Gabriel Garcia
@solidgarcia.bsky.social
American reverberating between Berlin and Brazil. Translator, musician, writer. Husband, father. Third-culture person. Cardigan punk. Champion of mediocrity. linktr.ee/solidmaybe
Based on a Colbert Report segment from 15 (?) years ago, and tying into the "everyone is twelve now" concept, an essay about the nostalgia that makes us pine for the relatively recent past so that we can escape our current realities.
Being 9 – Things were better then
The nostalgia that makes us pine for the relatively recent past so that we can escape our current realities.
solidmaybe.substack.com
Just occurred to me that, pre-Internet, we didn't have to look at so many faces all the time. Unless you were talking to someone, watching TV, or looking at a reflection, you lived in a mug-free world. No more. As Schopenhauer once stated "Faces – ugly and dumb."
This is ridiculously scary. Yes, we are currently talking about ballrooms and reflecting pools and inflation and Iran and Venezuela and Epstein and crypto grift and the moral rot of the GOP. But all that is going to be forgotten soon. Shit is about to get real, as they say.
Zeke Hausfather@zekehausfather.com · 3d agoI'm not sure folks have realized just how crazy the second half of 2026 and 2027 will be for global temperatures – on the back of a record-smashing El Niño event. Here is my latest estimate of where both years will end up compared to global temperatures since 1850.
Wrote a sequel to a nearly-decade-old essay rant – this time, the focus is on the disposal of heroes. Looking for a way to let go of the idea of the saintly, perfect hero, so that we can focus on the ideas and art worthy of heritage.
No More Heroes Pt. II
A sequel to a nearly-decade-old essay rant – this time, looking for a way to let go of the idea of the saintly, perfect hero, so that we can focus on the ideas and art worthy of heritage.
solidmaybe.substack.com
Trapped in a never-ending cycle of trying to arrive in a time of ceaceless turmoil. Did manage to scrape together an essay against the age of certitude in the face of crisis though. The world is shifting, and opinions don’t/won't hold much weight.
Against Certainty (Bitch, Be Humble)
An essay against the age of certitude in the face of crisis. The world is shifting, and opinions don’t hold much weight.
solidmaybe.substack.com
It's @subvert.fm launch day today! My most recent project, Her Gang, is up there and I'll be adding lots of other stuff in the next weeks. Global, community-owned platforms is where it's at.
Wrote an essay trying explore the fiction that has underpinned our world for the last 250-odd years. The thought being that its dissolution could help overcome the current stagnation in the face of unprecedented crises.
What Is Progress?
Defining the fiction that has underpinned our world for the last 250-odd years.
solidmaybe.substack.com
New essay circling back to an idea that crept up while writing my thesis. Grief and understanding loss as key tools for enacting agency and growth in personal life as well as the current tumultuous moment.
Grief as a Tool for Navigating Our Time
Grief and understanding loss as key tools for enacting agency and growth in both personal and the current tumultuous moment.
solidmaybe.substack.com
Wrote up some words about the feeling of disconnect with your former life and selves. Happens a lot around particularly intense experiences, but also generally as you move into middle age and beyond. A fairly universal feeling of lost worlds.
Was It Not Real?
Occasionally, increasingly as one ages, you catch yourself lost in thought, drifting between memories and inner monologue.
solidmaybe.substack.com
Took a while to write this one for obvious reasons. First time talking about it outside of 2-3 times in various therapies. About how that visceral, frightening experience eventually allowed me to develop more understanding and compassion for others.
My First Attempt at Taking My Own Life
The circumstances surrounding and leading up to my first suicide attempt, and how that visceral, frightening experience allowed me to develop more understanding and compassion for others.
solidmaybe.substack.com
Reading "the Middle East war" had me thinking this could be a kind of Thirty Year War situation where historians will argue about when it actually started (October 7, 2023? 2011? Nerds will say 9/11), and people will write dissertations on all the factions, sides, and alliances. Either way, chaos.
AFP News Agency@en.afp.com · 5mo agoBREAKING An attack has killed a French soldier in Erbil in Iraq's Kurdistan region, says President Emmanuel Macron. A member of the armed forces "died for France during an attack in the Erbil region of Iraq," Macron posted on X, confirming the first French military death in the Middle East war
Essay elaborating on what sounds like a stupid question, but felt was missing. After 15 years of democratic politics defined by outrage and what you’re against, it bears repeating what people regularly risk their lives for.
Why Defend Democracy?
Sounds like a stupid question, but after 15 years of democratic politics defined almost solely by outrage and what you’re AGAINST, it bears repeating what people regularly risk their lives FOR.
solidmaybe.substack.com
Saw Rammstein open for The Ramones on the German leg of their farewell tour. Did NOT go down well.
𝕊𝕖𝕒𝕨𝕚𝕟𝕕 𝕠𝕗 𝔹𝕒𝕥𝕥𝕖𝕣𝕪@seawindofbattery.bsky.social · 7mo agoWhat’s your most ridiculous concert story? Mine is that I saw a Phish show with the drummer from Hanson.
Actually wrote an essay nearly 10 years ago using recovery (from addiction, mental health issues etc.) as an example of how a positive mindset is necessary for any positive outcome. Negative approaches will only beget a net zero outcome at best.
Negative and Positive – Identity and Self — Solid Maybe
A meditation on negative self-identification as affected through negative experiences and seeing parallels in this behavior, on an individual level, with larger-scale political currents and (inter)nat...
solidmaybe.com
Ned Resnikoff@resnikoff.bsky.social · 7mo agoI've increasingly come to view cynicism as the seedbed of totalitarianism, both because it can paralyze the opposition and because it implicitly validates the might-makes-right ethic of the authoritarian.
An essay idea that has been lying around for years that I finally finished about how we keep finding ourselves living out schoolyard social dynamics throughout our lives.
You're in High School Again
How we keep finding ourselves living out schoolyard social dynamics throughout our lives.
solidmaybe.substack.com
Been trying to relearn old songs recently and wasn't really sure why. Only just occurred to me that the anniversary of my brother's death is approaching and they were all songs from the album I recorded about him.
I Lose, by Shitwolf
10 track album
shitwolf.bandcamp.com
When all the global superpowers are authoritarian ethnonationalist bad actors, it might be a good time to define what democratic resistance looks like in the 21st century.
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 7mo agoAmerica is a rogue and malevolent state and global bad actor
I had an Austrian-German professor who was a pre-teen on 1 September 1939. He told us about how the invasion of Poland was announced over the PA system at a public pool, and how the reaction was quiet murmuring and bewilderment. People asked "What do we want with Poland?" 1/2
Yemen re-united the same year as Germany. Back to North and South Yemen after 36 years.
AFP News Agency@en.afp.com · 7mo ago#BREAKING Yemen separatists announce two-year transition towards independence in south
It bears endless repeating that Russia is the largest nation in the world, with the largest nuclear arsenal, and the second largest (now battle-tested) military in the world. This is what we call "geopolitical little dick energy" aka classic autocratic imperialism.
Gareth Watkins@garethwatkins.bsky.social · 7mo agoThere are literal grown-ups who believe that NATO expansion is a prelude to 'Operation Bum-Rush Russia', where all the NATO countries will charge into nuclear-armed Russia one day for no particular reason and that's why invading Ukraine is anti-imperialist Praxis.
Offering up a quick translation of the German-language tirade re. the immigration/migration debate that I've been harassing German newspapers with as of late. Clear sign that I'm reaching peak middle-aged dad.
Who, us?!
Translation of a German-language tirade on the immigration/migration debate that I've been harassing German newspapers with as of late. Clear sign of reaching peak middle-aged dad.
solidmaybe.substack.com
Has anyone written about or done a study as to why people record their insights/drop truth bombs from inside their cars? Seems like it developed into the agreed environment for a specific kind of information communication.
Wrote something about how my experience working at mainland Europe's biggest refugee center in Berlin led to the realization that no one is actually interested in dealing with immigration as a reality of our world.
Immigration as Reality
How my experiences working at a refugee center led to the realization that no one is actually interested in dealing with immigration as a reality of our world.
solidmaybe.substack.com
Big move means lots of sorting. Gazing at my Nirvana ticket for the concert that never was (long story), I saw that Germans/Europeans have been publicly grappling with the fact that foreigners (Ausländer) exist for 31+ years now. They're gonna come to terms with it any day now.
Keeping the fun and light vibes going. Did an edit of an older essay about the death of my older brother and the insights it gave me re. certain aspects of suffering, trauma, and the shaping of perspectives through conflict.
About Death
Re-edit of an older essay about the death of my older brother and the insights it gave me re. certain aspects of suffering, trauma, and the shaping of perspectives through conflict.
solidmaybe.substack.com
New long-form essay up. My ode to Berlin. A first-person account of my life there, the places and people I found, the networks of care I encountered, and the ways it has shaped me as a person. Bit of TW on this one, as it covers a handful of sensitive topics.
My Berlin Is Not Your Berlin
My ode to Berlin. A first-person account of my life there, the places I found, the networks of care I encountered, and the ways it has shaped me as a person.
solidmaybe.substack.com
Trying to put my finger on something I kept stumbling across online. How our media landscape has led to widespread political and cultural amnesia, and what that means for people's general ability to orient themselves and their thinking in the wider world.
The Culture of Short-term Memory Loss
How the current media landscape has led to widespread political and cultural amnesia, and what that means for people's general ability to orient themselves and their thinking in the wider world.
solidmaybe.substack.com
This is precisely the world and atmosphere I grew up in. Only realized recently how formative it was to have it simply dissolve and dissappear. Gave me a fair few tools and perspectives that have been useful ever since.
Open Culture @openculture.bsky.social · 10mo agoThe Dos & Don’ts of Driving to West Berlin During the Cold War: A Weird Piece of Ephemera from the 1980s
