Between two bad options, with less and less daylight… We like to speak of democracy as though it were a dignified moral pageant.

Quote Without Illusions
Sometimes democracy is less about choosing the best than removing the least bearable. But what if the truly suitable never enter the race — and only the remainder stay on stage?
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Et tu, Brute? Caesar, the Ides of March, and the eternal career strategy of stabbing someone in the back

Et tu, Brute?
On this day, Caesar entered the Senate and learned that loyalty often ends where ambition begins. Rome is gone. The method survived.
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Relativity: the Science of Discomfort… Einstein, relativity, and the modern factory of excuses

Today marks the anniversary of Einstein’s birth — a fine excuse to revisit relativity, not as physics alone, but as a modern alibi for confusion, convenience, and intellectual laziness.
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The art of wasting attention… “The art of being wise is knowing what to overlook.”

Quote Without Illusions.
The art of wasting attention…
Not an explanation. Not advice.
Just a thought from behind the noise.
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Uncle Sam: the Brand The symbol retires, the show goes on

On this day in 1852, Uncle Sam stepped out of caricature and into history. This episode of On This Day — Without Illusions follows how a symbol became a brand — and how power eventually learned to wear itself like a costume.
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Wealth as a moral costume… “If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gave it to.”

Quote Without Illusions.
The world hasn’t become simpler. Only louder.
A brief thought for those who still prefer clarity over comfort.
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…When the web of knowledge slowly became a web of surveillance too… That moment when the World Wide Web still set out to serve reason — and then, unfortunately, met us

📜 On This Day — Without Illusions

Today marks the anniversary of the idea that became the World Wide Web. What began as a path for knowledge also learned noise, advertising, and surveillance.

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#IllusionsNotIncluded #AlexBuday #INI #substack

…when certainty speaks louder than reason… “The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.”

Quote Without Illusions.
…when certainty speaks louder than reason…
A line worth pausing for.
Because sometimes a single sentence says more than an entire headline cycle.
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Hostages of Stupidity. | Alex Buday Get more from Alex Buday on Patreon

🎧 New audio episode of Illusions Not Included: “Hostages of Stupidity.”
A darkly humorous reflection on a world that keeps getting louder — and thinking quieter.

Now streaming on Spotify and available via RSS podcast channels.
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#IllusionsNotIncluded #AlexBuday #INI

The Illusion of Convenience | Alex Buday Get more from Alex Buday on Patreon

Convenience makes life smoother. It may also make us weaker, more dependent, and further removed from the lives we think we control. New essay.

www.patreon.com/posts/illusi...

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The empire that tried to save itself… The illusion of reform and the burden of freedom

📜 On This Day — Without Illusions
On March 11, 1985, Gorbachev came to power, and for a moment the Soviet empire seemed ready to reform itself.
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…where zeros matter more than morals… “If you owe the bank $100, that’s your problem.

Quote Without Illusions.
A line worth pausing for.
Because sometimes a single sentence says more than an entire headline cycle.
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Doctor Zhivago 2.0 | Alex Buday Get more from Alex Buday on Patreon

What happens when thinking is no longer punished — only ignored?
In Doctor Zhivago 2.0, a psychiatrist discovers that modern systems don’t silence questions.
They simply stop needing them.
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#satire #society

When civilization begins to believe it is permanent… “Civilization exists by geological consent, subject to change without notice.”

Quote Without Illusions.
When civilization begins to believe it is permanent…
A line worth pausing for.
Because sometimes a single sentence says more than an entire headline cycle.
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Weekly Chronicle — …when the campaign is already warming up at the border… Tales from Eastern Europe.

Weekly Chronicle
While the world watched bigger fires, Hungary offered its own familiar performance: fear, staging, grievance, and politics dressed up as necessity.
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…when perfection began to be mass-produced in plastic… March 9, 1959 — Barbie makes her debut in New York at the American International Toy Fair “

On this day in 1959, Barbie made her debut in New York.
What arrived as a doll would become something larger: a polished model for beauty, consumption, performance, and the profitable illusion that surface can replace substance.
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#IllusionsNotIncluded #AlexBuday

When fear quietly becomes the atmosphere… “The greatest success of power is when fear is accepted as a natural condition.”

Quote Without Illusions.
When fear quietly becomes the atmosphere…
One sentence. No illusions.
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…when greed was organized in the name of order… March 8, 1817 — the birth of the New York Stock & Exchange Board, or how an institution built on trust became part of the modern world’s nervous system

📜 On This Day — Without Illusions
March 8, 1817: Wall Street became an institution. It was meant to bring order to speculation. It ended up helping build one of the modern world’s greatest mood machines.
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When we surrender lightness too early… “We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.”

Quote Without Illusions.
When we surrender lightness too early…
A quiet reflection in a very noisy world.
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…when a day of rest became an imperial operating system… The Day of the Sun, the state’s timetable, and the art of compromise

📜 On This Day — Without Illusions

March 7, AD 321: Constantine turned Sunday from shared custom into imperial routine. Power does not always rule with a sword. Sometimes it rules with a calendar.

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When laughter stops being entertainment… “Humor is mankind’s greatest blessing.”

Quote Without Illusions.
When laughter stops being entertainment…
A line worth pausing for.
Because sometimes a single sentence says more than an entire headline cycle.
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Cyrano 2.0 | Alex Buday Get more from Alex Buday on Patreon

Today marks Cyrano’s birthday — but it was not the romantic legend that inspired Cyrano 2.0. It was the original Cyrano: provocateur, satirist, and inconveniently sharp mind. Some days, I suspect we still walk in the same shoes.
www.patreon.com/posts/cyrano...
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…when closeness and the exit route are both required… “Relationships are perhaps the most common, acute, deeply felt and troublesome incarnations of ambivalence.”

Quote Without Illusions.
…when closeness and the exit route are both required…
A line worth pausing for.
Because sometimes a single sentence says more than an entire headline cycle.
open.substack.com/pub/illusion...
#QuoteWithoutIllusions #IllusionsNotIncluded #AlexBuday #INI #substack

The Illusion of Meritocracy | Alex Buday Get more from Alex Buday on Patreon

Meritocracy is a comforting story: work hard, succeed. But the “self-made” myth often doubles as PR—turning advantage into virtue and outcomes into moral verdicts. This essay follows the track… and the microphone.
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…when a sentence became a border… Geopolitical update: new version, old bugs

Today is the anniversary of Churchill’s “Iron Curtain” speech. The curtain didn’t vanish—it evolved: softer, smarter, algorithm-shaped. And the twist? More often than not, we order it ourselves.
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…when absurdities slowly become articles of faith… “Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.”

Quote Without Illusions.
One sentence. No illusions.
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Pippi and the Lost Map of Freedom. | Alex Buday Get more from Alex Buday on Patreon

🎧 Pippi wasn’t nostalgia — she was rebellion.
A short reminder that freedom isn’t a screen setting — it’s something you live.
Listen on Patreon (Illusions Not Included Podcast) + Spotify + RSS.
www.patreon.com/posts/pippi-...

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…when Roosevelt tried to talk the crowd out of panic at his inauguration… In the middle of the Great Panic: an oath, a speech, and the crowd’s breathing

📜 On This Day — Without IllusionsMarch 4, 1933: FDR tried to calm a panicked nation. Today fear sells.
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When speculation starts feeling “easy”… “Speculation is most dangerous when it looks easiest.”

Quote Without Illusions.
Not motivation. Not comfort.
Just a sentence — and what it quietly reveals.

illusionsnotincluded.substack.com/p/when-specu...

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Instrumentalised Ideas… …when a sealed train carried not only a man, but a century

📜 On This Day — Without Illusions

Instrumentalised Ideas…

A sealed train.
A useful revolution.
A closed front.

The maps adjusted quickly.
History didn’t.

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