism and man in Cuba