They Profit Every Time You Choose a Side

Hatred keeps the powerful safe because it keeps the rest of us too busy to notice the hands on the levers.

If this stirs something in you, stay with it. Healing Thoughts is where I strip the silence away. If you’re not subscribed yet, now’s the time. It’s only getting rawer from here.

"Division isn’t an accident. It’s the oldest trick in the book and they run it like a business."

They taught us to bite each other
before we learned to speak.

Our fists were tiny flags,
planted in dirt that was never ours.

Every argument was entertainment
for men who stayed clean,
watching from the balcony.

I swallowed the trick
like communion wine,
thinking rage was holy,
thinking justice had a taste.

But when the noise died down,
I heard coins hit the floor.

“If you want to control a population, first teach them who to hate.”
— Noam Chomsky

Division is cheap to manufacture and expensive to escape. It doesn’t appear by chance. It is designed, distributed, and maintained. When people are fractured, they are easier to steer. That is why so many systems thrive when we fight among ourselves.

The urge to pick a side feels righteous at first. It feels like clarity, like purpose. But most of the time, that impulse is being fed. When conflict becomes routine, it drains the energy that could have gone toward real change. People burn themselves out punching the air, while the machine runs smoother than ever.

Stepping out of that cycle is a form of rebellion. It doesn’t mean silence. It means saving your strength for something real. The challenge is to notice when your outrage is being rented. To pause before handing over the last of your attention. To see who is profiting from your distraction.

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Notice what that stirs in you. Then ask:

Who benefits when I am too busy fighting to think?

I’ve poured everything into this. Healing Thoughts II: 33 Poems and Meditations for Emotional Renewal is up for preorder now. Release date: October 1. These pages carry the deepest, sharpest work I’ve done, and I can’t wait for them to be in your hands.

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☕ This newsletter runs on coffee and confession.
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