Has anyone else noticed reality feels like it’s being held together with duct tape, and zip ties?

When people say they’re burnt out, what they actually mean is: “My body has been in fight or flight since 2019 and I’ve forgotten how to unclench my ass cheeks.”

Great stack! I think you will relate…I copied most of it for your immediate enjoyment…

The New Unhinged

The World Is Having a Fucking Stroke

The Patterns Already in Motion.

Has anyone else noticed reality feels like it’s being held together with duct tape, and zip ties?

The world is glitching.
People are malfunctioning.
And society feels one bad day away from bartering batteries for antibiotics.

If you think that’s “just anxiety”, you’re behind.

Here’s a very short list of very real patterns happening RIGHT. FUCKING. NOW.

Civilization on Life Support

1. The Silent Nervous System Collapse

When people say they’re burnt out, what they actually mean is:

“My body has been in fight or flight since 2019 and I’ve forgotten how to unclench my ass cheeks.”

Everyone’s nervous system is running Windows 95 under siege conditions, and we’re pretending a cold plunge and a gratitude journal will fix it.

It won’t.

2. Independent But Dying Inside

Everyone’s independent now.

Not empowered.
Not liberated.

Just traumatized enough to trust absolutely no one and call it self-reliance.

We’re all one bad day away from googling “how to form a community without people.”

Reality Held Together with Tape

3. Everyone Is Fucking Broke

No one can afford anything.
Everyone is pretending they can.

It’s the largest national theatre production in history.

We all know the money isn’t mathing, but we clap politely and say inflation, like that explains why groceries cost the same as a minor medical procedure.

4. Identity Soup

People keep reinventing themselves because they don’t actually know who the original version was.

New aesthetic.
New label.
New personality patch update.

That’s not growth.
That’s troubleshooting.

5. Meaning Has Left

Millions are quietly leaving religion, politics, careers, ideologies…

…but nobody wants to talk about the fact that we’re now spiritually homeless, wandering Costco aisles with no map, dissociating by the rotisserie chickens.

You can’t survive on vibes forever.

6. Competence? Never Heard of It.

We can build AI, code quantum computers, and livestream from space…

…but can’t change a tire, cook a meal without a tutorial, or name our own city council member.

Civilization is one grid outage away from people crying in a Home Depot parking lot.

Algorithmic Parenthood

7. The Algorithmic Parent Trap

TikTok is the third parent.
Instagram is the abusive step parent.

Both are raising your kids, shaping your identity, regulating your emotions, and selling your attention back to you in pieces.

It’s honestly impressive we’re still upright.

Emergency Numbness

We’re so overstimulated that nothing lands anymore.

You could tell someone the moon exploded and they’d be like:

“Damn. Anyway.”

This isn’t calm.
It’s psychological shock.

9. The Normal Looking Preppers

Your quiet coworker?

They own a solar generator, 400 pounds of rice, and trust society exactly zero percent.

Not crazy.
Just early.

Community Taxidermy

10. Community Taxidermy

Local communities died.

What we have now is their taxidermy version:
Pretty.
Curated.
Completely lifeless.

Block parties without trust.
Community without obligation.

Just vibes glued to bones.

The Middle Class Autopsy

11. The Disappearing Middle Class

We’re watching the slow murder of the middle class and pretending it’s just inflation.

It’s not.

It’s a controlled squeeze, and everyone’s politely acting shocked while updating their LinkedIn bios.

12. The Attention Apocalypse

Your brain has been mugged, jumped, duct-taped, and held hostage by apps engineered to melt your frontal lobe and sell the remains.

You’re not lazy. You’re overstimulated into paralysis.

13. The Trust Recession

No one trusts:

• institutions

• governments

• media

• corporations

• or each other

We’re all raw dogging reality with zero safety net and calling it resilience.

14. Tech Fragility Realization

People are just now realizing that if one supply chain hiccups, half the country can’t eat.

A truly elegant system we’ve built here.
No notes.

15. AI Babysitting Cognition

Some of y’all wouldn’t have a single original thought if ChatGPT took the day off.

No judgment.
Just an observation.

Quiet Authoritarianism

16. Quiet Authoritarianism

Nobody’s kicking down doors.

They don’t need to.

Your phone tattles better than any secret police ever could, and you agreed to it by clicking “Accept All.”

17. The “I Need to Move” Panic

Americans are fleeing cities, states, and entire identities like they’re escaping cults.

Everyone feels the shift.
Nobody can name it.

So they just pack.

18. Micro Entrepreneur Everything

No one wants to work in the corporate meat grinder anymore.

So now everyone has:

• a brand

• a niche

• a course

• and a “coming soon” landing page

It’s not passion.
It’s survival as hustle.

19. The Spiritual Spike

People who haven’t meditated once are suddenly moon bathing and talking about galactic timelines.

Laugh all you want.

When meaning collapses, humans start looking up.

Something Big Is Coming

20. The “Something Big Is Coming” Feeling

Conservatives.
Liberals.
Stoners.
Scientists.
Preppers.
Your Aunt Linda.

Everyone feels it.

Nobody knows what it is.
Everyone knows it’s real.

The Attention Apocalypse

Important clarification

This is not the end of the world.
This is what it looks like when multiple systems lose coherence at the same time.

No alarms. No rapture. No collapse porn.
Just a transitional phase where the old operating systems no longer regulate reality and the new ones aren’t online yet.

Confusion is not failure.
It’s the space between versions.

What to Do With This

This isn’t a call to panic, stockpile silver, or start speaking exclusively in apocalypse metaphors.

It’s a systems notice.

When the world destabilizes, the dumb response is urgency.
The intelligent response is stability under pressure.

Here’s what actually matters:

• Regulate your nervous system before forming opinions.
  A dysregulated body produces confident nonsense. Calm isn’t weakness it’s clarity with better aim.

• Build redundancy like you don’t trust permanence.
  One income stream is a liability.
  One skill set is fragile.
  One person who knows the real you is worth more than 500 connections.

• Stop letting platforms tell you what reality feels like.
  If your worldview refreshes every 30 seconds, it’s not a worldview, it’s a slot machine.

• Learn one practical skill that doesn’t need WiFi or validation.
  Competence grounds you faster than ideology ever will.

• Slow your trust the fuck down.
  Speed creates allegiance to the loudest voice, not the wisest one. Depth is how you avoid being useful to bad systems.

This isn’t about preparing for collapse.
It’s about not becoming collateral damage while institutions quietly fail their responsibilities.

You don’t need answers yet.
You need posture.

Stay upright.
Stay observant.
Stay difficult to manipulate.

Reality Check

These aren’t predictions.
They’re patterns already in motion.

The world isn’t falling apart.
It’s changing faster than our collective denial can keep up.

This is what an unhinged era looks like:

• nothing makes sense

• everyone’s exhausted

• systems are rearranging themselves without supervision

Here’s the substack - you might want to subscribe for Part 2…

The World Is Having a Fucking Stroke