Democracy

We need direct democracy. The level of elite capture in this country is insane, and the two-party dynamics have degenerated into fascism vs. an absolutely minimal level of representation. If a handful of people make every law, then every law will go through a handful of fully capturable individuals. This is utterly incompatible with any notion of democracy, and I feel crazy that I constantly have to point this out.

https://bestpossible.website/2026/06/02/democracy/

YouTube Pricing

We've totally lost the era of making products good. YouTube charges negative (however bad they can make YouTube) for YouTube Premium, so they have an incentive to make regular YouTube *awful*. They think they can make regular worth -$20, and according to their finances they're probably right. We need to put some kind of limits on this. It's ridiculous to allow a market where the incentives align to make worse products for more ad space. Hot damn I wish I had a government that believed in […]

https://bestpossible.website/2026/06/01/youtube-pricing/

Concerned

A dear friend of mine sent me a long, rambling message about... something, I don't know, it was clearly written under some kind of psychosis. I found out from their mom this morning they had checked themselves into a mental hospital for (apparently) a bunch of symptoms, including some physical apparently. They've had a history of big health problems, and so I'm just hoping they're all right.

https://bestpossible.website/2026/05/31/concerned/

On Direct Democracy

If all decision making is done by a small handful of elites, then the system will *always* be captured by that small handful of elites. There must always be some form of direct democracy available to ensure citizens can correct systemic failures of their representation.

https://bestpossible.website/2026/05/30/on-direct-democracy/

The Best Possible World

I want to start a collection of ideas for the future, about what kind of future would be good. There are too many narratives of hell, what should we have instead? Imagine there are no restrictions whatsoever, what should we have? - We guarantee human rights, like food, water, shelter, and healthcare - We guarantee a right to privacy - We add an open national ballot, so that decision making cannot be captured by elites - We ban advertising

https://bestpossible.website/2026/05/30/the-best-possible-world/

What a day

Lost a friend today, because I am an idiot. Not sure what to, just cry I guess.

https://bestpossible.website/2026/05/26/what-a-day/

On A Walk

Was walking down a street downtown, enjoying the earth and woodchip scent from the mulch, and all of a sudden was like "wow something smells *bad*" - Then I turned around he corner and found the exit to an underground car park. Dogs must live in an entirely different world. The kind of spatial awareness of scent is like nothing else. Right now (with my whole three days of practice) it's closer to how distant sound is perceived, there are things ambiently in your environment it draws your […]

https://bestpossible.website/2026/05/26/on-a-walk/

The Smell Today

It is raining, and the air smells of petrichor.

https://bestpossible.website/2026/05/26/the-smell-today/

Some Search Engines

Noting down odd search engines when I find them: https://www.dogpile.com/ https://www.metacrawler.com SearXNG instances: https://searx.space/

https://bestpossible.website/2026/05/24/some-search-engines/

Downtown by Scent

As an experiment I am trying to navigate downtown by smell, to get me more in the animal headspace. This is the second day so far that I have done this, you can see the scent navigation tag for more details. * Getting off the streetcar, I smell food: Pizza, maybe? Somewhere in the distance. The wind has largely blown it away, as soon as I've moved. * "Mall smell" is a thing. Nearby, however, I found an outdoor food court, by following the smell of something fried and spicy. Nothing […]

https://bestpossible.website/2026/05/23/downtown-by-scent/