There is a specific kind of vertigo that comes with watching a world lose its grip on the steering wheel. We are living in a moment where the guardrails have been ground down to sawdust, and the prevailing philosophy isn't just "live and let live"—it's a cynical, nihilistic shrug.
Everything goes.
It’s the title of the era. It’s the anthem of a society that has traded its moral compass for a front-row seat to the spectacle. We have reached a point where the unthinkable isn't just thought; it's scheduled, televised, and then monetized.
The Altar of the Ego
Consider the theater of the absurd we witnessed recently. Maria Corina Machado, a woman who has stood in the crosshairs of a brutal regime for decades, wins the Nobel Peace Prize. It is a moment of profound gravity, or at least it should be. But then comes the twist that feels like it was written by a satirist on a heavy dose of cheap gin and bad decisions.
She gifts her medal to Donald Trump.
This isn't just a political maneuver; it’s a sacrificial offering at the altar of an ego that requires constant, high-grade fuel. We are watching the most prestigious symbols of human achievement being handed over like party favors to stroke the vanity of men who view "peace" as a branding exercise. It’s a transaction that says nothing about liberty and everything about the commodification of virtue.
We accept it. We scroll past. Everything goes.
Made-for-TV Fascism
While the medals are being handed out in gilded rooms, the reality on the street is getting colder and sharper.
In places like Minneapolis, we see the results of "peace through strength." ICE agents, flush with more funding than the agencies meant to feed or educate us, are operating with a level of aggression that would be unrecognizable to a healthy democracy. When federal agents are involved in the shooting of citizens in broad daylight, and the response from the "modern leaders" in the surrounding halls of power is a deafening silence or a tactical squint, we have moved past policy debates.
We are into the territory of enforced fear.
What is most chilling isn't just the action of the state; it's our collective shrug. If you saw an individual behaving with this level of unchecked, violent caprice, you’d call them a monster. When the state does it under the banner of "security," we accept it at face value. We have become experts at looking away.
The Standard We Keep
I spend a lot of time thinking about this because I am raising a child in the wreckage of these standards. When you are a parent, you aren't just a caregiver; you are a curator of reality. You are tasked with explaining why the world honors a hero one day and why that hero surrenders their honor the next.
"Everything goes" is not a value. It is the surrender of the floor; the absence of a backbone. If we teach our children that standards are flexible, that truth is a "choose your own adventure" novel, and that cruelty is just another form of "disruption," we aren't raising citizens. We are raising casualties of a war they don't even know they're fighting.
How did we get here? We got here by prioritizing the "win" over the work—by confusing fame with leadership and outrage with impact. We stopped demanding that the people we give power to actually possess the character required to hold it.
The Fix: Reclaiming the Floor
How do we stop the slide? It starts with a refusal to be part of the audience. We must move from being consumers of the spectacle to architects of a different reality. This isn't self-help; it's a desperate act of civic resilience.
- Raise the voice, not the volume. Shouting into the digital void only feeds the algorithms designed to monetize your rage. Speak with the quiet authority of someone who still believes in objective truth.
- Act in kindness as a radical subversion. In a world that rewards being "alpha" or "savage," being genuinely decent is a rejection of the nihilistic script. It is a refusal to be hardened.
- Starve the spectacle. Autocracy thrives on attention. It feeds on your fear and your obsession. Stop watching the "made-for-TV" drama and start looking at the immediate, tangible needs of your community.
- Support the builders. Find the people with actual ideas—not just grievances—and give them your time, your money, and your vote.
- Exit the pit. Social media fights are the junk food of the soul. They replace your capacity for empathy with a hollow sense of victory that vanishes the moment you lock your screen.
The world is loud, and it is currently very, very messy. But we don't have to accept that "everything goes." We can decide, right now, that some things are non-negotiable.
Stay hungry. Stay decent. And for fuck's sake, pay attention.