U. Ortego
@u-ortego.bsky.social
Studying how institutions shape behavior, erase dissent, and call the process “order.” Observation as resistance. From the Guatemalan highlands, I write about history’s echoes in today’s optimized world—with wit and skepticism. https://uortego.substack.com
The Pentecostal boom in Latin America wasn’t revival — it was system substitution. When labor movements and liberation theology threatened legibility, a modular, apolitical faith scaled fast. Clean inputs. Obedient outputs. #SystemsOfPower #ColdWarReligion #LATAM #Ortego
Was the Pentecostal Boom in Latin America a CIA Psyop?
Capitalism, Protestant Missions, and the War on Liberation Theology
coltenbarnaby.substack.com
December 23, 2025 at 11:34 PM
The Pentecostal boom in Latin America wasn’t revival — it was system substitution. When labor movements and liberation theology threatened legibility, a modular, apolitical faith scaled fast. Clean inputs. Obedient outputs. #SystemsOfPower #ColdWarReligion #LATAM #Ortego
Transparency that reveals nothing is still a control mechanism. Systems offer visibility without accountability to preserve legitimacy.
#EliteImpunity #RuleOfLaw #PowerWithoutConsequences #Ortego #Epstein #DOJ
#EliteImpunity #RuleOfLaw #PowerWithoutConsequences #Ortego #Epstein #DOJ
US Epstein files full of famous names, but not Trump's
Many of the files were heavily redacted.
www.reuters.com
December 20, 2025 at 11:52 PM
Transparency that reveals nothing is still a control mechanism. Systems offer visibility without accountability to preserve legitimacy.
#EliteImpunity #RuleOfLaw #PowerWithoutConsequences #Ortego #Epstein #DOJ
#EliteImpunity #RuleOfLaw #PowerWithoutConsequences #Ortego #Epstein #DOJ
Algorithms don’t understand emotion. They route it, dampen it, monetize it. What they can’t do is feel it—and that’s the problem. A short piece on why systems fear messy humans.
uortego.substack.com/p/how-to-handle-human-emotion-according
#Algorithms #Emotion #SystemsThinking #UOrtego
uortego.substack.com/p/how-to-handle-human-emotion-according
#Algorithms #Emotion #SystemsThinking #UOrtego
How to Handle Human Emotion (According to the Algorithm)
A leaked HR flowchart from the world of my forthcoming novel—where the system doesn’t fix feelings, it eliminates them.
uortego.substack.com
December 19, 2025 at 12:19 AM
Algorithms don’t understand emotion. They route it, dampen it, monetize it. What they can’t do is feel it—and that’s the problem. A short piece on why systems fear messy humans.
uortego.substack.com/p/how-to-handle-human-emotion-according
#Algorithms #Emotion #SystemsThinking #UOrtego
uortego.substack.com/p/how-to-handle-human-emotion-according
#Algorithms #Emotion #SystemsThinking #UOrtego
Cassandras weren’t wrong. They were early.
Systems can’t act on warnings that would require becoming different systems—so they process them, dismiss them, and wait for collapse.
newrepublic.com/article/2042...
#OrtegoFramework #CassandraProblem #SystemsThinking #Politics #CollapseMechanisms
Systems can’t act on warnings that would require becoming different systems—so they process them, dismiss them, and wait for collapse.
newrepublic.com/article/2042...
#OrtegoFramework #CassandraProblem #SystemsThinking #Politics #CollapseMechanisms
The Americans Who Saw All This Coming—but Were Ignored and Maligned
Call them the Cassandras: the people—mostly not white and male—who smelled the fascism all over Trump from jump street. Why were they “alarmists,” and how did “anti-alarmism” become cool?
newrepublic.com
December 18, 2025 at 2:12 PM
Cassandras weren’t wrong. They were early.
Systems can’t act on warnings that would require becoming different systems—so they process them, dismiss them, and wait for collapse.
newrepublic.com/article/2042...
#OrtegoFramework #CassandraProblem #SystemsThinking #Politics #CollapseMechanisms
Systems can’t act on warnings that would require becoming different systems—so they process them, dismiss them, and wait for collapse.
newrepublic.com/article/2042...
#OrtegoFramework #CassandraProblem #SystemsThinking #Politics #CollapseMechanisms
Layoffs at Amazon, Verizon, Disney & more aren’t about efficiency. They’re about systems optimizing past humans—cannibalizing labor to feed automation loops that no longer ask what work is for.
#OptimizationTrap #SystemsGovernThemselves #Automation #Collapse #Labor
#OptimizationTrap #SystemsGovernThemselves #Automation #Collapse #Labor
The list of major companies laying off staff this year includes Verizon, IBM, Amazon, Starbucks, American Airlines, and more
Layoffs have hit companies from American Airlines to Meta to Intel this year amid a backdrop of cost-cutting and technological change.
www.businessinsider.com
December 16, 2025 at 11:51 PM
Layoffs at Amazon, Verizon, Disney & more aren’t about efficiency. They’re about systems optimizing past humans—cannibalizing labor to feed automation loops that no longer ask what work is for.
#OptimizationTrap #SystemsGovernThemselves #Automation #Collapse #Labor
#OptimizationTrap #SystemsGovernThemselves #Automation #Collapse #Labor
Every trip to Sololá I stop on the market’s top floor—Jocelyn & Olga’s comedor. Vegetable-beef soup, steam rising, bones still honest. One stairway from the food chain: farmer → pot → bowl. Systems feel different when you’re that close. #Ortego #FoodSystems #Sololá #Foodie
December 15, 2025 at 8:27 PM
Every trip to Sololá I stop on the market’s top floor—Jocelyn & Olga’s comedor. Vegetable-beef soup, steam rising, bones still honest. One stairway from the food chain: farmer → pot → bowl. Systems feel different when you’re that close. #Ortego #FoodSystems #Sololá #Foodie
After every attack, security expands. Cameras stay. Checkpoints stay. Rules stay. The event fades; the infrastructure remains. Fear isn’t the failure mode — it’s the mechanism by which systems permanently harden.
#FearLoop #SystemsThinking #Ortego
#FearLoop #SystemsThinking #Ortego
Bondi Beach shooting updates: 15 killed in Sydney attack at Jewish event
These are updates for Monday, December 15, 2025, as Australia grapples with the aftermath of the Bondi Beach shooting.
www.aljazeera.com
December 15, 2025 at 4:07 PM
After every attack, security expands. Cameras stay. Checkpoints stay. Rules stay. The event fades; the infrastructure remains. Fear isn’t the failure mode — it’s the mechanism by which systems permanently harden.
#FearLoop #SystemsThinking #Ortego
#FearLoop #SystemsThinking #Ortego
AI isn’t just tech — it’s a new geopolitical infrastructure shaping who holds power. From export controls to political skirmishes over AI orders, we’re watching a digital arms race that will remake work, policy & inequality.
#AI #Geopolitics #OrtegoLens #TechPower
www.wsj.com/tech/ai/the-...
#AI #Geopolitics #OrtegoLens #TechPower
www.wsj.com/tech/ai/the-...
The Political Skirmish Over Trump’s AI Order Is Just the Beginning
The White House drama has given new signals of populist opposition to technology that holds the promise of eliminating lots of jobs.
www.wsj.com
December 15, 2025 at 12:17 AM
AI isn’t just tech — it’s a new geopolitical infrastructure shaping who holds power. From export controls to political skirmishes over AI orders, we’re watching a digital arms race that will remake work, policy & inequality.
#AI #Geopolitics #OrtegoLens #TechPower
www.wsj.com/tech/ai/the-...
#AI #Geopolitics #OrtegoLens #TechPower
www.wsj.com/tech/ai/the-...
Fear loops don’t start with violence.
They start with anticipation — retaliation promised, escalation assumed, restraint treated as weakness.
This week’s Syria response language is the loop tightening itself.
uortego.substack.com/p/the-fear-l...
#FearLoops #Systems #Ortego
They start with anticipation — retaliation promised, escalation assumed, restraint treated as weakness.
This week’s Syria response language is the loop tightening itself.
uortego.substack.com/p/the-fear-l...
#FearLoops #Systems #Ortego
Trump pledges retaliation after two US soldiers, one civilian interpreter killed in Syria | CNN Politics
President Donald Trump said Saturday that there will be “very serious retaliation” after two US soldiers and one civilian interpreter were killed in an ambush in Syria on Saturday.
edition.cnn.com
December 14, 2025 at 1:15 AM
Fear loops don’t start with violence.
They start with anticipation — retaliation promised, escalation assumed, restraint treated as weakness.
This week’s Syria response language is the loop tightening itself.
uortego.substack.com/p/the-fear-l...
#FearLoops #Systems #Ortego
They start with anticipation — retaliation promised, escalation assumed, restraint treated as weakness.
This week’s Syria response language is the loop tightening itself.
uortego.substack.com/p/the-fear-l...
#FearLoops #Systems #Ortego
Hotter oceans aren’t abstract—they’re kinetic.
This week’s deadly storms in Asia track directly with record sea temperatures.
When energy enters a system faster than institutions can adapt, damage isn’t a bug. It’s the output.
🌊⚙️ #Systems #Climate #Ortego
Reuters: www.reuters.com/sustainabili...
This week’s deadly storms in Asia track directly with record sea temperatures.
When energy enters a system faster than institutions can adapt, damage isn’t a bug. It’s the output.
🌊⚙️ #Systems #Climate #Ortego
Reuters: www.reuters.com/sustainabili...
Sustainable Switch Climate Focus: Do rising temperatures cause Asia’s deadly storms?
Scientists say higher sea temperatures are making individual events more destructive.
www.reuters.com
December 14, 2025 at 1:11 AM
Hotter oceans aren’t abstract—they’re kinetic.
This week’s deadly storms in Asia track directly with record sea temperatures.
When energy enters a system faster than institutions can adapt, damage isn’t a bug. It’s the output.
🌊⚙️ #Systems #Climate #Ortego
Reuters: www.reuters.com/sustainabili...
This week’s deadly storms in Asia track directly with record sea temperatures.
When energy enters a system faster than institutions can adapt, damage isn’t a bug. It’s the output.
🌊⚙️ #Systems #Climate #Ortego
Reuters: www.reuters.com/sustainabili...
The “decolonized Christmas” backlash isn’t about holidays — it’s about escalation. Once identity becomes performance, the bar of purity keeps rising. Curiosity turns to judgment. Nuance collapses into teams. That’s the purity spiral at work.
uortego.substack.com/p/the-purity...
#CultureWars #xmas
uortego.substack.com/p/the-purity...
#CultureWars #xmas
‘Woke’ social media user blasted for having a ‘decolonized Christmas’
A California social media influencer is facing backlash for having a “decolonized Christmas” as she bucks traditional foods and presents for native and indigenous recipes and gifts.
nypost.com
December 12, 2025 at 2:40 PM
The “decolonized Christmas” backlash isn’t about holidays — it’s about escalation. Once identity becomes performance, the bar of purity keeps rising. Curiosity turns to judgment. Nuance collapses into teams. That’s the purity spiral at work.
uortego.substack.com/p/the-purity...
#CultureWars #xmas
uortego.substack.com/p/the-purity...
#CultureWars #xmas
Part 2 of 10 — The Purity Spiral
Purity begins as identity and ends as destruction. Once belonging requires being purer than yesterday, the ratchet never stops—until the system eats itself. From revolutions to online mobs, the pattern repeats.
uortego.substack.com/p/the-purity...
Purity begins as identity and ends as destruction. Once belonging requires being purer than yesterday, the ratchet never stops—until the system eats itself. From revolutions to online mobs, the pattern repeats.
uortego.substack.com/p/the-purity...
THE PURITY SPIRAL
When Identity Becomes Weapon, and Perfection Becomes Law
uortego.substack.com
December 12, 2025 at 2:29 PM
Part 2 of 10 — The Purity Spiral
Purity begins as identity and ends as destruction. Once belonging requires being purer than yesterday, the ratchet never stops—until the system eats itself. From revolutions to online mobs, the pattern repeats.
uortego.substack.com/p/the-purity...
Purity begins as identity and ends as destruction. Once belonging requires being purer than yesterday, the ratchet never stops—until the system eats itself. From revolutions to online mobs, the pattern repeats.
uortego.substack.com/p/the-purity...
🔥 **Mechanisms That Break Societies**
The Fear Loop shows how misread danger becomes self-destruction. Münster 1534: fear of apocalypse turned into machinery that devoured a city. The danger isn’t fear—but when institutions treat it as destiny.
uortego.substack.com/p/the-fear-l...
The Fear Loop shows how misread danger becomes self-destruction. Münster 1534: fear of apocalypse turned into machinery that devoured a city. The danger isn’t fear—but when institutions treat it as destiny.
uortego.substack.com/p/the-fear-l...
THE FEAR LOOP
How Misread Danger Becomes Machinery That Devours Its Own Society
uortego.substack.com
December 11, 2025 at 11:33 PM
🔥 **Mechanisms That Break Societies**
The Fear Loop shows how misread danger becomes self-destruction. Münster 1534: fear of apocalypse turned into machinery that devoured a city. The danger isn’t fear—but when institutions treat it as destiny.
uortego.substack.com/p/the-fear-l...
The Fear Loop shows how misread danger becomes self-destruction. Münster 1534: fear of apocalypse turned into machinery that devoured a city. The danger isn’t fear—but when institutions treat it as destiny.
uortego.substack.com/p/the-fear-l...
Britain’s opium machine began in Bengal—forced poppy fields, coerced quotas, addiction as policy. The same mechanism reappears in America’s OxyContin crisis. Different century, same system logic.
🔗 uortego.substack.com/p/the-bengal...
#history #systems #opioids #Ortego #Substack #Bengal
🔗 uortego.substack.com/p/the-bengal...
#history #systems #opioids #Ortego #Substack #Bengal
THE BENGAL CONNECTION: How Britain's Opium System Became OxyContin
The machinery of addiction didn't begin in China. It began in Indian poppy fields—and 200 years later, it returned wearing a white coat.
uortego.substack.com
December 11, 2025 at 11:24 PM
Oxytocin builds trust. Empire exploits trust.
The British Empire became the first global drug cartel: opium in China, tea in Bengal, sugar everywhere. A system designed to hijack human bonding chemistry at civilizational scale.
Full essay:
uortego.substack.com/p/the-bengal...
#Colonialism #History
The British Empire became the first global drug cartel: opium in China, tea in Bengal, sugar everywhere. A system designed to hijack human bonding chemistry at civilizational scale.
Full essay:
uortego.substack.com/p/the-bengal...
#Colonialism #History
THE BENGAL CONNECTION: How Britain's Opium System Became OxyContin
The machinery of addiction didn't begin in China. It began in Indian poppy fields—and 200 years later, it returned wearing a white coat.
uortego.substack.com
December 10, 2025 at 2:45 PM
Oxytocin builds trust. Empire exploits trust.
The British Empire became the first global drug cartel: opium in China, tea in Bengal, sugar everywhere. A system designed to hijack human bonding chemistry at civilizational scale.
Full essay:
uortego.substack.com/p/the-bengal...
#Colonialism #History
The British Empire became the first global drug cartel: opium in China, tea in Bengal, sugar everywhere. A system designed to hijack human bonding chemistry at civilizational scale.
Full essay:
uortego.substack.com/p/the-bengal...
#Colonialism #History
When even your post can be rewritten—not by you, but by a hidden algorithm—you stop being a creator.
You become raw material.
Whoever controls the metadata, controls reality.
#AI #Algorithms #Platforms #Surveillance #GoogleAI #Instagram
You become raw material.
Whoever controls the metadata, controls reality.
#AI #Algorithms #Platforms #Surveillance #GoogleAI #Instagram
Instagram Is Generating Inaccurate SEO Bait for Your Posts
Instagram is generating headlines for Instagram posts that appear on Google Search results. Users say they are misrepresenting them.
www.404media.co
December 10, 2025 at 12:46 AM
When even your post can be rewritten—not by you, but by a hidden algorithm—you stop being a creator.
You become raw material.
Whoever controls the metadata, controls reality.
#AI #Algorithms #Platforms #Surveillance #GoogleAI #Instagram
You become raw material.
Whoever controls the metadata, controls reality.
#AI #Algorithms #Platforms #Surveillance #GoogleAI #Instagram
When truth becomes code, reality becomes negotiable. Deepfakes don’t change what we see — they change what we believe. Democracy isn’t broken by mistakes. It breaks when the machinery of perception becomes the weapon.
uortego.substack.com
#Deepfakes #AI #Elections
uortego.substack.com
#Deepfakes #AI #Elections
How AI deepfakes polluted elections in 2024
The most visible use of AI in many countries was to create memes and content whose artificial origins weren't disguised. They were often openly shared by politicians and their supporters.
www.npr.org
December 10, 2025 at 12:38 AM
When truth becomes code, reality becomes negotiable. Deepfakes don’t change what we see — they change what we believe. Democracy isn’t broken by mistakes. It breaks when the machinery of perception becomes the weapon.
uortego.substack.com
#Deepfakes #AI #Elections
uortego.substack.com
#Deepfakes #AI #Elections
“Bengal taught the world how to monetize addiction.
Connecticut proved the lesson was learned.”
Connecticut proved the lesson was learned.”
December 9, 2025 at 10:50 PM
“Bengal taught the world how to monetize addiction.
Connecticut proved the lesson was learned.”
Connecticut proved the lesson was learned.”
Attack dogs aren’t a scandal — they’re a signal.
Once a system treats migrants as variables, not people, cruelty becomes an optimization path.
Machinery escalates until someone outside the logic forces a halt.
#systems #borderpolitics #migration #humanrights #collapsepatterns #ortego #ICE
Once a system treats migrants as variables, not people, cruelty becomes an optimization path.
Machinery escalates until someone outside the logic forces a halt.
#systems #borderpolitics #migration #humanrights #collapsepatterns #ortego #ICE
Senator says ICE ‘attack dog’ caused ‘horrific’ injuries to unresisting man as he was detained
Patty Murray of Washington state said ICE agents lied to Wilmer Toledo-Martinez to lure him outside before dog attacked him
www.theguardian.com
December 7, 2025 at 2:14 AM
Attack dogs aren’t a scandal — they’re a signal.
Once a system treats migrants as variables, not people, cruelty becomes an optimization path.
Machinery escalates until someone outside the logic forces a halt.
#systems #borderpolitics #migration #humanrights #collapsepatterns #ortego #ICE
Once a system treats migrants as variables, not people, cruelty becomes an optimization path.
Machinery escalates until someone outside the logic forces a halt.
#systems #borderpolitics #migration #humanrights #collapsepatterns #ortego #ICE
Societies don’t fail because people “go mad.”
They fail because the systems keep optimizing past what humans can survive.
🔗 uortego.substack.com
#Systems #Collapse #History #Power #Power #AI #Optimization #AlgorithmicGovernance #TechAndSociety #Risk #Fragility
They fail because the systems keep optimizing past what humans can survive.
🔗 uortego.substack.com
#Systems #Collapse #History #Power #Power #AI #Optimization #AlgorithmicGovernance #TechAndSociety #Risk #Fragility
December 6, 2025 at 3:02 PM
Societies don’t fail because people “go mad.”
They fail because the systems keep optimizing past what humans can survive.
🔗 uortego.substack.com
#Systems #Collapse #History #Power #Power #AI #Optimization #AlgorithmicGovernance #TechAndSociety #Risk #Fragility
They fail because the systems keep optimizing past what humans can survive.
🔗 uortego.substack.com
#Systems #Collapse #History #Power #Power #AI #Optimization #AlgorithmicGovernance #TechAndSociety #Risk #Fragility
When CNN lets users bet on famine in Gaza, it isn’t a glitch. It’s the same mechanism that made Bengal’s famine profitable: suffering → data → instrument → profit. When tragedy becomes a price signal, the system shows what it values.
uortego.substack.com
#Gaza #Markets #Media #Systems #CNN
uortego.substack.com
#Gaza #Markets #Media #Systems #CNN
Optimal Outcomes | U. Ortego | Substack
Dissecting the machinery beneath modern life—where reason fractures and power performs. Click to read Optimal Outcomes, by U. Ortego, a Substack publication. Launched 6 days ago.
uortego.substack.com
December 6, 2025 at 12:12 AM
**A society doesn’t collapse from the outside.
It collapses when its organizing idea becomes impossible to survive.**
That’s the core of *Mechanisms That Break Society.*
🔗 uortego.substack.com
#systems #collapse #history #governance #analysis #power #mechanisms #societ #UOrtego
It collapses when its organizing idea becomes impossible to survive.**
That’s the core of *Mechanisms That Break Society.*
🔗 uortego.substack.com
#systems #collapse #history #governance #analysis #power #mechanisms #societ #UOrtego
Optimal Outcomes | U. Ortego | Substack
Dissecting the machinery beneath modern life—where reason fractures and power performs. Click to read Optimal Outcomes, by U. Ortego, a Substack publication. Launched 6 days ago.
uortego.substack.com
December 5, 2025 at 2:48 PM
**A society doesn’t collapse from the outside.
It collapses when its organizing idea becomes impossible to survive.**
That’s the core of *Mechanisms That Break Society.*
🔗 uortego.substack.com
#systems #collapse #history #governance #analysis #power #mechanisms #societ #UOrtego
It collapses when its organizing idea becomes impossible to survive.**
That’s the core of *Mechanisms That Break Society.*
🔗 uortego.substack.com
#systems #collapse #history #governance #analysis #power #mechanisms #societ #UOrtego
The absurdity of all this is simple: they’re trying to explain a non-military actor in military terms.
Drowning men become “potential threats.”
A wrecked boat becomes a “battlefield.”
When systems can’t justify violence, they militarize reality instead.
#systems #collapse #war #Venezuela #politics
Drowning men become “potential threats.”
A wrecked boat becomes a “battlefield.”
When systems can’t justify violence, they militarize reality instead.
#systems #collapse #war #Venezuela #politics
Exclusive: Survivors clinging to capsized boat didn’t radio for backup, admiral overseeing double-tap strike tells lawmakers | CNN Politics
The two men killed as they floated holding onto their capsized boat in a secondary strike against a suspected drug vessel in early September did not appear to have radio or other communications device...
edition.cnn.com
December 5, 2025 at 2:27 PM
The absurdity of all this is simple: they’re trying to explain a non-military actor in military terms.
Drowning men become “potential threats.”
A wrecked boat becomes a “battlefield.”
When systems can’t justify violence, they militarize reality instead.
#systems #collapse #war #Venezuela #politics
Drowning men become “potential threats.”
A wrecked boat becomes a “battlefield.”
When systems can’t justify violence, they militarize reality instead.
#systems #collapse #war #Venezuela #politics
The Media Bias portal isn’t dangerous for what it is now, but for what it enables.
Weak: it dies with the admin.
Strong: it becomes a purity engine.
Maximal: a self-sealing reality system.
Münster didn’t start at full intensity—just with a list of enemies.
#mediabias #politics #collapse #history
Weak: it dies with the admin.
Strong: it becomes a purity engine.
Maximal: a self-sealing reality system.
Münster didn’t start at full intensity—just with a list of enemies.
#mediabias #politics #collapse #history
Media Offenders
Explore the Media Bias Tracker that fact checks and holds Fake News accountable. False claims debunked, Hall of Shame for serial offenders, Leaderboard of networks ranked by Repeated Lies. Stay inform...
www.whitehouse.gov
December 5, 2025 at 3:01 AM
The Media Bias portal isn’t dangerous for what it is now, but for what it enables.
Weak: it dies with the admin.
Strong: it becomes a purity engine.
Maximal: a self-sealing reality system.
Münster didn’t start at full intensity—just with a list of enemies.
#mediabias #politics #collapse #history
Weak: it dies with the admin.
Strong: it becomes a purity engine.
Maximal: a self-sealing reality system.
Münster didn’t start at full intensity—just with a list of enemies.
#mediabias #politics #collapse #history
Serious question:
**Which modern institution feels closest to Münster in 1534?**
Curious to see the answers.
#collapse #institutions #history #systems
**Which modern institution feels closest to Münster in 1534?**
Curious to see the answers.
#collapse #institutions #history #systems
December 5, 2025 at 1:58 AM
Serious question:
**Which modern institution feels closest to Münster in 1534?**
Curious to see the answers.
#collapse #institutions #history #systems
**Which modern institution feels closest to Münster in 1534?**
Curious to see the answers.
#collapse #institutions #history #systems