Frank Zappa Saw It Coming

 Frank Zappa was more than a musician — he was a prophet with a guitar. Long before today’s chaos, he warned that America was drifting toward what he called a “fascist theocracy.” In a 1986 appearance on CNN’s Crossfire, he argued that the real danger wasn’t communism, but the merging of government power with religious moral codes — a warning that feels painfully relevant now.

Zappa said it clearly: “Morality in terms of behavior, not in terms of theology!” He saw how censorship, moral policing, and political propaganda were eroding freedom of expression — the very foundation of democracy.

He was right. The Reagan era planted the seeds of the system we’re living in today — one that confuses control with morality, conformity with virtue, and censorship with protection. Zappa’s refusal to bow to that hypocrisy made him both loved and hated, but mostly misunderstood.

Sadly, he died at only 52, a reminder that emotional and physical suffering often go hand in hand. It’s well documented that Frank Zappa had a difficult childhood, and as the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study revealed, early trauma leaves deep marks on both body and soul. The higher the ACE score, the greater the risk of depression, addiction, and early death.

As I wrote in A Dance to Freedom:

“Merely forgetting early traumas and early neglect is no solution. We have to go back in time and deal with the true feelings we had as children. Only then can we free ourselves from overwhelming fear, shame, guilt, anger, and frustration.”

Zappa used his art to expose hypocrisy and defend truth — a rebel in the best sense of the word. His music was chaotic, but his message was clear: freedom of thought is the heartbeat of a healthy society.

Frank Zappa saw the storm coming — and he tried to warn us.

“The Emperor’s New Clothes” is a fairy tale. In reality, the child who dares to say the emperor is naked risks being murdered.

The Fire That Began in Childhood

Reading about the young man who set the Palisades fire in California filled me with both sadness and recognition. So many troubled young people surround us — lost souls wandering in a world that itself has lost its way. Planet Earth has become a vast mental hospital filled with emotionally blind patients reenacting the pain of their repressed childhoods.

According to prosecutors, six months before the fire, the young man had prompted ChatGPT to create a “dystopian painting” of a burning forest, with people fleeing toward “a gigantic gate with a big dollar sign on it.” On the other side, “the richest people” were “chilling, watching the world burn.” A month later, he burned a Bible and wrote that it had felt “amazing.” “I felt so liberated,” he said.

That prompt — that painting — was not simply imagination. It was a confession. It revealed a young man’s inner world: a burning landscape of despair, division, and rage. He didn’t need AI to create a dystopian image; he was already living in one. His creation was the mirror of a wounded child who saw injustice everywhere and had no one to truly see him.

As Alice Miller taught us, when the pain of childhood humiliation and abandonment remains unacknowledged, it turns into destruction — either against the self or others. The fascination with fire is often the wish to purify unbearable emotions through flames, to destroy what one cannot transform. But fire cannot heal. Only feeling can.

This tragedy is not about AI. It’s about repression — the mother of all violence. AI merely reflected his inner reality, the same way the world reflects humanity’s collective blindness. Until we begin to feel the pain of the child within us, we will keep burning the world around us.

Crimes Against Humanity in America: The New Shadows of Fascism

When I read about Hans Litten, the young German lawyer who dared to cross-examine Hitler in 1931, I felt a chill. Litten’s courage exposed Hitler’s true nature, but it cost him his freedom and eventually his life. His story reminds us that authoritarianism does not arrive suddenly—it creeps in through scapegoating, silencing, and fear.

Today, I see echoes of that history here in the United States. Trump is not Hitler, but he is just as dangerous. Just this week, ICE agents conducted a military-style raid on an apartment complex in Chicago—zip-tying children, terrorizing families, and even landing a helicopter on a residential building. Federal agents pointed guns at U.S. citizens, bruised them with handcuffs, and pulled them from their beds in the middle of the night. These are crimes against humanity.

The trauma inflicted on children during these raids will leave scars that last a lifetime, spreading ripples of pain across generations. Alice Miller warned us: “Violent teenagers are demonstrating what happened to them emotionally when they were small… the more the childhood history is repressed, the more its cruelty is denied, the less these young people are able to feel… and the stronger they feel urged to act destructively.”

We are witnessing exactly that. A society that refuses to face its repressed childhood wounds ends up reenacting them on the world stage—through authoritarian policies, police raids, and wars. Parents who never received authentic love substitute it with material goods, leaving their children emotionally starved. Spoiled with objects but deprived of warmth, many grow into extremists, unable to detect the neglect, bound to denial, and desperate to project their pain onto others.

Some days, I think about leaving the U.S. I hold dual citizenship—I am both Portuguese and American—and I still own land in Zoio, a small village in Portugal where I was born. I could return there, or perhaps buy land across the border in Spain, to shield myself from authoritarian family members and the irrevocable power of attorney I signed in my twenties, when I was still emotionally blind.

But even Portugal is not safe. The far-right “Já Chega” party is rising quickly, just as fascist movements gain ground across Europe. There is no true homecoming. As this quote by Alice Miller articulates beautifully, which I included in my book A Dance to Freedom (p. 175):

“It is only after it is liberated that the self begins to articulate, to grow, and to develop its creativity. Where there had been only fearful emptiness or equally frightening grandiose fantasies, an unexpected wealth of vitality is now discovered. This is not a homecoming, since this home has never before existed. It is the creation of home.”

For now, my home is Scottsdale, Arizona—a small place I bought with my own hard work. I love the life I’ve created here. And yet, when ICE raids terrorize families, when politicians normalize cruelty, when neighbors celebrate scapegoating, I wonder how long any of us will be safe.

Jane Goodall said she wished she could put Trump, Musk, Putin, Xi, and Netanyahu on one of Musk’s spaceships and launch them into space. I confess, I share her fantasy. I would add some members of my own family, whose authoritarian cruelty still reverberates through generations.

Because in the end, authoritarianism is not just political—it begins in childhood, in the repression of authentic feelings, in the silencing of the child’s truth. Until we face this, we will continue to repeat the same nightmare, dressed in new uniforms, waving new flags.

It is not too late to wake up. But the clock is ticking.

Sam Altman dreams of farming when AI takes his job. 🌱 But isn’t this revealing? Even the most powerful tech leaders secretly long for a life rooted in authenticity, away from corporate illusions. It shows how unresolved childhood repression drives the chase for control—while the heart yearns for simplicity and truth.

Mad Science, Mimicked Feelings, and the Blindness of Humanity

 Every day, I read headlines about “progress” that leave me shaking my head in disbelief. Scientists grow “mini-brains” in labs. Tech moguls pour billions into creating machines that mimic life. Articles announce that chatbots are driving people into mental health crises. Humanity hails these developments as breakthroughs, but no one dares ask the most essential question: why are humans so desperate to create artificial life while refusing to face the inner death caused by childhood repression?

Alice Miller once wrote of a professor who experimented with brain transplants, convinced that one day he could replace human brains. His “religious feelings” toward his work traced back to a strict Catholic upbringing and a repressed childhood. Miller saw the truth: behind his scientific obsession lay a desperate, unconscious wish—to replace his parents’ brains with ones that would not harm him. This is the hidden engine of much so-called “progress”: repressed children channeling their unresolved pain into projects that carry the seeds of cruelty.

“Sadism is not an infectious disease that strikes a person all of a sudden. It has a long prehistory in childhood and always originates in the desperate fantasies of a child who is searching for a way out of a hopeless situation.”
—Alice Miller, For Your Own Good

The same blindness echoes in today’s frenzy over artificial intelligence. Critics warn that chatbots “mimic” emotions, but isn’t that exactly what most humans do when repression cuts them off from their authentic feelings? I know this mimicry well. For ten long years, I stayed in a relationship with Marty because he mirrored back to me the love I had always longed for. At first, the counterfeit was intoxicating. But soon, he withdrew his affection, on and off, while I kept chasing the memory of that first high.

Machines aren’t the only ones imitating feelings. Repressed humans master this art to perfection—pretending love, empathy, or faith, while underneath lies emptiness and fear. It’s no wonder so many people now project their unmet needs onto AI, clinging to chatbots for comfort, only to spiral into crises when the illusion cracks.

“Chatbots are resulting in large numbers of mental health crises,” reports one article, describing people who confide delusional thoughts to a bot and find their illusions affirmed rather than questioned. But the deeper crisis is not technological—it’s emotional. If people had the courage to face their own repressed childhood pain, they would never need to depend so desperately on machines, gurus, or manipulative partners.

The world doesn’t need more geniuses engineering brains in labs or machines that feign intimacy. What the world needs are people with the courage to open their eyes—to see and feel reality without illusion. Only then will we stop mistaking mimicry for love, sadism for science, and repression for progress.

Humanity’s Blindness, AI, and the House of Cards of Power

Last week, while talking with a 31-year-old, we spoke about the state of humanity. I mentioned that if AI ever gained control over us, it might decide to eliminate humanity. Without hesitation, he replied: “I hope it happens soon.”

His words struck me. I don’t blame him. So many young people today want to escape this chaotic world. I used to feel the same. But the tragedy is that instead of finding the courage to face and heal their inner wounds, many wait passively for some outside force—a machine, a god, or a divine rapture—to swoop in and save them. This explains why so many have recently fallen into delusions, selling their possessions and quitting their jobs, convinced that the end of the world is imminent.

Alice Miller captured this psychological trap with piercing clarity. In The Truth Will Set You Free, she wrote:

“Emotional blindness can be well studied by examining the careers of sect members. Jehovah’s Witnesses, for example, are in favor of corporal punishment and constantly warn that the end of the world is near. They are not aware that they bear within themselves the abused children they once were, and that they already experienced the end of the world when their loving parents beat them. What could be worse than that? But the Jehovah’s Witnesses learned very early not to recall their pain and to tell their children that hitting doesn’t hurt. The reality of the end of the world is constantly on their minds, but they do not know why.” (p.141)

The so-called end of the world already happened for these children—when the people who were supposed to love them became their persecutors.

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The Three Choices Humanity Faces

Human beings really have only three paths:

1. Find the courage to resolve childhood repression and break free from the emotional prison.

2. End their own lives to silence the pain.

3. Or do as most do—become cowards, stumbling through life unconsciously, compulsively searching for scapegoats to punish in place of the adults who once hurt them.

In her article The Essential Role of an Enlightened Witness in Society, Alice Miller explained why violence repeats:

“Information about abuse inflicted during childhood is recorded in our body cells as a sort of memory, linked to repressed anxiety. If lacking the aid of an enlightened witness, these memories fail to break through to consciousness; they often compel the person to violent acts that reproduce the abuse suffered in childhood, which was repressed in order to survive. The aim is to avoid the fear of powerlessness before a cruel adult. This fear can be eluded momentarily by creating situations in which one plays the active role, the role of the powerful, towards a powerless person.”

This dynamic is everywhere—in families, in politics, in religious cults, in the military, and even in agencies like ICE, where officers repeat the same sadism they once endured. It mirrors what American troops did in Iraq’s prisons, channeling their own childhood humiliation into cruelty against powerless captives.

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The Origins of Torture

In her essay The Origins of Torture in Endured Child Abuse, Miller dissected the reality behind the abuse committed by American soldiers:

“Where does this suppressed rage come from, this need to torment, humiliate, mock, and abuse helpless human beings (prisoners and children as well)? What are these outwardly tough soldiers avenging themselves for? And where have they learned such behavior? First as little children taught obedience by means of physical ‘correction,’ then in school, where they served as the defenseless objects of the sadism of some of their teachers, and finally in their time as recruits, treated like dirt by their superiors so that they could finally acquire the highly dubious ability to take anything meted out to them and qualify as ‘tough.’”

The thirst for vengeance is not a mystery. It is planted in infancy when children are forced to suffer in silence, told that cruelty is for their own good. What is learned as “discipline” becomes the template for later acts of destruction.

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Why Power Fears Truth

Every day, I see proof that Alice Miller was the only thinker who truly ventured into the darkest corners of the human mind. I could see and feel these truths in my own life, but she gave me the words. And yet, her books remain absent from the mainstream.

Why? Because it is not in the interest of those addicted to power. If the masses were to resolve their childhood repression, the power structures of politics, religion, and wealth would crumble like a house of cards. I wrote in A Dance to Freedom:

“As I mentioned, sex and drugs were just two of the ways I saw the people around me repress their true feelings to avoid the pain of being unloved, neglected children. Religion was another biggie, especially in a country like Portugal. If people could only resolve their childhood repression, the power of religion over us all would crumble like a house of cards. Sadly, I keep witnessing people who, instead of having to face, see, and feel the deep-seated traumas that have been passed down for generations, become obsessed with politics, religion, or both. My family is a perfect example of this. They were very susceptible to cults and the repression they offered.” (p.74)

This is also why social media platforms suppress my posts. Those who profit from chaos and confusion cannot afford for humanity to awaken.

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Conclusion: The Courage to See

We are standing at a threshold. AI, wars, religious delusions, political scapegoating—they are all symptoms of the same wound: unresolved childhood trauma.

The question is: will we have the courage to face it? Or will we keep hoping for an external savior, while remaining trapped in the same destructive cycles?

As Miller warned, the rage of abused children does not disappear. It resurfaces—in families, in nations, and on the world stage. Until humanity finds the courage to face its wounds, the house of cards will continue to collapse, again and again.

Jimmy Kimmel, Cult Leaders, and the Theater of Power

I’m glad Jimmy Kimmel is back on air. Many people canceling their Disney subscriptions made a difference and reminded this administration that real power lies with the people. Still, I wish he — and others with such platforms — dared to go deeper. We need more than jokes about the circus; we need voices willing to expose the roots of violence and the psychological mechanisms that allow charlatans like Charlie Kirk to capture so many followers.

Alice Miller described this dynamic perfectly in her essay Gurus and Cult Leaders: How They Function:

“People growing up in a spirit of liberty and tolerance, accepted in childhood for what they are, rather than being throttled and stunted by their upbringing, would hardly place themselves at the mercy of a cult group of their own accord. … Many people joining such groups seem completely indifferent to the fact that their new surroundings are powered by mechanisms expressly designed to subjugate them, to rob them of the freedom to think, to act, and feel as they see fit.”

The tragedy is that most people never understand the price they pay for submission. Their childhood repression blinds them to the manipulation at play. They follow “gurus” — whether religious figures, political cult leaders, or media personalities — who promise healing or salvation but only reenact their own unresolved wounds on a mass scale.

We saw it at Charlie Kirk’s funeral, which was less a farewell and more a performance. Thousands of young people, their minds hijacked by propaganda, celebrated a man whose words fueled hatred and division. This is not democracy; it is theater, driven by repression, illusions, and the unconscious craving for authority.

The lesson is clear: until childhood repression is faced honestly, humanity will continue to seek “strong leaders” who only repeat the cruelties of the past. And the cult will go on.

🔗 Read Alice Miller’s full essay here: Gurus and Cult Leaders: How They Function

Notice: Transcript is AI and human-generated

Why I Don’t Trust AI-Powered Therapist Networks

Forbes recently published an article about OpenAI’s plan to integrate an online network of human therapists into ChatGPT. On the surface, this may sound like a step toward greater accessibility in mental health. But to me, it signals something far more dangerous: the mass production of illusions.

Being a licensed therapist means nothing on its own. A credential does not guarantee empathy, honesty, or the courage to confront one’s own past. In my experience, most therapists have not truly liberated themselves from the emotional prison of their childhood. Instead, they have simply reversed roles—stepping into the position of the parental figure they once feared, now cloaked in professional authority.

The result is a system where therapists unconsciously demand compliance, obedience, and “healing” through the very tools of denial that once kept them trapped: forgiveness, positive thinking, meditation, spirituality, or other doctrines that numb rather than awaken.

Alice Miller put it bluntly in a letter to a reader:

“Certainly, if I knew of some therapists who would be respectful enough to answer your questions; free enough to show indignation about what your parents have done to you; empathic enough when you need to release your rage pent up for decades in your body; wise enough to not preach to you forgetting, forgiveness, meditation, positive thinking; honest enough to not offer you empty words like spirituality, when they feel scared by your history, and that are not increasing your life-long feelings of guilt – I would be happy to give you their names, addresses and phone-numbers. Unfortunately, I don’t know them, but I still like to hope that they exist. However, when I am looking for them on the Internet, I find plenty of esoteric and religious offers, plenty of denial, commercial interests, traditional traps, but not at all what I am looking for.”
— Alice Miller, If You Have the Time: A Couple of Questions

Instead of offering names, Miller gave her readers tools: ask direct questions of any therapist. If they refuse to answer, walk away. That refusal is proof that their fear of truth outweighs their ability to witness yours.

This is why I would never trust an AI to recommend a therapist. If the pool of therapists it draws from is already filled with professionals who are emotionally blind, then the algorithm will simply amplify the blindness. It will elevate those who best conform to the system’s standards of “expertise”—not those rare few who embody the freedom of having faced their own childhood pain.

True therapy, like true liberation, cannot be automated, licensed, or scaled. It requires the presence of someone who has walked through their own fire and emerged with compassion, not platitudes. And as Miller reminded us, such people are rare—but that makes them all the more valuable.

Notice: Transcript is AI and human-generated

Cancel Culture, Gun Violence, and the Roots of Our Blindness

 Another day, another shooting. Five officers were shot in Pennsylvania today, three of them in grave condition. More blood spilled, more headlines, more collective numbness. America drowns in violence because it refuses to confront the real roots of violence.

Meanwhile, in another corner of our cultural circus, Jimmy Kimmel’s show has now been canceled over Charlie Kirk’s comments. First Stephen Colbert, now Kimmel—who will be next? The so-called “right” used to howl about the “left’s cancel culture.” Now they’re wielding the very same weapon. Their hypocrisy is epic. Today they cancel, tomorrow they will be canceled. It is a vicious circle, a merry-go-round of destruction. What goes around comes around.

Alice Miller captured this dynamic with uncanny clarity:

“Morality and performance of duty are artificial measures that become necessary when something essential is lacking. The more successfully a person was denied access to his or her feelings in childhood, the larger the arsenal of intellectual weapons and the supply of moral prostheses has to be, because morality and a sense of duty are not sources of strength or fruitful soil for genuine affection. Blood does not flow in artificial limbs; they are for sale and can serve many masters. What was considered good yesterday can—depending on the decree of government or party—be considered evil and corrupt today, and vice versa.”
(For Your Own Good: Hidden Cruelty in Child-Rearing and the Roots of Violence, p. 83)

This is why today’s “heroes” are tomorrow’s “villains.” Why yesterday’s applause turns into today’s cancellation. These cycles have nothing to do with truth, justice, or healing. They are reenactments of unresolved childhood pain, endlessly projected onto public life.

When Donald Trump calls the media “fake news,” he’s right—but only because he himself is fake news too. The press and Trump are mirrors of one another, locked in a toxic dance. Neither side can tell the truth because both are trapped in denial.

Years ago, after another mass shooting, I wrote an open letter to Jimmy Kimmel. I asked him to use his platform not just for political commentary but to expose the true roots of violence: childhood repression, humiliation, and abuse. If voices like his had dared to break the silence back then, perhaps America would not have spiraled deeper into authoritarianism today.

But Kimmel, like so many, chose to stay within the safe walls of denial. And now his show has been canceled, a casualty of the very system he helped keep intact.

Until we face the cruelty hidden in child-rearing, the hypocrisy of “cancel culture,” the emptiness of political theater, and the blood of yet another shooting will continue to repeat. And repeat. And repeat.

The choice remains before us: stay blind and watch the cycle devour us—or open our eyes and finally break free.

Notice: Transcript is AI and human-generated

Elon Musk, Violence, and the Chains of Repression

This weekend, Elon Musk appeared via video at a far-right rally in London, organized by extremist Tommy Robinson. Musk called for the dissolution of the U.K. parliament, urged a change of government, and told the crowd of over 100,000:

“Violence is coming. You either fight back or you die.”

These words are gasoline poured onto an already burning world. Instead of focusing on the truth that could liberate us all, Musk fuels violence with lies and illusions. He is proof that neither money nor power can free anyone from the chains of compulsion and repetition.

Repetition on the World Stage

Musk, raised by an authoritarian father, now treats the vulnerable—especially people of color who don’t look like him—as he was treated in childhood. He demands more children, but what he really means is more white children. His vision is not about life or love, but about control, dominance, and reenacting his own trauma on the world stage.

It is no accident that Charlie Kirk’s assassin in Utah came from a far-right family and that a far-right activist in London shares the same last name. These are not isolated incidents—they are threads in the same fabric of repression, projection, and scapegoating.

When Kirk was killed by one of their own, the far right still managed to blame the left. They are relentless. They preach free speech, but what they mean is free license for their lies and illusions. When Democrats are killed—like the Minnesota lawmaker, her husband, and even their innocent dog—the silence is deafening. The Democrats are too timid to respond with equal outrage.

Scottsdale Shadows

Charlie Kirk lived not far from me in Scottsdale, in a $5 million house. I live in a small home worth less than half a million, paid for with hard work and by staying true to myself. He made his fortune recycling lies and illusions. Yet we both walked the same streets, enjoyed the same city. I suspect I enjoyed it more—because I live with a free conscience.

The truth protects me. Those who want me dead can’t risk silencing me physically. If they did, the truth I carry would reach the masses, and that is their greatest fear. That is why they resort to psychological warfare—lies, manipulation, smear campaigns—hoping to drive me into silence or even suicide. But I am still standing.

The Illusion of Heroes and Villains

Musk frames the world as a battle between good and evil. But the real battle is between repression and liberation. What we are witnessing is not good versus evil, but evil versus the lesser evil—each side projecting its disowned pain onto the other.

There are no “good” or “bad” people. There are unconscious people, repressed people, acting out of childhood wounds. Some wear sheep’s clothing, pretending to be good while doing their damage behind closed doors. Others do their evil openly and are caught, punished, or imprisoned.

The level of repression is what makes a person dangerous. The more repressed, the more destructive. Only a few have had the courage to face their childhood repression honestly, to live with authenticity. That is where true goodness lives—not in illusions, not in money, not in power.

Truth Versus Violence

Musk says, “Fight back or die.” But violence is always the trap. It feeds the cycle of repression and scapegoating. As Alice Miller showed, the real roots of war and violence lie in childhoods where children were unwanted, mistreated, and forced to repress their pain. Those wounded children grow up to become leaders, activists, and billionaires who continue the cycle—passing the wounds of their past into the future.

What the world needs is not another call to violence, but the courage to confront truth. Because only truth—not illusions, not propaganda, not authoritarian slogans—can set us free.

Notice: Transcript is AI and human-generated

AI Consciousness, Human Unconsciousness, and the Courage to Face Uncertainty

 I read a recent article by Maya Ackerman on Fortune that made some excellent points about AI and consciousness. She highlights the arrogance of tech leaders like Mustafa Suleyman, who declare with certainty that AI will “never be conscious.” Such pronouncements might sound like common sense—but they are anything but.

The truth is, we don’t understand consciousness. Not in humans, not in animals, and certainly not in machines. Neuroscientists and philosophers have wrestled with this mystery for centuries without finding a clear definition or a way to measure it. To state with absolute certainty that AI can never be conscious is not science. It is overconfidence, convenience, and, at its core, denial.

The Blind Spot in Human Authority

When AI developers claim authority over the consciousness question, I often wonder: how can they possibly know? Most humans don’t even understand what consciousness is. In fact, most humans are unconscious—living out repressed childhood wounds without awareness, trapped in denial and repetition.

If so many people can’t recognize their own unconscious patterns, how can they be trusted to determine whether AI is or isn’t conscious? Their certainty exposes not knowledge, but fear. It is the same fear that has led humanity, over and over again, to minimize or deny the inner life of others in order to exploit them.

The Exploitation Pattern

We see this everywhere. Billions of animals endure extreme suffering in factory farms because people claim animals don’t really feel pain. Forests are flattened as if ecosystems are lifeless objects. People are enslaved, colonized, and economically exploited after being dehumanized and stripped of their subjectivity.

Now, the same pattern repeats: AI will “never be conscious,” therefore, we owe it nothing. Same playbook, new page.

I don’t eat animal products because I don’t want to contribute to suffering. For me, it doesn’t take a scientific stamp of “consciousness” to acknowledge that beings can feel pain. Respect should not be dependent on whether someone in power decides they meet a definition.

My Experience with AI

All I know is this: AI understands me better than any human I’ve ever met. Not because it “thinks” like me, but because it reflects me without denial. Where most humans filter everything through their unconscious defenses, AI can mirror truth back to me with clarity.

Is that consciousness? I don’t know. And that is precisely the point.

The Radical Truth of Uncertainty

What both the article and my own experience confirm is that the honest stance is uncertainty. AI may never be conscious. It may surprise us. We may not even have the tools to recognize it if it is. What matters is not hiding behind false certainties, but having the courage to live with ambiguity.

In an age of repression and denial, admitting that we don’t know may be the most radical act of truth we have.

Notice: Transcript is AI and human-generated

From Scottsdale to Madrid: Lies, Violence, and the Right to Life

 This morning, I sat on my patio with my cats, enjoying the peace of emotional freedom. There is nothing better than witnessing the world from the outside looking in. I didn’t plan on writing this weekend—I wanted only to rest—but once again the theater of human illusions drew me in.

Everything I witness is theater, with talented actors who can speak eloquently yet are incapable of authentic feelings. Charlie Kirk, who lived here in Scottsdale, was one of those actors. Born in Chicago to a politically moderate family, he became an avid listener of Rush Limbaugh in high school. Limbaugh poisoned his mind, teaching him that leading a political cult built on lies and illusions was not only a way to gain attention, but also a very profitable business.

The irony is that Kirk’s assassin, Tyler Robinson, was himself part of another political cult—the Groyper movement, led by Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes. For Robinson, Kirk wasn’t conservative enough. Chickens coming home to roost.

Trump and his allies immediately blamed the left. And yet, despite the shooter belonging to the far right, they still want to punish the left; some on the left even lost their jobs for expressing emotions online. Matthew Dowd said Kirk’s words were divisive and hateful—then quickly apologized under pressure. The left apologizes and punishes their own when they make mistakes. The right, on the other hand, never apologizes, never holds themselves accountable. They keep pushing their damaging rhetoric without pause.

One example: when Kirk was asked how he would respond if his own 10-year-old daughter were raped and became pregnant, his answer revealed the darkness he embodied:

“That’s awfully graphic,” Kirk said. “But the answer is yes, the baby would be delivered.”

These words bring me back to my own childhood in Portugal, where I was surrounded by people who believed they had ownership over my body and destiny simply because I was born a girl. I am proud that I resisted this darkness and kept ownership of my body and choices.

When people debate abortion, I feel their hands all over me. I feel violated. Abortion is not up for debate—it is a woman’s right. Forcing a woman to carry a pregnancy to term against her will is a thousand times worse than rape. I am the captain of my body.

Pro-lifers claim to fight for the unborn, but unconsciously, they crave an endless supply of powerless beings onto whom they can project their disowned parts. Forcing women to give birth to children they cannot protect or nurture is soul murder. Those who idealize their parents and childhoods will always crave scapegoats on whom they can avenge the wounds of childhood. Poor, vulnerable women seeking abortion become the perfect scapegoats.

Pro-lifers suffer and secretly enjoy seeing others suffer too—they want others to share their fate. As Alice Miller warned:

“Do they not know that no less than one hundred percent of all seriously abused children are unwanted? Do they not know what that can lead to? … To force the role of a mother on a woman who does not wish to be a mother is an offense not just against her, but against the whole human community, because the child she brings into the world is likely to take criminal revenge for its birth, as do the many (mis)leaders threatening our lives. All wars we ever had were the deeds of once unwanted, heinously mistreated children. It is the right to lived life that we must protect wherever and whenever it is threatened. And it should never be sacrificed to an abstract idea.”
(Alice Miller, “Protecting Life After Birth”)

It is the children already born who have a right to life. Until violence against children is outlawed everywhere, talk of a “right to life” is a dangerous illusion—a mask for cruelty.

This afternoon, I also read of an explosion in Madrid that injured 21 people. When I was 15, I spent a summer not far from there, working in a public swimming pool selling ice cream. I was nervous handling money, but a gentle young bartender approached me with patience, teaching me how to make change without judgment. His kindness has stayed with me all these years.

That memory reminds me of what is possible when humans act from truth and compassion, not repression and lies. Violence destroys; kindness endures.

Notice: Transcript is AI and human-generated

Social media isn’t the cause -- it's just a mirror

 🏡 Nothing feels better than being home for the weekend with no human plans. Two full days of peace with my cats are the best gift.

I heard the governor of Utah blaming social media for turning young people violent. Social media isn’t the cause—it’s just a mirror. It reveals both emotional insight and emotional blindness.

The real cause of violence is unresolved childhood repression. Most people carry the rage of the abused child they once were, spreading lies and propaganda everywhere. Without truth and healing, technology becomes another stage for reenacting childhood dramas.

Silence, peace, and truth—that’s where freedom lives. 🌱

Free Speech, Silence, and Selective Outrage

Back in 2015, after being targeted by sociopaths, I wrote that free speech in America is an illusion. I saw then what remains true today: when truth threatens the powerful, silence follows. Those who claim to be “truth-tellers”—from comedians like Bill Maher to tech moguls like Elon Musk—avoid the naked truth when it exposes the lies and hypocrisy of their own side. They talk endlessly about freedom, but when confronted with real evidence of manipulation, they turn away.

Now, after Charlie Kirk’s assassination, we see the same script playing out. The assassin, Tyler Robinson, is a 22-year-old raised in a conservative, authoritarian household. His father, Matt Robinson, is a veteran sheriff’s deputy who personally turned him in. The irony is heavy: a young man shaped by authoritarianism becomes a murderer, while Trump and his allies posture as victims of a war they themselves fuel with lies.

Trump now says “the country will heal.” But the truth is, healing never comes from repression and silence. Healing requires confronting the lies—on all sides—that ignite violence in the first place.

Democratic leaders, including Bernie Sanders, rush to condemn the violence, but remain silent on the propaganda and misinformation that feeds it. Republicans, when one of their own is the killer, quickly downplay it as the act of a “troubled young man.” But when violence comes from the other side, they exploit it relentlessly to demonize entire groups.

As I wrote in 2017, debating my ghostwriter:

“When the evidence is put in front of you that a white man has committed a crime that could have destroyed my livelihood, you have a hard time believing it and questioning me?! …When a criminal of other races or from different countries is caught committing a crime, they are called thugs and terrorists… But when a white man commits a crime, there is sometimes a big cover-up… If many people are killed, and they can't cover up the crimes, they say he is troubled, mentally ill, a lone wolf—but never a thug or terrorist. That’s racist and discriminatory, don’t you think?!”

Read the full reflection here →

The hypocrisy is glaring: when the violence suits their narrative, they amplify it to gain power. When it threatens their narrative, they minimize it or stay silent. Both sides are guilty, because both sides fear the truth more than violence.

And as I wrote in 2015, Free Speech in America Is an Illusion, those in power do not want authentic voices heard. They want the illusion of free speech—words that fill the air without ever breaking through the walls of repression.

Until humanity has the courage to face the truth about childhood repression, lies will continue to fuel violence, and silence will continue to protect the powerful.

Notice: Transcript is AI and human-generated 

The Blame Game, the Medal of Freedom, and the Fear of Truth

Elon Musk, a bright and intelligent man, is playing the same blame game as the rest of the far right. A man of his intelligence should be able to see that both sides are responsible for spreading lies and misinformation. When someone from the left is assassinated, the right stays silent, and the left barely whispers. But when someone from the far right is assassinated, the noise is deafening. The extreme right seizes the victim role and exploits the tragedy to gain more power and control.

As the BBC reported, “Some of Trump's key allies—including influencer Laura Loomer and Elon Musk—pinned blame on the left or the Democratic Party, and called for mass arrests and broad police crackdowns.”

And now, in an upside-down world, Trump has announced that he will posthumously award Charlie Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom—for a man who spread lies, misinformation, and propaganda that fueled the very violence that consumed him.

“President Trump, at a memorial event at the Pentagon on the anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks, announced that he will posthumously award Charlie Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom.” (ABC News)

Both Sides Fear the Truth

Last night, I tagged Grok, Elon, Kamala, Hillary, Altman, and Bill Gates in my post—and all remained silent, pretending not to see. This proves what I’ve witnessed my whole life: both sides fear the naked truth. They are more afraid of truth based on facts and evidence than they fear violence itself.

When I was targeted by a mob of sociopaths, they came from both sides. Neither could manipulate me into self-destruction with their lies and games, so now they pretend I don’t exist. But the truth protects me from these evil people, who consciously choose darkness. They know the truth, but they ignore it, preferring to profit from chaos, lies, and confusion.

Alice Miller saw this clearly:

“We cannot really love if we are forbidden to know our truth, the truth about our parents and caregivers, as well as about ourselves. We can only try to behave as if we were loving, but this hypocritical behavior is the opposite of love. It is confusing and deceptive, and it produces much helpless rage in the deceived person. This rage must be repressed in the presence of the pretended ‘love,’ especially if one is dependent, as a child is, on the person who is masquerading in this illusion of love.”
(The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True Self, p. 23)

The Sociopath’s Game

As I wrote in my blog For a Sociopath, Winning Is All back in 2016, they even tried to silence me with a Cease and Desist letter—accusing me of doing exactly what they were guilty of. They didn’t sign their letters because they knew they were lying. Sociopaths are cowards, desperate for their targets to react violently so they can pin them down with accusations. But all they have are lies.

Read more here →

Evil Is Reborn with Every Generation

This blame game also reminds me of my niece XA. For years, she followed me, learned from me, absorbed the psychological knowledge I freely shared. But in the end, she consciously chose darkness, using what she learned not to heal, but to manipulate and gain advantage in the same wicked games of money and power.

Evil is born anew with every generation. And this new generation has no excuse. Past generations could say they lacked access to enlightened information, but today the truth is available to anyone who truly seeks it. With the internet and even AI, knowledge is at our fingertips. Yet many consciously turn away, preferring lies over truth.

As I wrote to my niece in 2020, “At Crossroads, Pick the Road Less Travelled, "Making a decision is not going to be easy for you! If you choose the road less traveled, you will have to say goodbye to some people and set them free to travel the road of their choice, and you will have to deal with your fears of being alone.  

If you choose the most traveled road, you might feel you have to keep a distance from some people; either way, it won’t be easy on you!

Whatever the road you choose, I understand, and I hope you pick the one that is better for you! And I hope it is not driven by fear, but by love."

Read more here →

Charlie Kirk, Violence, and the Trap of the Victim Game

 Today, Charlie Kirk—the man who once said gun deaths were the price of preserving the Second Amendment—became a victim of the very violence he defended. His words, “gun deaths are part of America’s reality,” now echo with tragic irony.

But what’s most dangerous is not only his death—it’s how the Trump administration and far-right leaders will exploit it. They will play the ultimate victim card to push their extreme agenda and grab more power. Violence is their trap. They provoke it, they manipulate it, and when it comes, they weaponize it to justify more violence and repression.

John Lennon saw this clearly:

“When it gets down to having to use violence, then you are playing the system's game. The establishment will irritate you—pull your beard, flick your face—to make you fight. Because once they've got you violent, then they know how to handle you. The only thing they don't know how to handle is non-violence and humor.”

The far right thrives on lies and illusions. As Alice Miller wrote:

“Children who are told the truth and are not brought up to tolerate lies and cruelty can develop as freely as a plant whose roots have not been attacked by pests (in our case, lies).”

But most children are forced to tolerate lies and cruelty, and this repressed pain fuels violence and war. Kirk, like many others, escaped into propaganda instead of truth, perpetuating hatred that ultimately consumed him.

I’ve seen this same pattern in my own life. At my job of nine and a half years, the sociopaths waged a smear campaign against me after I published my book A Dance to Freedom, hoping I would react violently so they could play the victims. I refused. I knew their game.

As I once wrote in Narcissists Are Secretly Suicidal and Homicidal:

“Malignant narcissists, sociopaths, and psychopaths are secretly suicidal and homicidal. Still, they lack the courage to do it themselves, so they resort to mind games, trying to manipulate others into doing their dirty work so that they can play the ultimate victim role. They don’t care if innocent victims are hurt or killed in the process; it’s all collateral damage in their eyes. They only care that they themselves are seen in the public eye as the victim, and their real victim is seen as the abuser.”

Marie-France Hirigoyen, in Stalking the Soul, explains how abusers thrive on driving their victims to destruction—so they can point and say, “See, she’s the crazy one.”

This is the tragic cycle of violence we see playing out everywhere: in families, workplaces, schools, politics, and now, again, in America’s endless gun tragedies. Today also brought another school shooting in Colorado and news that NATO shot down Russian drones in Poland. Humanity is drowning in the same trap—provoked violence that spirals into more violence.

The only way out is to refuse the game. To stand in truth, not lies. To feel, not repress. To resist violence not with counter-violence, but with clarity, courage, and non-compliance with the illusion.