Ignore It

I can’t stop looking at this Nepal flash flood. There’s video all over the place, but this guy explains it pretty well.

I’ve seen a lot of insane video footage on Reddit, but nothing comes close to what I witnessed this week in Nepal. I have never seen anything like that.

Some religious people like to see these things as God speaking to us. That he’s angry at us and we must pay the price. Personally, I see these things more as metaphors. A massive wave of water feels like one of the greatest metaphors nature can offer.

Bill Gates has recently issued a stark warning that “the turbulent AI era is here,” reversing his long-held stance as a tech optimist to sound the alarm on the immediate dangers of artificial intelligence. In a comprehensive essay published on GatesNotes and during multiple high-profile interviews, the Microsoft co-founder stated that AI models have advanced faster than he expected and now present an imminent threat to global stability, human labor, and societal well-being. He emphasized that AI will “either be the greatest equalizer ever invented, or the worst source of injustice,” depending entirely on immediate government intervention.

I think I’ve done a fair amount of activities that would classify me as an activist. If nothing else, I wrote a book called “The Homeless Activist,” so that is not nothing. And my Wikipedia page defines me as “an American homeless activist.”

So let me tell you, as an activist, what I think you can do about all of this. Absolutely nothing! There is absolutely nothing you can do to change the massive flood that is driving towards us ecologically, politically, and economically.

I have fought the system in my own small way as hard as I possibly could in my own little town. I wasn’t trying to change the world, or the country, or even the state. I was just trying to make a small difference in Akron, Ohio.

When I was sheltering homeless people, the point-in-time count recorded 133 unsheltered homeless people. That was around 2018. In 2024, the number of unsheltered homeless people was 211. Those numbers come from a single count in late January, one of the coldest days of the year. The number is, without a doubt, low because it’s hard to find people who live unsheltered on the coldest day of the year. We just don’t know how low the number is. I always thought that in my era, when the count was 133 people, the number was probably close to 500, so you can do the math on what you think it was in 2024.

And then I think about Greta Thunberg, who is that young woman who, as a teenager, drew incredible awareness about global warming and the use of fossil fuels. She was an incredible inspiration to me. Yet today, we are using more fossil fuels than ever before, and even Donald Trump’s insane, colossal fuckup that is the Iran war isn’t going to change it. If you close the Strait of Hormuz, which accounts for 20% of oil distribution, and it doesn’t change the trajectory of using fossil fuels, what hope does a person like Greta Thunberg have?

There is no hope. That is my message as an activist. There is no hope.

If you want to change something, don’t hold your breath. You aren’t going to change it if the powerful elite doesn’t want it changed.

Some of my friends are worried that Donald Trump is going to stop the midterm elections. As a leftist, that amuses me because they think they had something to actually vote for to begin with. American politicians have always only cared about one thing: rich people. All that other stuff they talk about, like abortion and women’s rights and gay rights and the environment, it’s all a lie to get you to vote for them so they can give themselves and their friends as much money as humanly possible. But even if you believe the hype that the other side is the existential collapse and destruction of America and its fantasy branding of being a shining beacon on a hill (or whatever the hell they say), what are you going to do about it? I’ll tell you what you’re going to do about it. You’re not going to do one damn thing. (The most extreme of us will write our congressman and maybe go hold a sign on a street corner for a couple hours on a Saturday afternoon.)

How many times were we told that Donald Trump was a fascist until the day he got into office, and then the Democrats suddenly stopped saying it? Which is it: is he a fascist or not, and how important is it that he’s a fascist? If Hitler reincarnated and instantly became Donald Trump’s right-hand man and started exterminating whoever they wanted to exterminate, what would you do about it? I’m going to tell you what you’re going to do about it: nothing, because that’s what the Germans did. The Germans weren’t some sort of inferior, incompetent, uneducated, unempathetic backwater group of people. The Germans have always been some of the most industrious, scientifically minded people in modern history. They just all pretended it wasn’t happening, and that is how these politicians always get away with what they get away with, because they know we are easy to control.

The reason all of this bullshit with the environment and immigrants and higher corporate profits and power than any time in American history has happened is for one reason: we let it happen.

You’re still putting gas in your car, and you rationalize it, and so do I. You still get on an airplane and fly wherever the hell you want and complain about the legroom. So do I. You talk about animal cruelty and factory farming while you’re slurping down Taco Bell. So do I.

In July 2026, felony charges were filed against 47 animal rights activists following a raid at Ridglan Farms, an animal experimentation facility. The incident involved dozens of activists who rescued beagles from the site. While those involved feel the action brought accountability and renewed hope for the affected dogs, the legal consequences have been severe. Along with several others who were previously charged—bringing the total to over 50—some activists are now facing up to 12 years in prison for their participation in the rescue.

I’m sure you can rationalize this response from society. I mean, yeah, they had a good heart, but let’s be realistic. How many times have I heard people tell me to be realistic? And how I have a good heart, but we need to be realistic.

The reason we can’t have change is because of ourselves. If 10% of people would go on a national strike, we could change anything we wanted overnight, but we won’t do it. We have bills to pay. Our family is relying on us, and so we rationalize away all of the terrible things that are plunging right before us. And because the person next to you isn’t going to do it, you aren’t going to do it, because one person going on strike is a madman.

We will use more oil, we will get more data centers, and rich people will become even richer. Thanks to AI, income inequality will increase, and we are going to see more homeless people. We will continue to rationalize it. You may think that this is a condemnation of you, but really, this is a condemnation of myself.

But the fact of the matter is, the reason you shouldn’t trouble yourself over all of this is that you can’t make a difference. People will continue to murder and torture beagle puppies, probably more than ever now. And do you really want to spend the next 15 years in prison for saving a beagle puppy? Of course you don’t. You’re just going to keep your head down, go to a job you hate, pay for housing and food you can’t afford, and just hope you can make ends meet for yet another month. And I’m here to tell you, Bill Gates is right. It’s only going to get worse, and we’re just going to keep doing nothing.