G. Scott Graham on Medium

What we’re feeding our inner lives, and why it’s leaving us anxious, numb, and unfulfilledEmpty calories don’t just exist in foodIt’s all over the news: processed foods are bad for you.We’re told to watch the ingredients list, avoid empty calories, cut back on sugar, and pay attention to what we’re putting into our bodies. The message is consistent and familiar. What we consume shapes how we feel, how we function, and how well we hold up over time.“Make America Healthy Again” becomes a rallying cry, and for good reason.But there’s a blind spot hiding in plain sight.While we scrutinize our physical diet, we give remarkably […]

Authoritarian Drift in the United StatesWhy I Wrote This Series, and When Watching Is No Longer EnoughSeeing the whole often requires stepping back.I didn’t write this because I feel settled.I wrote it because I don’t.I’m anxious. I’m concerned. I feel the pull of anger almost every day, and just as often I feel how hard it is to stay in contact with it. Fear blunts it. Powerlessness flattens it. And if I’m honest, meditation can sometimes put a balm over all of that that looks like wisdom but feels dangerously close to inaction.That scares me.I live in the United States, and what I’m reacting to is […]

Authoritarian Drift in the United StatesPatterns become visible when attention slows down.One of the most destabilizing experiences right now is noticing patterns you were taught never to name.The challenge here is not naming a villain, but learning how to recognize patterns without turning it into prophecy.Power consolidates quietly with exceptional measures becoming routine, legal workarounds, and rhetoric that expands the definition of threat while institutions adjust around it. Each move is defended on its own terms. Together, they form a shape that is hard to ignore and even harder to talk about.Many people feel that recognition and immediately pull back.They worry that noticing patterns means […]

Authoritarian Drift in the United StatesA quiet institutional space that no longer feels the same.If you’re feeling panicked, you’re not alone.Many people in the United States right now are afraid the country is sliding toward something dangerous—a dictatorship, a breakdown that could lead to widespread violence, a future where citizens are shot during enforcement actions and power keeps concentrating while rules stop meaning what they used to.For many, that fear centers on Trump. The rhetoric. The disregard for limits. The way institutions are ignored, renamed, bullied, or bypassed. The sense that norms are eroding faster than anyone can respond. For others, it’s the historical […]

Authoritarian Drift in the United StatesA warning that becomes obvious only after it has been ignored.Many people looking at what’s happening in the United States right now feel a rising frustration layered on top of fear.Citizens are killed during enforcement actions. Deportations proceed with limited judicial review. Executive authority tests court decisions and moves forward anyway. And alongside the fear that something dangerous is unfolding is another, quieter thought: How is this being allowed to happen?These dynamics don’t depend on a single decision or leader, which is part of what makes responsibility feel so hard to assign in real time.The question often hardens into judgment.People […]

Authoritarian Drift in the United StatesNothing appears unusual at first glance. That’s the point.If you’re paying attention right now, one of the most disturbing feelings may not be fear, but desensitization.Things that once would have felt unthinkable now arrive with less shock. Citizens killed during enforcement actions. Deportations carried out at speed, with limited review. Expanding use of emergency authority for routine governance. None of this necessarily feels acceptable. It just feels strangely familiar and survivable.That gap is unsettling.Many people are asking themselves how they can be this disturbed and still go to work, make dinner, scroll their phones, and carry on […]

Authoritarian Drift in the United StatesExhaustion rarely looks dramatic. It just keeps going.Many people right now are not disengaging because they don’t care. They’re disengaging because they’re exhausted.Exhaustion doesn’t require belief in any one political story, only sustained pressure without relief.There is always another crisis, another escalation, another headline that feels worse than the last. Citizens are killed, authority expands, institutions strain and before there is time to absorb one development, the next one arrives. It can be overwhelming.People start out trying to stay informed and responsible. Over time, vigilance turns into hyper-activation. Fear stays close to the surface and eventually, something has […]

This checklist is not for calming yourself down. And it is not for confirming your worst fears.It is a decision instrument.It exists to help distinguish between private anxiety and shared reality, and to clarify when attention, oversight, or action is warranted.Think of it like a thermometer, not a prophecy. It doesn’t predict outcomes. It measures direction. Shared reality shows up when the same indicators appear across institutions, time, and independent observers, not just in your own reactions.How to use thisCheck in monthly, not dailyNotice direction, not perfectionOne item lighting up is information, not doomSeveral items lighting up together, over time, is the signalYou are watching […]

How AI noticed what an entire professional network missed, and why that should worry usThe Response PatternThe responses all looked the same.“Congratulations 🎊!!!! Way to go!” “Kudos to you!!” “👍 congratulations” “Hehe. 3 new accounts. That’s soooo excitiinnnggg 😁”They came quickly, one after another, each echoing the last.Here is the image they were responding to:Award dated 2023, presented in 2026.The image is of an award. It is dated 2023. It was handed to me in 2026.I posted it with a single line of text:A district coordinator visited me today and gave me this.No explanation. No context. No framing beyond what was visible in the image itself.Not one response referenced […]

Winter sunset in West Fairlee, Vermont. December 2025.As I was scrolling through the news this morning, something started to irritate me. Not the loud, argumentative kind of irritation, but the quieter kind that settles in when you realize you’re being sold the same idea over and over again.Article after article, different outlets, same promise: happiness is something you can get, quickly, if you just do the right things.• “12 Tiny Meaningful Ways to Feel Happier This Holiday Season, Says Expert: They’re Better Than ‘Faking Joy’” (December 10, CNBC.com) • “How to Be Happier: 7 Science-Backed Strategies” (December 4, EverydayHealth.com) • “5 Science-Backed Ways […]