2025-08-07 00:00 UTC
I decided to do another entry today because I'm feeling the novelty of my new desk setup and writing almost exclusively in nano (my text editor). I also have a new tool called
proselint which is a python tool that scans my prose and gives suggestions based on some old timey writing style guide. Some of the suggestions are nice, but some of them don't really
fit into my paradigm of what I would call "bad writing". Even though I have my disagreements, I do think it's generally a useful tool. I still need to figure out a spell checker here,
though. I was browsing some programs that could work, but haven't found my right fit yet. Doing spell checking for prose in a text editor is a bit more complicated work, so I get it.
Either way, I just enjoy clicking away in my nice little text editor. I was using LibreOffice for a long time and LibreOffice is cool because it's super robust and has lots of really
nice features for formatting documents, but there were a lot of those features that felt superfluous to me. Because of this, the UI felt super clunky and I always had to switch fonts
from Arial because I couldn't figure out how to make a preset for it. It was really annoying when the font would just switch back to Arial for no reason. Here in nano, though, things are
a lot more streamlined and easy to deal with. Not to mention, I love editing text in markdown. Markdown is the superior text editing format for me. It's just so nice and easy and robust
at the same time. It rocks. The guy who made it is pretty cool too, even though I don't remember his name. I checked out his socials though and he seemed like he was doing alright. But
anyway, I'm just excited to click and clack and feel like an actual writer.
I may not have a whole lot of writing under my belt and considering the fact that I'm not really published anywhere, I am still quite the amateur. I tried submitting some short stories to some journals or whatever but they all said no, which didn't surprise me. With the way the world is nowadays, everyone and their mother is a fucking writer. Whether it's posting stupid shit on social media or send long emails and text messages, practically everyone on the planet expresses themselves via the written word. Sure, there's a near infinite variety of mediums that can fit basically any niche, but so much of it feels like noise. I can't begin to communicate just how much slop there is to read on the internet. Not even AI slop, but real human-grade shit piles that stink in a way the LLMs could never truly replicate. It's a miracle that most people even read and write in the first place, and this is especially apparent from the absolute horrendous defilement of language that fills so many screens and finds its way into peoples' heads. It's beyond brainrot—it's a full-blown disintegration of thought itself. The rise in global literacy rates, historically speaking, would make one think that societies are becoming more educated, discerning, and intelligent. But the reality of this rise is far from that. If anything, the stereotypically Darwinian nature of humans comes out. Now, I'm not really a Darwinist in the traditional sense, but I do see the differences between those who are strong and those who are weak. And with the rise of global literacy, we have seen a true exhibition in humanity's love of exploitation and greed. With that, I mean to say that sure, people can read and write, but this ability has been used to actually make people think less and not more.
With the state of the world today, we see that a select few companies have taken human thought and discourse and have held it hostage. Nowadays, everything has to happen in one of our few "town squares" that are the Metaverse, Twitterland, Google-topia, and blah blah blah. I don't know, man, I just can't seem to see the real thought behind most of the shit I read on the internet. Obviously the stupid people are stupid, but I see smart people falling into the same traps, too. Sure, the smart people might be more eloquent or creative in their discourse, but the same brain corruption is still happening. Now, I might be biased because I am clinically depressed and psychotic, but I don't think my estimations here are completely off base. The main thing that gives me solace is that while we do have these social and metaphysical problems, we still have a better situation as a species or whatever than we ever have in our short and ephemeral history. Sure, oligarchy and tyranny suck and are real and happening, but it could be way worse. Slavery could still be seen as a fact of life. We could still be engaging in pauperism. But no, we are in a different age—the Silicon Age, baby. And whether we like it or not, this is life. I just hope I can keep my mind sharp despite its fragile corners.