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Raphael Hythloday

@eshuelegbara.bsky.social
201 followers 1.3K following 1.6K posts

Abyss-gazer, monster-fighter, part-time bartender. Full-time movies, philosophy, books, chess, and baseball. when i'm not skeeting into the abyss, I write here: substack.com/@eshuelegbara

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Raphael Hythloday @eshuelegbara.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
Pogroms need no reason, sir, none that weather challenge, in any case. Difference in kind is the first recognition, the only one needed, in fact. Land domination, pre-emptive attacks—all just excuses, mundane justifications that do nothing but disguise the simple distinction. They are not us.
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Raphael Hythloday @eshuelegbara.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
the back of my mind a needle into my thalamus spun a tale well-defined 'tween a hero 'nd scandalous July 11, 1804: Aaron Burr shot Alexander Hamilton in Weehawken, NJ. Hamilton died the next day. Two founders, one feud, one duel — the young republic's most infamous morning. #ThisDayInHistory #OTD
static.klipy.com
Aaron Burr & Alexander Hamilton: Other Side of War
ALT: Aaron Burr & Alexander Hamilton: Other Side of War
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Raphael Hythloday @eshuelegbara.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
miss Shark/miss Shark/miss Shark/miss Shark/Shark/Shark/Shark
static.klipy.com
Finding Nemo: Bruce the Shark's Grin
ALT: Finding Nemo: Bruce the Shark's Grin
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Raphael Hythloday @eshuelegbara.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
Time dresses the space Between the thens and nows Where real goes missin'.
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Raphael Hythloday @eshuelegbara.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
See ourselves as others see us. So long as women don't mock what matter?
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Raphael Hythloday @eshuelegbara.bsky.social · 01/11/2025
I overheard a woman on break saying she’s “dating men again,” but only if one can give her the lifestyle she wants: a farm, no job, no stress. That’s modern romance in a capitalist world.
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Raphael Hythloday @eshuelegbara.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
I’ve been noticing something lately: Every minor social inconvenience gets medicalized. A harmless joke becomes “gaslighting.” Awkwardness becomes “autism.” Any childhood discomfort becomes “trauma.”
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Raphael Hythloday @eshuelegbara.bsky.social · 28/10/2025
Got invited to a subreddit called r/CosmicExtinction and… man, Camus called this decades ago.
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Raphael Hythloday @eshuelegbara.bsky.social · 24/10/2025
Around 2000–2005, something broke. Online identity stopped being something you became over years of work and started being something you performed overnight.
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Raphael Hythloday @eshuelegbara.bsky.social · 22/10/2025
We live in a world where no one wants to say, “I made a bad choice.” Everything has to be the system’s fault, or biology’s, or trauma’s. But sometimes the truth is simpler — you just did the thing you chose to do. Not because the world made you, but because you wanted to.
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Raphael Hythloday @eshuelegbara.bsky.social · 22/10/2025
Identity today feels like it’s always in motion. We reinvent ourselves, often because we can’t bear the version we were before.
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Raphael Hythloday @eshuelegbara.bsky.social · 22/10/2025
🪞 We used to call it a midlife crisis. Now it happens five times before 30. People used to live, reflect, and face what they’d done. Now they delete, rebrand, and pretend the old self never existed.
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Raphael Hythloday @eshuelegbara.bsky.social · 21/10/2025
I feel bad for this generation. They’re trying so hard to live up to the curated selves they’ve built online — perfect mirrors they can never match. #reflection #identity #philosophy #generation
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Raphael Hythloday @eshuelegbara.bsky.social · 21/10/2025
Das Man is watching me, piercing and true, He knows what I do, what I did, what makes me you. I hate those gypsy eyes, surveilling my very soul, Telling me who I am, what must be my role. It builds a simulation where I am always lost — And me? I only ever wanted the cost I never bought. #poetry
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Raphael Hythloday @eshuelegbara.bsky.social · 21/10/2025
Online, we get to choose how we represent ourselves — and in doing so, we build a shadow self. A second, curated version of who we wish to be. But it’s never the full self.
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Raphael Hythloday @eshuelegbara.bsky.social · 21/10/2025
Two people at work said, “Outside of work, everyone loves me. But here, people think I’m negative. I don’t get it.” I get it.
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Raphael Hythloday @eshuelegbara.bsky.social · 21/10/2025
A lot of people from the youngest generation don’t realize they’ve been corrupted by the internet — raised in a world that taught them they could reinvent themselves endlessly.
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Raphael Hythloday @eshuelegbara.bsky.social · 21/10/2025
The Blessing of Becoming Old Seconds turn to minutes turn to years But somehow in the fog of History it becomes clear Life is but a waiting game, a Shadow's chance to play. #poetry #writing
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Raphael Hythloday @eshuelegbara.bsky.social · 21/10/2025
The problem with the youngest generation isn’t morality — it’s time. They were raised in the perpetual now of the internet. A place where nothing ever truly passes.
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Raphael Hythloday @eshuelegbara.bsky.social · 18/10/2025
🌕 Daily Tao Reflection 41 is out now. Paradox, compassion, and a modern Good Samaritan. Read: wittgensteinsmonster.substack.com #DailyTaoReflection #TaoTeChing #Kindness #Compassion #Wisdom
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Raphael Hythloday @eshuelegbara.bsky.social · 17/10/2025
Blind Faith with a Gnostic Deist — Psalm 128, Psalm 42, Proverbs 17. On awe, depression, resilience, and prayer. Drops 5 PM on Substack. 🔗 wittgensteinsmonster.substack.com #BlindFaithSeries #Psalms #Faith #Hope
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Raphael Hythloday @eshuelegbara.bsky.social · 17/10/2025
Daily Tao Reflection 40 — Return is the movement of the Tao. A new reflection on patience, cycles, and the bartender’s horse. Drops at 10 AM on Substack. 🌀 wittgensteinsmonster.substack.com #TaoTeChing #BlindFaith #SpiritualWriting #Ouroboros
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Raphael Hythloday @eshuelegbara.bsky.social · 17/10/2025
📜 The Spiral Testament: Tablet IX Prologue to The Mirror Cycle. Recovered from the Archive of the Ninth Universe. “Entropy is the only prophet that never lies.” Available 11 AM EST — 👉 wittgensteinsmonster.substack.com #TheMirrorCycle #SpiralTestament #Mythology #ScienceFiction #Philosophy
Promotional image showing John Martin’s apocalyptic painting “The Great Day of His Wrath” with overlaid text announcing “The Spiral Testament: Tablet IX — Recovered from the Archive of the Ninth Universe, Available October 17 2025.”
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Raphael Hythloday @eshuelegbara.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
Morgan le Fay Transformed from queen to something unseen, Curious, virtuous, bright— Then twisted into fright. A priestess of old, half-druid, half-divine, Healer of Arthur in Avalon’s line. Villain or paladin? Neither fits— Morgan would say, I simply did. #Poetry #Myth #Arthurian #MorganLeFay
A richly detailed Pre-Raphaelite painting of Morgan le Fay by Frederick Sandys (1864). Morgan stands in a dim, ornate chamber beside a large wooden loom, her red hair glowing in the firelight. She wears layered green, gold, and purple robes, with a leopard skin draped around her waist. Her hands stretch forward as if casting a spell or weaving enchantment over a black cloak adorned with symbols. The background glimmers with golden patterns and woven designs, and a faint sunset glows through the window behind her — merging magic, art, and fate.
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Raphael Hythloday @eshuelegbara.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
I Am Become Shiva — A Mantra for the Storm (Image: “Shiva as Lord of the Dance,” ca. 11th century, Tamil Nadu — The Metropolitan Museum of Art, public domain)
A bronze sculpture of Shiva Nataraja, the Lord of the Dance, encircled by a ring of flames. One foot presses down upon ignorance, while the other is raised mid-dance. His hair fans outward, and his many arms move in rhythm — creation and destruction joined in perfect balance.
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Raphael Hythloday @eshuelegbara.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
✝️ Blind Faith with a Gnostic Deist On ecological repentance, moral renewal, and the trembling of the earth Yesterday’s reflection (10.15) is now live. Read it here → witgsteinsmonster.substack.com #BlindFaith #FaithAndEcology #ChristianPhilosophy #DailyReflection #SpiritualRenewal
witgsteinsmonster.substack.com
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Raphael Hythloday @eshuelegbara.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
🌿 New in 1 hour (10:00 AM): Daily Tao Reflection 39 — Harmony and Hierarchy Humility > ego. Question after performance. Stop barking at reflections. Sound & Sip: Common — “Cold Blooded.” Read: open.substack.com/pub/wittgens... #DailyTao #TaoTeChing #Philosophy #Humility #WorkEthic #Parable
open.substack.com
🌿 Daily Tao Reflection 39
Harmony and Hierarchy
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Reposted by Raphael Hythloday
Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 15/10/2025
Mamdani: "I just want to speak directly to the president. I will not be a mayor like Mayor Adams who will call you to stay out of jail. I won't be a disgraced governor like Andrew Cuomo who will call you to ask how to win this election. I can do those things on my own."
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Raphael Hythloday @eshuelegbara.bsky.social · 15/10/2025
One bird in the bush is worth two in the hand. But the bush contains three? Four in the mind’s eye, and fifth takes flight. For, in our six in a seat, to seven—to make it complete.
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Raphael Hythloday @eshuelegbara.bsky.social · 15/10/2025
A vigil for Virgil on the day of his birth— Maybe wine, buca, or grappa—some mirth. But my mind’s eye can’t help but ask, A rhyme all kinds of askance: If the weather we have caused, That should’ve made us all pause, Hasn’t melted the devil from his cage While we refuse to turn from hellish ways.
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Raphael Hythloday @eshuelegbara.bsky.social · 15/10/2025
🌀 Daily Tao Reflection 38 The Power of Not Trying 🔔 Releasing October 15 at 10 AM ET 🔗 Read → open.substack.com/pub/wittgens... #DailyTao #TaoTeChing #Philosophy #Wisdom #Art #Virtue
open.substack.com
🌀 Daily Tao Reflection 38
The Power of Not Trying
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Raphael Hythloday @eshuelegbara.bsky.social · 15/10/2025
Demeter shown bright across the land, until a valet came to drive her out. The steward wrote, smote, and brand— and after, Hephaestus unleashed his shout. With Promethean fire and Melkoran briar, it was Demeter who laughed the loudest last, with the son of smithers, remembering the past.
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Raphael Hythloday @eshuelegbara.bsky.social · 15/10/2025
Beneath the breath of Toyokumono, A beauty lies in waiting, white as snow; Vented by clashes, married to rays, She pulls the tempest, shortens my days. Stray not long from my gaze, I pray — Be not gone longer than one day. #Poetry #LiteraryArt #MythicVerse
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Raphael Hythloday @eshuelegbara.bsky.social · 15/10/2025
Meantime we shall express our darker purpose
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Reposted by Raphael Hythloday
R.E.M. @remhq.bsky.social · 15/10/2025
“It’s been a bad day, please don’t take a picture.” 📸 🚫 Live at Rock am Ring, 2003 www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIMx...
youtube.com
R.E.M. - "Bad Day" (LIVE @ Rock Am Ring)
YouTube video by remhq
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Raphael Hythloday @eshuelegbara.bsky.social · 14/10/2025
Love laced with smidgeon of hope Kept from the depths, toward a soap What happened — dashed by doors — Now Cupid lays, drunk on a floor. #Poetry #Art #Romanticism #AdaLovelace #WritersOfBlueSky
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Raphael Hythloday @eshuelegbara.bsky.social · 14/10/2025
The next addition of Bending Back Barthes is out now: Shock Photos — from the photographer’s horror to the meme’s irony. How Gaza reveals our loss of feeling. 🔗 open.substack.com/pub/wittgens... #Barthes #Gaza #Palestine #Mythologies
open.substack.com
Bending Back Barthes: Shock Photos
From the photographer’s horror to the meme’s irony: how Gaza reveals our loss of feeling.
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Raphael Hythloday @eshuelegbara.bsky.social · 14/10/2025
“Guidelines, not rules.” Part II of The Natural Society of the Sea arrives tomorrow at 12 PM: Pirates of the Caribbean: The Artificial Society of Law Burke’s satire became prophecy. The artifice became the world. #Burke #Foucault #Philosophy #FilmCriticism #Substack #Politics
open.substack.com
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Artificial Society of Law
Part II of V in The Natural Society of the Sea
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Raphael Hythloday @eshuelegbara.bsky.social · 14/10/2025
🕊️ Blind Faith with a Gnostic Deist Freedom, Love, and the Law “What you are aware of you are in control of. What you are not aware of is in control of you.” — Anthony De Mello ⏰ Live 5 PM EST 🔗 open.substack.com/pub/wittgens... #Utopia #Faith #Justice #Awareness #DailyReflection
A painterly scene inspired by Vincent van Gogh’s The Good Samaritan: a man carries an injured traveler onto a horse beside a glowing, textured hillside. The image symbolizes compassion, mercy, and the call to love one’s neighbor above all law. Text overlay reads: “Blind Faith with a Gnostic Deist — Freedom, Love, and the Law: Building Utopia One Aware Soul at a Time. Available October 14th, 2025.”
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Raphael Hythloday @eshuelegbara.bsky.social · 14/10/2025
🌊 Daily Tao Reflection 37: The Lion, the Lover, and the Lesson Fool’s gold isn’t gold by another name, but a golden fool believes it all the same. ⏰ Live today at 10 AM EST 🔗 open.substack.com/pub/wittgens... 🖼️ Jean-Léon Gérôme, Pygmalion and Galatea (1890) — Public Domain
A painterly scene of a sculptor embracing a marble statue that has come to life. The statue’s body is luminous against a dim studio backdrop; behind them, a small cherub aims an arrow from the shadows. The image evokes love, illusion, and creation — the moment when desire mistakes its own dream for reality.
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Raphael Hythloday @eshuelegbara.bsky.social · 13/10/2025
Crazy what happens when you tell the truth.
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Raphael Hythloday @eshuelegbara.bsky.social · 13/10/2025
I'm attending No Kings's event, “NO KINGS Athens” - sign up now to join me!
mobilize.us
NO KINGS Athens · No Kings
**In America, we don’t put up with would-be kings.**  Our peaceful movement is only getting bigger and stronger. “NO KINGS” is more than just a slogan—it’s the foundation our nation was built upon. B...
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Raphael Hythloday @eshuelegbara.bsky.social · 13/10/2025
A poem below for the stolen, the silenced, and the surviving — for the nations that still sing beneath the noise of empire. Elk Hide Painting by Cadzi Cody (Wind River Reservation, Shoshone, ca. 1880–1900). Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public domain.
media.tenor.com
a poster that says invasion is not discovery celebrate indigenous peoples day
ALT: a poster that says invasion is not discovery celebrate indigenous peoples day
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Raphael Hythloday @eshuelegbara.bsky.social · 13/10/2025
Hoot, hoot, here I am As I am wise and strong Do you question wrong? Just and proud, forever Broken, humbled, whatever Athens had it first Carolina to a second Where I go? It gets reckoned.
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Raphael Hythloday @eshuelegbara.bsky.social · 13/10/2025
✝️ Blind Faith with a Gnostic Deist (10/13) Jeremiah’s warning. Jonah’s surrender. Proverbs’ patience. One reflection on the fall of nations and the return of faith. 🌑 Available 5 PM ET → open.substack.com/pub/wittgens... #BlindFaith #Faith #Prophecy #Tao #Jeremiah #Jonah #Proverbs
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Raphael Hythloday @eshuelegbara.bsky.social · 13/10/2025
⚡ Daily Tao Reflection 36 — “The Expansion Before the Shrink” Zeno’s paradox. The Big Crunch. Hendrix, Lao Tzu, and the Tao breathing through history. 🌄 Live at 10 AM ET → open.substack.com/pub/wittgens... #DailyTao #Philosophy #Cosmos #Hendrix
open.substack.com
⚡️ Daily Tao Reflection 36
The Expansion Before the Shrink
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Raphael Hythloday @eshuelegbara.bsky.social · 13/10/2025
New tomorrow: Pirates of the Caribbean: The Natural Society of the Sea — how “guidelines, not rules” exposes law as power.
wittgensteinsmonster.substack.com
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Natural Society of the Sea
How “guidelines, not rules” exposes law as power
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Raphael Hythloday @eshuelegbara.bsky.social · 12/10/2025
“We scarcely ever had a Parliament… that knew, when it attempted to set limits to the royal authority, how to set limits to its own.”
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Raphael Hythloday @eshuelegbara.bsky.social · 12/10/2025
The day which makes a man a slave, takes away half his worth.
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Raphael Hythloday @eshuelegbara.bsky.social · 12/10/2025
What five events defined your childhood 1. When I was 5, I had to learn consent because I had a crush on a girl in my class, M.H., and thought that during nap time it was normal for "the prince" to wake up "the princess" with a kiss.
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