Show in Review
There is an idea that sits at the heart of today’s Sick of the Show — the most effective way tokeep people powerless, is not direct repression, it is through confusion. I’m joined by the Common Sense Rebel, Ethan Faulkner, where we give a blunt, systems-level critique of the modern U.S. structures.
Rather than debating personalities or parties, the conversation reframes politics as a question of structure. Ethan introduces the concept of the vertical war: a conflict between the producing class — the people who actually keep society running — and a small parasitic class extracting value while contributing only control. (for a full primer, take a look at Ethan’s work — The Lexicon of Our Rebellion: A Foundational Guide)
With this framing, the familiar left-vs-right culture war reveals itself for what it really is: a distraction layer — engineered to keep people from recognizing their shared material, and lived, conditions. Rent, wages, food, energy, healthcare, debt — these are not ideological — these are simple numbers. When those numbers fail to work for the majority, the system responds not through self-correction, but through redirecting anger to divide. A systemic othering, while upward wealth concentration remains untouched.
Our central theme is identity, and how that identity is being weaponized.
Poverty is framed as personal failure.
Wealth is framed as virtue.
Ethan and I argue that the inverse narrative is deliberate. When people are made to feel ashamed of being poor, they are less likely to organize. When people identify as isolated individuals instead of a class, solidarity collapses before it can ever begin.
Ethan offers an alternative identity: producers. The people who work, build, care, teach, ship, repair, and sustain. In contrast, the billionaire class is described not as leadership but as friction — actors who slow systems down, extract value, and then demand praise for it.
From there, Ethan describes his approach to writing as treating government and economic policy like a crime scene, not a campaign. Laws like the Patriot Act and SCOTUS decisions like Citizens United are examined not for their stated intent, but for their downstream effects: expanded surveillance, normalized financial crime, privatized enforcement, and the quiet erosion of public accountability.
We naturally shift to a topic I speak on a lot, with Shane Yirak and Melissa Corrigan, she/her over on Banner & Backbone Media’s Palantalk — mass surveillance. Specifically mass surveillance and privacy violations stemming from Flock Security’s camera, drone, and data aggregation dashboard (which also picks up people’s social media).
Companies like Flock Safety are not simply selling cameras — they are selling data aggregation, behavioral modeling, and long-term social control.
Surveillance is not about catching criminals — it is about shaping the environment we live in, profiling and predicting behavioral patterns, and reducing human autonomy into categorized, manageable datasets.
The loss of privacy is not sudden. The door was opened when the Dobbs decision overturned Roe v Wade — removing the only recognized mechanism for maintaining individual privacy.
Here, I introduce one of my favorite systems design patterns — Conway’s Law. The law states that systems reflect the communication structures that design them. When we apply this to a government, the implications are damning.
A political system built on secrecy, fragmentation, and elite communication are a natural pathway to producing mistrust, disengagement, and isolation. Whereas, a system designed around radical transparency and open participation naturally generate democratic engagement. Democracy is a community at scale. Knowing this, the failure of that system is not a mystery — it is a purposeful fracturing of the expected architectural outcome.
We then expand our conversation outward into the ongoing climate collapse and the impacts of war technologies. Environmental destruction is accelerated under national security exemptions. The military — one of the largest polluters on Earth — is routinely excluded from climate accountability. War becomes not just a human tragedy — it expands into an ecological disaster.
Despite the gravity of these topics, I always focus on the importance of civic engagement and reframing our actions into what they truly are — Patriotism. Reading, writing, organizing locally, showing up, and refusing to participate in manufactured hatred are all acts of patriotic, democratic maintenance. Ethan is part of this main process. He’s bridging the needed gaps while outlining future plans for systemic change — advocating for ways to measure candidates and institutions on outcomes rather than ideology, giving people information without biased coercion.
Once systems are named, once structures are understood, and once people recognize themselves as a class — the illusion breaks and class solidarity become the norm.
Actions You Can Take
Call your public servants on important issues:
Join the efforts to unmask law enforcement:
Sign the Move-On Petitions:
* Investigate Presidential Use of the Autopen for Pardons and Executive Actions
* A Petition to End the Shutdown and Restore Representation: Remove Speaker Johnson
* Mandate that ICE agents show their face and identification
Learn new skills:
* B. Cognition Labs — empathy forward, human centered, experiment based Leadership & Growth Courses for Higher Ed & Non-Profit Professionals
Thank you Melissa Corrigan, she/her, Neurodivergent Hodgepodge, Rachel @ This Woman Votes, Beth Cruz, Soso's World, and many others for tuning into my live video with Ethan Faulkner! Join me for my next live video in the app.
Nick’s Notes
I’m Nick Paro, and I’m sick of the shit going on. So, I’m using poetry, podcasting, and lives to discuss the intersections of chronic illness and mental wellbeing, masculinity, veteran’s issues, politics, and so much more. I am only able to have these conversations, bring visibility to my communities, and fill the void through your support — this is a publication where engagement is encouraged, creativity is a cornerstone, and transparency is key — please consider becoming a paid subscriber today and grow the community!
~Nick Paro
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