An edited version of this essay was published in Geese Magazine on July 10th, 2026. Click here to read it!

In 2025, I took a break from social media. It was something I had been testing for the last few months of 2024, which was the year I started meditating every day. The more I meditated, the more I noticed how awful it made me feel to doomscroll. I started deleting Instagram (my digital vice of choice) for a couple days, before redownloading it. Then a couple weeks, before redownloading it. Then in January, as the news from Palestine and the Palisades fires and the inauguration of Trump had me feeling particularly black-pilled, I decided enough was enough.

Welcome to The Critical Moment. Welcome to Cutting Through Political Materialism. This is my first post on this blog, and since I have a lot of explaining to do, it goes on a little long. But I promise the payoff is worth it.