Clinical Anthropologist & Transcultural Strategist // Tweets about hyper-individualist dysfunction, modern dislocation, and the rewards of existential coherence
Earth
- Tweets 3,049
- Following 1,012
- Followers 914
- Likes 6,744
Pinned Tweet
Thrilled to be presenting for a second time at Harvard Divinity School this year! This presentation builds on my work on Eris, the goddess governing the 21st century’s historiography of culture war, collapse, and systemic reckoning.
This year I’ll be unveiling a new model called the Algorithm of Exile, which details the three unconscious forces in the human psyche driving every civilizational breakdown in the 21st century. To learn more about what I’m building and support the development of our research infrastructure, visit: goldenaxis.systems/algorithm…
ALT Official invitation letter on Harvard Divinity School letterhead dated April 15, 2026, addressed to Rayner Jae Liu. Signed by Dan McKanan, Emerson Senior Lecturer, the letter confirms the selection of Rayner's 20-minute scholarly paper presentation, "The Algorithm of Exile: The Three Unconscious Giants That Architect Belonging," for the "Belonging: Practices of Inclusion in Spiritual Communities, the Academy, and Society" conference happening September 2026.
1
6
278
Rayner Jae Liu retweeted
people seek change in a form that lets them keep doing what they already do. which is, of course, futile. this pattern makes itself evident when we look at how how people select therapeutic modalities. the tendency is to choose a treatment because it accommodates their existing coping strategy rather than because it challenges the structure that keeps them stuck.
for example, obsessive ruminators (individuals coping by manipulating mental representations of experience) are drawn to talk and model-based modalities where they are not only allowed, but even encouraged to manufacture stories about stories in order to solve their problems (also expressed as stories). they might do psychedelics, but if they do, they won’t shut up and let the drug do the talking. they engage in "inner dialogue" instead. they remain skeptical of non-verbal approaches like TRE, or anything that would actually move the needle, which for them would necessarily involve realizing the limits of symbolic manipulation they’ve grown to love so much.
this brings us to a larger problem that itself has the very same shape. if therapy is a service purchased on the market just like everything else, and the choice is driven by customer preference, then the situation is bound to produce individuals paying for *not* solving their problems while simultaneously deluding themselves that they’re doing important "inner work". what they’re really paying for is the feeling of being on the right side of history without ever going through the inconvenience of facing their issues.
the customer isn't always right. some things shouldn’t be bought and sold like candy. sometimes you need a good friend to tell you that you’re full of shit. but modern living systematically eradicated all avenues where the consumer is even at risk of hearing what they don’t feel like hearing. engagement tech like algorithms and bots invite you to dig your own reality tunnel, and to dig it deep. the deeper it is, the more psychotic everything seems. keep it up for a few more years and eventually it’s going to feel like you and your fellow human being have nothing in common anymore.
the #1 rule of blindspots: we’re not really searching for the best solution; we’re trying to prove that the solution we already prefer is the right one
3
14
539
Has no one considered the idea that COVID isn’t just a virus you swat away but an ontological hyperobject that’s directly responsible for this “feeling”?
COVID was never just a biological event. It was a total rupture of previous ways of understanding. When you force a ‘return to normal’ without acknowledging that the old world is gone, you get the exhaustion everyone feels but few can name.
I swear SOMETHING broke in society after 2020 and nobody wants to talk about it.
And I’m not talking about masks, lockdowns, or COVID. I mean the FEELING of life.
Everything reopened. We went back to work. Restaurants filled up. Events came back. But somehow life still feels… different.
Years disappear faster. People feel more disconnected. Everything feels more expensive, stressful & rushed.
And somehow we’re all constantly exhausted. I can’t even explain exactly what we lost. I just know life before 2020 felt more ALIVE.
Tell me I’m not the only one who feels this.
Community note
This post has been copied, word-for-word, from other people. It is a pure copypasta for engagement purposes:
Earlier examples of this post:
October 12th:
x.com/BennettRay1139…
October 13th:
x.com/_hrmed/status/…
Other examples exist as well
2
3
62
Literally the data that came out just 10 days ago:
Gallup's new report is out. "U.S. Wellbeing Nears Record Low."
Drawing on over 20 years of data and 3.1 million interviews, Gallup's Life Evaluation Index—which uses two questions from the Cantril Self-Anchoring Striving Scale to understand how people experience their lives—discovered multiple troubling patterns signaling marked, ongoing decline in the U.S.
1) Wellbeing in America has declined significantly since 2021. While there was a high immediately following the 'economic reopening' in June 2021, national well-being has only declined since and remained suppressed in 2026. This is not a coincidence and a direct product of how we've handled things since.
2) Young adults experienced the most dramatic drop, as wellbeing fell to 44% with a 20-point decline over 16 years. Of course they have. They are directly impacted by the poor decisions of those trying to maintain the status quo, are directly impacted by irresponsible stewardship of AI, and bring high levels of diversity that legacy institutions struggle or refuse to accommodate.
3) Black, Hispanic, White, and Asian American adults all reported lower in thriving today than in 2021—a broad pattern of deterioration, not improvement. Reports of optimism for future life was lowest among Black adults, which tells you how much of the current culture is still entrenched in anti-Blackness.
4) Future optimism in general has reached record lows. While Americans have tended to view their futures more positively than present circumstances, the historical relationship is changing. This is extremely troubling and should not be overlooked. Large swaths of human despair are a national security risk.
How do we get out of it? Figure 6 on p.45 stands out, presenting the shift from an ongoing slide to a Great Stride toward a north star goal of all people and places thriving together, no exceptions. But we know the road to get there requires getting past profound defense mechanisms which I've started charting systematically in my research most recently presented at Harvard University.
Check out the report below, and kudos to the authors for correctly referring to the pandemic using the phrases "at the onset of COVID-19" and "the early or earliest months of the COVID-19 pandemic" instead of pretending it's somehow in the past. I admire the authors for presenting the actual, objective reality of the present instead of hiding in denial—a crucial first step for turning things around.
1
45
Gallup's new report is out. "U.S. Wellbeing Nears Record Low."
Drawing on over 20 years of data and 3.1 million interviews, Gallup's Life Evaluation Index—which uses two questions from the Cantril Self-Anchoring Striving Scale to understand how people experience their lives—discovered multiple troubling patterns signaling marked, ongoing decline in the U.S.
1) Wellbeing in America has declined significantly since 2021. While there was a high immediately following the 'economic reopening' in June 2021, national well-being has only declined since and remained suppressed in 2026. This is not a coincidence and a direct product of how we've handled things since.
2) Young adults experienced the most dramatic drop, as wellbeing fell to 44% with a 20-point decline over 16 years. Of course they have. They are directly impacted by the poor decisions of those trying to maintain the status quo, are directly impacted by irresponsible stewardship of AI, and bring high levels of diversity that legacy institutions struggle or refuse to accommodate.
3) Black, Hispanic, White, and Asian American adults all reported lower in thriving today than in 2021—a broad pattern of deterioration, not improvement. Reports of optimism for future life was lowest among Black adults, which tells you how much of the current culture is still entrenched in anti-Blackness.
4) Future optimism in general has reached record lows. While Americans have tended to view their futures more positively than present circumstances, the historical relationship is changing. This is extremely troubling and should not be overlooked. Large swaths of human despair are a national security risk.
How do we get out of it? Figure 6 on p.45 stands out, presenting the shift from an ongoing slide to a Great Stride toward a north star goal of all people and places thriving together, no exceptions. But we know the road to get there requires getting past profound defense mechanisms which I've started charting systematically in my research most recently presented at Harvard University.
Check out the report below, and kudos to the authors for correctly referring to the pandemic using the phrases "at the onset of COVID-19" and "the early or earliest months of the COVID-19 pandemic" instead of pretending it's somehow in the past. I admire the authors for presenting the actual, objective reality of the present instead of hiding in denial—a crucial first step for turning things around.
1
105
NAOMI KLIEIN to SAM ALTMAN:
"...you ingested the entire written output of human civilization without consent, without compensation and without credit to build a system whose primary commercial application is eliminating the jobs of the people whose work you consumed.
You are not 'liberating human creativity' -- you are strip-mining it and selling it back at a markup while calling the theft 'training data'."
129
6,743
26,515
756,345
Imagine if we had a tool that could measure
> a doctor’s tendency to dismiss biological illnesses as psychosomatic.
> a cop’s tendency to abuse power.
> a public figure’s ability to speak and act with integrity under pressure.
These are professional skills.
They can - and should - be measurable.
ALT Claude generated x y chart with four “axes of systemic congruence” (differentiation reconciliation, transfiguration integration)
1
1
2
160
This work is based in my philosophical research recently presented at Harvard. Talk is available on the Harvard site for the next 24 hours if you want to catch it! If you miss it, you can sign up for updates at goldenaxis.cc
1
1
12
The “weeping and gnashing of teeth” honestly feels like all of the 2020s. It’s everywhere.
When we exclude and deny each other, we deny God. Love seeks its opposite. Keep excluding and the medicine will always evade you.
37
Most people can’t fathom thinking beyond their current ways and yet are suffering. Denial is a powerful drug but the rules are simple: deny pain, and you deny joy.
30
People talk about outer planet aspects as corresponding with times of major collective change. Here are some outer planet transits I dug up while trying to look at the 'long' arc of history. It's a non-exhaustive list but should help give you a quick idea of the rest of the century:
21st Century
↳ 2031: Saturn-Uranus in Gemini sextile Eris in Aries, then Saturn and Uranus both move into Cancer. In Gemini, sign-based sextile from Neptune and sign-based trine from Pluto still active. Jupiter in Sagittarius opposes, so probably a crisis of information dispersion.
↳ 2035: Saturn-Pluto opposition across Leo-Aquarius. This should be an interesting time with respect to the Baby Boomer generation.
↳ 2037: Eris-Neptune conjunction square Jupiter-Uranus in late Cancer and Aries. The Uranus-Neptune-Eris square here is not to be underestimated and harkens to the early 1990s when the Uranus-Neptune conjunction squared Eris in mid-Aries.
↳ 2039: Uranus-Neptune square continues as both move into early Leo/Taurus.
↳ 2040: Jupiter-Saturn conjunction in Libra, following the pattern of air sign Jupiter-Saturn conjunctions "officially" kicked off in December 2020.
↳ 2042: Sign-based T-square between Pluto, Uranus, and Neptune. Pluto's in late Aquarius by this point but that face-off in fixed signs might correspond with some old structures really taking a hit.
↳ 2046: Pluto-Uranus opposition in early Virgo-Pisces. Eris into Taurus.
↳ 2052: Uranus-Neptune trine in early Libra and Gemini.
↳ 2059: Jupiter-Saturn in early Gemini along with Neptune.
↳ 2079: Jupiter-Saturn-Uranus in Capricorn, then early Aquarius in 2080. All of them will oppose Neptune in early Leo, and square Eris in Taurus.
↳ 2085: Saturn-Pluto in Aries trine Jupiter-Neptune in Leo.
(Will there ever be another triple conjunction of Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto? Almost certainly—but how long will it take, and what would it actually signify? It looks like there's a triple sign-based conjunction in Taurus in 2859. Stunningly, the Axial Age triple conjunction was reportedly in Taurus. More to investigate, but a long path to that new cycle!)
2
139
When you look at the plumbing and are actually thinking about coherence, you see the flaws. And as with human minds, flaws aren’t just innocent mistakes. They can have catastrophic consequences.
I’m not an AI doomer, but my firsthand experience dating back to 2020 is that the researchers expressing concerns are sincere.
The closer they are to the research, the more worried they seem to be.
2
93
Thanks Richard. This does not bode well and confirms mythologically what I feared: people ignoring the problem doesn’t magically make it better. It actively makes it worse.
The increased ACE2 binding and heightened neutralization sensitivity to serum and RBD-targeting mAbs, especially against cryptic-site-targeting class 4 & 5 mAbs, strongly suggest PJ.2.1's Spike favors an RBD "up" conformation, in contrast to BA.3.2.2's RBD "down" conformation.
1
106
My perspective comes from Greek mythology, in which Eris, the excluded goddess whose reality is systematically denied, worsens the Trojan War and infighting until millions are killed and civilizations are destroyed. Of course, she didn’t cause it. It was perpetuated by the refusal to self-reflect or self-correct.
Eris is mother of the kakodaimones, or evil spirits, she is affiliated with lies, quarrels, forgetfulness, etc. Basically, what the majority of people denying COVID are doing.
1
36
Most COVID conscious people wish COVID weren’t a thing. But the major difference is that one group has a realistic understanding of the situation while most other groups act from what they can accept, not what’s actually there. Now we have ACE2 binding. Are we ready to put an end to this? Eris has demonstrated that our lack of regard for others is what prolongs the disease.
9