The Whosits and Whatsits Galore

An Introduction

Hello! Hola! Bonjour! Glorknack! (and we’re just getting started)

Welcome to my introduction to Madness and Other Necessities (that’s what I named it, right? I forgot already…). For this and likely all future expulsions into the human psychosphere, you may call me Magnus Iscariot. Why? It sounds cool. Also other reasons we’ll explore before we’re done here.

Peculiarly I owe a debt of gratitude to the recent rearing of Leviathan’s head that has been affectionately dubbed “Big Tech Censorship” for getting me started here. As we will inevitably discuss, the rage I carry in my dark little soul for censorship and all flavors of authoritarianism has finally driven me from the comforts of the big communication platforms such as Zuckbook and Twatter into the dank crevices of “alt-tech”. Those who made this leap before me, many of the independent journalists I’ve followed for decades (fuck, I’m old…), were so gracious to carry the torch and light the way to Substack, and I’ll be damned if I don’t appreciate their take on the terms of service. Previously I had used these platforms with a gracious helping of hesitance. While I love to connect with people and spew my personal brand of flagrance and blasphemy, unfortunately (or rather by design) I am an aggressive contradiction to the ideals they hold (and now tolerate). Much like attempting to pet a cat backwards, I’ve borne my scars from their reaction to my less than socially acceptable opinions. I foresee the dawning sun rising on my official shuttering from said platforms. And I have too much vitriol to spew. Thus we find ourselves here.

Where is here? You mean besides Substack? Perhaps the ugly shadowlands of my mind. The dark sunken caverns of my thoughtstream. The place where chaos and nonsense reigns, where I elicit forth an array of complex, overthought, and hopefully hilarious shit that, until now, has been constrained within 140 characters or by the regulations of a “hate speech” clause that I seem to frequently trigger when I make self deprecating jokes or espouse politically unfavorable opinions.

Well no more! Now I have a medium for long form spewing of ideas. And if there is anything I love, it’s long form content. And that is what you will get here. Long, thorough analyses of all the realms that I engage with, and I engage with a lot. This will be my source for giving unrestrained opinions on society, politics, science, philosophy, history, art, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. I hope you enjoy. I hope you’ll interact. I hope I provide interesting talking points you can take and then turn around and use to cudgel the people you argue with. And may your swing be ever true.

Now, we conclude… who the fuck is Magnus Iscariot? Those who have followed me for years know that I’ve always used a pseudonym (I mean, I wish it was my real name but I think the Iscariot lineage ended a while back). Magnus Iscariot is the juxtaposition of the exaulted and the damned. The greatest and the most abhored. The King and The Leper. He who bears authority and he who is discarded. This is my legacy. To be a shining star of both glamour and disgust. A swirling cauldron of angels and devils, the light and the dark. Because the world needs both. The world needs grace, and it needs provocation. It needs to stand and hold its head high under the shining sun, and to plunge its hands into the earth and toil away. And it takes nothing short of madness to embrace that dichotomy. To love the devil that destroys you as much as the god who feeds you. This is the yin yang incarnate. The light and the dark in harmony, inextricable from each other. Chaos and Creation, as Sir Paul McCartney so brilliantly put forth as he beat me to an amazing album title. I’ve yet to find a soul that I didn’t hold something in common with and something that plucked the dis-chords strung between us, and this will be a place where I will inevitably explore both. You can count on it.

Thanks for joining me here. It’s gonna be fun.