America Tips Into Fascism

Posted on August 26, 2025

From Garrett Graff at Doomsday Scenario:

I think many Americans wrongly believe there would be one clear unambiguous moment where we go from “democracy” to “authoritarianism.” Instead, this is exactly how it happens — a blurring here, a norm destroyed there, a presidential diktat unchallenged. Then you wake up one morning and our country is different.

It’s easy to imagine fascism as some big, dramatic moment: a coup, a speech, a breaking point. What Garrett Graff argues in this piece is more unsettling. We don’t wake up one morning to a dictatorship. We slide into it bit by bit. Norms get bent, then broken. Power gets consolidated. Institutions get bullied into silence. And by the time you look around, the country doesn’t quite work the way you thought it did.

What makes this feel different now is how normal the abnormal has become. Governors sending troops into opposition-run cities, armored vehicles rolling down D.C. streets, federal agencies harassing critics. It is all happening in plain sight. And many are celebrating the cruelty! Graff’s warning isn’t that fascism is coming someday, it is that it is already here in pieces. And that should alarm everyone, regardless of where they fall on the political spectrum. The scary part is how easy it is to stop noticing when each step just feels like the new baseline.

Avoiding Algorithms

Posted on August 26, 2025

It’s wild how in the last 15 years we have given over almost all of our entertainment and information diet over to corporations who use algorithms to ensure we spend more and more of our attention in their sandbox. More often than not, these changes are a net negative. That sounds dramatic, but think about it: how often do you open an app “just to check one thing” and find yourself half an hour later feeling worse than when you started? Hell, how many times do we open said app after a push notification invited us to do so? We get sucked into these systems in ways we don’t intend.

The outcomes aren’t subtle either. People get radicalized, feel depressed, follow rage bait, fight pointless culture wars, and consume an endless feed of vibes-based, samey music and video slop designed to keep us clicking, watching and listening.

This shows up in a ton of places, especially where we are entertained and informed:

Music (endless playlists and “for you” mixes that all sound alike)
News (anger drives clicks, so anger dominates)
Social media (engagement above all else)
Streaming video & YouTube (just one more recommended clip!)
Reddit and forums (dopamine hits from karma and hot takes)

None of these categories are inherently bad. Music streaming is an incredible bargain. YouTube can teach you almost anything. Social networks can connect you with real community. But the defaults are tuned for addiction, not for your well-being.

So how do we stay intentional about what we consume without becoming hermits? A few things I’ve been focusing on lately:

Take back your music. Apps like Albums or Longplay are great for focusing on the music you chose, not whatever the algorithm feeds you. Advanced mode? Buy your music outright and play it on something offline. I’ve legitimately considered tracking down a last-gen iPod Classic — though I do love my Bluetooth headphones too much to go full retro. (Apple bringing back an iPod in the age of streaming is probably a pipe dream, but I’d be first in line.)
Use RSS. It’s still the best way to follow sites, YouTube channels, subreddits, and even individual social accounts without surrendering to a feed. Tools like Reeder or Tapestry can help bring it all together.
Rely on people, for reccomendations. Want a good movie to watch? Services like Letterboxd let you see what your friends enjoyed instead of what Netflix thinks will keep you awake longest.
Avoid algorithm-first social media. Bluesky, Mastodon, Pixelfed — all of these prioritize community and human choice over recommendation engines. Or, if none of it serves you, quit entirely.

For me, the general guiding principle is that I need to pause and ask whether the thing in front of you is content you actually sought out, or “content” being pushed at you by a company whose only metric is time spent in-app.

One last angle that’s not algorithmic but still worth calling out: audiobooks over podcasts. For me, podcasts increasingly feel like junk food – especially in politics- where so much is just topical rage bait. Audiobooks, on the other hand, feel like vegetables: a slower, more nourishing way to spend time listening.

We’re never going to escape algorithms completely. But if we can recognize where they’re shaping our attention and make small choices to push back, we stand a better chance of keeping them from running our lives.

2025 Social Media Check In

Posted on August 10, 2025

Last year, I wrote about where I was spending time online and how I was feeling about it. Most days, I’m just not that interested in what strangers have to say about sports, tech, or whatever else is trending. Still, I haven’t quit completely. Here’s where things stand today:

Bluesky is probably my favorite platform at the moment. The vibes are okay, especially during football and soccer seasons. I find myself checking in a few times a week, more often during Liverpool, Atlanta United or Buccaneers games. That said, my use is artificially limited right now because I’m mostly stuck with the PWA on desktop. I’m really looking forward to Phoenix, a new Bluesky client from the team behind Ivory. Once that drops, I imagine I’ll be on the platform more regularly.

Mastodon is still solid. The community there is thoughtful and kind, but I just don’t think to check it very often. It’s just a bit too homogenous for me. I have, however, continued to subscribe to Ivory even though I barely use it. That’s mostly out of respect for the developers. At some point I’ll probably cancel, but I haven’t quite talked myself into it yet.

Every once in a while, I’ll fire up Threads but it feels less like a social media app and more of an algorithmic firehose of content that Meta thinks I might like.

Instagram is a familiar trap. I go through cycles of installing it, getting sucked in, then deleting it again. It’s too addictive and not particularly rewarding (other than the dog videos).

Facebook continues to be the worst. I deleted my account years ago, but had to create a new one recently because my son’s Boy Scout troop uses it for communication. I’ve done my best to keep the new profile barren — no friends, no interests, no algorithm — and I’d love to delete it again as soon as I can.

In terms of actual usage, I’ve got a 30-minute screen time limit set on my phone and I honestly can’t remember the last time I hit it. Most of my social browsing happens on my computer in between other tasks, which helps keep things in check.

Both Bluesky and Mastodon still feel relatively healthy. The sentiment is mostly positive and the stakes are low, which is nice. But I still catch myself wondering: what’s the actual value here?

Jack of All Trades

Posted on August 2, 2025

We’re pushing 15 years of the iPad being in our lives, and I still can’t figure out exactly where it fits.

That’s not for lack of trying. I’ve owned more iPads than I care to admit (I think I’m up to 7 overall), ranging from the original to the mini, a few Airs, the Pro, and back to the Air again. I’ve thrown keyboards at it, paired controllers to it, installed every “Pro” app I could justify, and traveled with it as my only computer. And yet, no matter how many times I try to force the iPad into my workflow, I always end up coming to the same conclusion: I’m a Mac guy first, an iPhone guy second, and the iPad just doesn’t make sense in my life.

And that’s frustrating, because the hardware is incredible. iPads are sleek, featherlight, and ridiculously powerful. They’re silent, cool to the touch (although it seems like recent versions can’t claim that as readily), and have some of the best screens I’ve ever used. Paired with the Magic Keyboard and an Apple Pencil, they feel like they should be the perfect modern computer. But that promise has always been just out of reach. It’s always close enough to tempt, never close enough to deliver.

The Identity Crisis

At its core, the iPad still feels like a product in search of a purpose. It tries to be both a tablet and a laptop, but never fully commits to either. Apple’s marketing leans hard into productivity with their “Your next computer is not a computer” ads, but the limitations of iPadOS make that claim feel aspirational at best.

There’s no real desktop environment. No overlapping windows. No persistent file system. Even with Stage Manager and other recent improvements, multitasking remains clunky. The experience feels like a series of clever workarounds rather than a thoughtful system for doing actual work. And as someone who spends their day working on a Mac, the mental overhead of “working differently” on an iPad isn’t freeing … it’s tiring.

Redundant by Design

The biggest problem with the iPad isn’t what it can’t do – it’s that everything it does well is already covered by other devices and nearly everything it does software wise is just compromised enough to make me kind of hate using it.

I did the math recently: a base 11” iPad Pro with a Magic Keyboard costs around $1300. For about $1500, I could get a base M2 MacBook Air ($1099), a Nintendo Switch ($299), and a Kindle Paperwhite ($110). That’s three devices that are each better at the thing they’re built for. The Mac handles real work. The Switch is pure portable gaming. The Kindle is the best reading experience out there, full stop.

Meanwhile, the iPad is supposed to do all of that – and it kind of does! but never quite as well.

It’s too heavy and bright to be a great e-reader. It’s not quite powerful or flexible enough to be a real gaming device. And as a laptop replacement? It’s still not there. For nearly every task I’d consider doing on an iPad, another device beats it on ergonomics, capability, or joy of use.

What I Actually Use It For

A quick look at my Screen Time confirms it: I use my iPad for reading on Instapaper, browsing the web, and watching YouTube. That’s it. And that’s been consistent across every iPad I’ve owned over the years.

It’s a nice gadget to have around, no question. But when you step back and think about cost versus utility, it’s really hard to justify. My iPad Air is “best in class” for what it is, but that doesn’t mean it’s necessary. If it disappeared tomorrow, I wouldn’t miss it.

Platform Priorities

That’s led me to a broader realization: of all the platforms Apple makes, the Mac is the only one I couldn’t live without. iOS is essential because of the iPhone, sure – but if push came to shove, I could get by without iPadOS, watchOS, or even tvOS. The Mac, though, is where I work, write, and think. It’s the foundation of how I use computers. I’m sure part of this is just the old man in me talking (which is apparently becoming a common theme around here).

Ironically, the success of iOS may be the thing holding the iPad back. Apple became a juggernaut by turning the iPhone into a cultural and economic force — but it also became addicted to growth. Services revenue, ecosystem lock-in, and tight control over how software works across platforms now feel like constraints rather than strengths.

Apple seems terrified of making iPadOS too powerful, lest it cannibalize MacBook sales. As a result, the iPad is stuck in a strange limbo: it’s too expensive and overpowered to be “just a tablet,” but not quite capable enough to be a real computer.

The Workflow Problem

Working on an iPad always feels like compromise. The Magic Keyboard is excellent, the cursor support is surprisingly good, and the app ecosystem has matured, but the device never quite gets out of your way. Whether it’s the awkward vertical screen when typing, the limitations around windowing, or the hoops you have to jump through to do basic file management, the iPad demands that you adjust your workflow to fit it, rather than adapting to how you already work.

That’s not inherently bad – but for long-time Mac users, it introduces a lot of friction. And friction kills momentum. The upcoming changes to things like background tasks, windowing and such in iPadOS 26 are great, but after using the public beta for a little while, it’s just a worse implementation of something that’s already really solid – MacOS.

Software Ceiling

Even the best apps on iPad like Photoshop, Logic, Affinity and Notion all feel like lite versions of themselves. That’s partly due to the App Store’s sandboxing model and partly because of Apple’s tight control over what iPadOS is allowed to be. Background tasks are limited. External monitor support is half-baked. Automation is still an afterthought unless you’re a Shortcuts wizard.

And while Stage Manager is a step in the right direction, it’s not enough to make multitasking feel natural. It still feels like you’re being asked to pretend this is a laptop, when it clearly isn’t.

The Long Goodbye

So here I am again: with a beautiful, capable iPad that I barely use. Selling it feels wasteful. Tt’s still a joy to hold and use in short bursts, but I’d be lying if I said it played a meaningful role in my digital life. More than anything, it just clutters things up. It adds another device to charge, update, secure, and think about. And for what? A slightly nicer YouTube experience on the couch?

There’s a good chance I’ll keep it “just in case,” like I always do. But if I’m being honest, it’s time to admit that the iPad is never going to become what I hoped it would be. It’s a gadget I want to love … but not one I actually need.

I’m So Tired

Posted on May 13, 2025

Recently I was shopping for a water gun for my son’s birthday, and to my surprise, it was hard to find a simple, sturdy one that didn’t have some kind of battery-powered feature. Not only is that one more thing to break, but I really don’t want to add yet another device to the list of things in our house that require charging. It got me thinking: nearly every purchase these days feels like a negotiation between joy and technology.

That’s not to say they’re always at odds. But finding the sweet spot is getting harder.

There was a time when the march of “smarter” items was a net positive. It made things smoother, smarter, simpler and generally more joyful or interesting to use. These days, that optimism is harder to summon. I know I sound like the aging guy yelling at clouds, but I don’t think it’s just nostalgia. The balance really does seem to have shifted over the past decade, and the trend line isn’t encouraging.

Sure, there’s still plenty to like. I can check the weather, unlock my front door, and queue up music from the same screen. But the magic wears off fast. What starts as convenience often ends in clutter. Every small problem now has an app, gadget, or subscription that fixes one issue and quietly creates three new ones.

Streaming music feels less intimate than owning a few beloved albums. Delivery apps bring cold fries, surge pricing, and mystery fees. Social media promised connection but mostly delivers outrage. Smart homes? Great until the WiFi blinks and nothing works or your fridge needs a firmware update. Even the web is a mess of pop-ups, autoplay videos, cookie banners, newsletter traps, and paywalls. Every click has a privacy cost as well.

You can never possibly watch all of the amazing entertainment that on YouTube and every streaming service out there. And yet, it’s more frustrating than ever to navigate subscription costs while fighting the algorithm that recommends more and more ragebait on YouTube. Toys for toddlers need firmware updates. Cars have become rolling iPads. Your heated seats might already be installed, but unless you pay a monthly fee, they stay cold — taunting you with unearned luxury. Most products require an account. They harvest data. They nag for upgrades. When they break, you’re not allowed to fix them. The tools don’t serve us — they serve their makers. And it’s exhausting.

Even Apple, a company I’ve long admired, feels less like a craftsman and more like a casino. Their stuff still (mostly) works great, but it no longer feels entirely yours. Most of the apps I use are rented. Let a subscription lapse and the functionality vanishes. Not all subscriptions are bad, but when everything is a subscription, it dulls the entire experience. Even products that don’t have a subscription (yet) associated with them loom over us. We’re just waiting for the shoe to drop.

I don’t know what to do about this, really. I have tried to be more intentional about my purchases in general, limiting my exposure to subscriptions, overly complicated features, and “smart” tech in general. I fully appreciate that this makes me sound like the old man I’m increasingly turning into. But my optimism around any consumer purchase has been replaced by cynicism and even a bit of dread. It makes me sad but hopeful that a turning point looms as more folks tire of the state of “smart” everything and looks for something a bit simpler.

From Overcast to Castro: A Podcast App Journey

Posted on May 3, 2025

I listen to a lot of podcasts.

Over the years, I’ve used just about every podcast app worth trying, but for a long time, Overcast was my go-to. One of the big features that kept me there was the “priority” system, which pushed your favorite shows to the top of the queue automatically. It helped manage the chaos.

That feature stopped working reliably around the time of Overcast’s big rewrite in 2024. I kept using it for a while, hoping things would improve, but they never really did. At one point I removed all of the prioritization settings to simplify things, but that only made the experience worse.

So I started looking around.

I gave Pocket Casts a try, and to its credit, it was mostly great. Filters were powerful, syncing worked well across devices, and the UI was clean and dependable. But over time, I missed the triage-style listening flow I was used to. Neither Overcast nor Pocket Casts really delivered that anymore. I tried to rig up my own system which was mostly really solid, but it just wasn’t the right fit for me.

That’s when I decided to give Castro another look.

Castro was acquired by new developers in 2024, and the app has seen a real resurgence since then. Long-standing bugs and edge case issues have been addressed, and the core experience that made Castro compelling in the first place has stayed intact.

What I’ve always appreciated about Castro is its Inbox and Queue system. You can subscribe to your favorite shows, but new episodes don’t go straight into your Up Next list unless you want them to. Instead, they show up in an inbox for review. This makes it easy to be intentional about what I listen to. You can also push important episodes to the top of your queue, which gives me back the control I lost when Overcast’s system broke.

And while it’s not the most important thing for a podcast app, Castro is the best looking option in my opinion. The typography, layout, and color choices are all more thoughtful than the competition. You don’t spend a lot of time inside the app once you hit play, but good design still matters, and Castro gets it right. The voice boost and trim silence features aren’t quite as good as Overcast in my experience, but it’s all still there.

For now, Castro is the podcast app that best fits how I want to listen. Unless something major changes, I’m planning to stick with it. The yearly subscription is $25 instead of $15, but it’s being actively developed at a clip much greater than what I’ve seen in Overcast-land.

A Good, Not Great Smart Playlist

Posted on May 1, 2025

I’ve been using Apple Music and previously iTunes for the bulk of the past 25 or so years of the digital music era and the thing that keeps bringing me back is the more album-centric way the app works along with things like Smart Playlists. Today I thought I’d share a playlist I created recently that I’ve really found to be a wonderful way to listen to music when I’m feeling uninspired.

Often, I either play the same albums over and over or pop over to a playlist I’ve created that surfaces any loved tracks not listened to in the last 6 months. Those are both wonderful, but I was looking for something a bit more diverse while still playing a lot of what I’m familiar with.

I call it “Good, Not Great”. And the rules are pretty simple:

I then shuffle through this playlist. As you can see, if I skip a song it gets pulled from the playlist for about 3 months and if it gets played I won’t hear it again for a month, so the songs stay pretty fresh. In addition, by cutting off the high and low ends I’m giving the “middle child” songs a chance. I hear a lot of old favorites that don’t get a lot of love. This type of stuff just isn’t possible with other streaming services, and is why I’ve stuck with Apple Music other than a few flirtations with Spotify and the now deceased Rdio.

VW ID.4: First Impressions

Posted on February 14, 2025

After a week with the VW ID.4, I’m still confident I made the right decision. Switching from a Tesla Model 3 was a big move, but the reasons were clear: I wanted more cargo space, a nicer interior, and to avoid the plummeting resale value of my Tesla. On top of that, I was tired of associating my car with Elon Musk. Every time I saw the news, I thought about selling my car. So, I finally did. Sanity restored. I think early on, the biggest takeaway for me is that I like having a car that happens to be electric, which is a bit of shift from the approach Tesla takes. There are a ton of features but everything tries to be too clever.

The Pros

Overall, I’m very happy with the way that the car feels in the interior. It’s not a luxury car by any stretch, but it just feels “nice”. It’s the little things that make a big difference. The normal door handles are a refreshing change—imagine, a door handle that works like a door handle! Revolutionary. The ride is whisper-quiet, and the added trunk space means I can actually fit things in my car without playing Tetris. Closing doors doesn’t feel cheap, things don’t squeak when you move, I haven’t heard rattles. I love the fully retractable sun shade, which is a godsend in the hot summer months in Georgia. The CarPlay integration is excellent, offering an infotainment system that doesn’t look like a webpage that the CSS failed to load. Having choice in mapping, music and more is so, so wonderful.

The screen layout in the VW ID.4 is actually practical, unlike Tesla’s, which devoted a third of its real estate to desperately convincing me I needed Full Self-Driving. I’ve got a smaller screen directly in front of me with range, speed, mapping and other relevant info so you don’t need to glance toward the middle of the car to get that info. As far as the ride goes, the ID.4 drives like an actual car instead of a rolling iPad, and switching between single-pedal and regular driving is a breeze—great for me, and a win for my wife, who would rather not be thrown into the windshield every time she takes her foot off the accelerator. Acceleration is fine, but not as good as the M3. Despite the spacious interior, parking isn’t bad, either. It takes a little getting used to between being higher up and such, but so far no real issues there.

Oh, and physical buttons! Well, sort of. More on that later.

The Cons

I expected some trade-offs with an early-gen EV, but some of these quirks are just plain unnecessary. Charging is noticeably slower, taking about 12 hours to go from 20-80% on a Level 2 charger, compared to about seven hours with my Tesla. I haven’t fine-tuned the settings yet, so maybe there’s hope. The range is also lower—around 220 miles per charge versus the Model 3’s 320—but let’s be honest, how often am I really driving across the country? Most of my driving is either under 5 miles or day trips with the family. Plotting a ~90 mile radius from our house (to account for round trip and arriving home with a little extra juice) makes any day trip in the north part of the state easy. I used a supercharger exactly 9 times in the 3 years I owned a Tesla, so this isn’t really an issue but the range is significantly less than my previous car. Time will tell if this gives me more range anxiety but I don’t anticipate it.

CarPlay is great, but the downside is that I don’t get that super-integrated charging network experience when using Apple or Google Maps. Not a huge deal given the fact that I only used it about a dozen times in 3 years, but it was definitely a strength of my previous car. Also, welcome back, key fob! It’s been a while. Single-pedal driving exists, but it’s not as smooth as Tesla’s. The app? It’s fine. It will graciously let me know if I left the car unlocked, but will it won’t let me do anything about it from the app. Better than nothing, but only barely.

And let’s talk about the buttons. VW had the right idea: let’s use physical buttons for a lot of the typical functions like climate control, play/pause, volume, TACC, etc. But then they decided to make them capacitive instead of, you know, actual buttons. There’s also no walk-away auto lock yet, though apparently, it’s coming in a software update.

A Note About Adapters, Tesla Wall Chargers, and Permissions

One unexpected snag was the charging compatibility. The ID.4 uses a CCS charging port, but I own a Tesla Wall Charger. Instead of replacing it (as almost any new EV will use the NACS charging standard), I opted for a TeslaTap – 50 AMP Tesla to J-1772 Adapter. When I first plugged it in, the car gave me the silent treatment—just a flashing white light, followed by a solid red one, which is car-speak for “figure it out yourself.”

After some frustrating troubleshooting, I realized my Tesla Wall Charger had a security setting restricting charging to specific Teslas. Once I reset the charger and changed the Access Control setting to “Any Electric Vehicle,” the ID.4 finally decided to cooperate. Problem solved, but not before a minor freak out of what the root cause might be.

Final Thoughts

Despite a few minor drawbacks (and a couple of head-scratchers), I’m really happy with the switch. I knew I’d be trading off some EV advancements, but given my actual driving habits, it’s not an issue. At the end of the day, I’ve got a car that feels like an actual car, not a tech experiment, and I’m not constantly reminded of a certain billionaire every time I get behind the wheel. That alone makes it worth it. I feel like as I learn more about how to get the most out the VW I’ll be even happier I made the move.

Adios, Tesla

Posted on February 9, 2025

About a week ago, I posted about my desire to wash my hands of Tesla ownership. I’ve had a Model 3 Long Range for about 3 years now, and generally speaking it’s been a very good car.

My criteria for an EV were mostly centered around a few fairly straightforward areas. One, I wanted something that reduced “range anxiety” as much as possible. An option that had access to a robust charging network and got good range on its own was very important to me. Secondly, I wanted a nice car but didn’t want to pay 100k for some of the options out there. At the time, Tesla was by far the best choice.

However, as I got to using the car daily, there was a lot that I didn’t like. I covered a lot of this in a previous post, but at a high level:

I despised the closed ecosystem. It doesn’t scale and makes it harder to use basic functionality. The software team at Tesla builds a 3rd party implementation of something like Apple Music, says “good enough”, and moves on to something else. All of the media apps are pretty awful. A basic CarPlay implementation is all I really want or need.
The car has general fit and finish issues – panel gaps, weird noises, etc. I notice every little bit of wind or road noise. In general, the car felt very cheap. Things rattle or squeak, and at the price one pays for a new M3, it’s unacceptable.
I don’t use superchargers as much as I thought I would. This means the “Tesla advantage” is smaller than I thought it’d be.
The “premium” connectivity package is anything but. It’s pretty spotty, coverage-wise and while I think I can hotspot my phone and connect the car to that, I still would have to pay the $10/month for a stripped-down Apple Music implementation as they only allow paying customers to use streaming services.
The trunk space was too little for my needs. Honestly, if I had a Model Y I’d be a bit happier with the car. Having a hatchback like the Honda Prolouge, IONIQ 5, ID.4 or the soon-to-be-released Rivian R3 is the sweet spot for me, space wise.
I want nothing to do with Elon Musk.

So, I decided to sell my car and buy a comparably priced used EV to hold me over for a few years, at which time I’ll evaluate the Rivian R3 vs the Honda Prologue and whatever else is out there at the time. I found a low mileage VW ID.4 that checks most of the boxes for me. Will I have some issues with it? Yeah, probably. But I’m happy to have a car that has the space, CarPlay and build quality that I want, with 100% less Elon.