How I Found Substack (And Why I’m Writing This Manifesto)

Or: The Accidental Education of a Cognitive-Loon

The Alarm Signal: A Pattern Report

THE PATTERN RECOGNITION FRAMEWORK: A Journalism Manifesto for the Post-Truth Era

How Should We Do This Better Going Forward? A Biodistribution Transparency Framework for Next-Generation Medicine

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Before I explain what pattern recognition journalism is and why MeidasTouch is accidentally building the future of news, I need to tell you how I ended up here.

Because it matters.

Because understanding why someone creates something tells you whether to trust it.

And because this manifesto didn’t come from journalism school or media theory or political strategy.

It came from watching honest people build something real, and wanting to help.

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The YouTube Comments Phase

I didn’t know what Substack was until early 2025.

I was spending time in YouTube comment sections on a network called MeidasTouch—three brothers (Ben, Brett, and Jordan Meiselas) who’d started making rapid-response videos about political news during COVID. Subscriber-funded. No corporate backing. Just law, media, and marketing backgrounds turned toward pro-democracy journalism.

What caught my attention wasn’t their politics. It was their honesty.

Ben Meiselas, Michael Popok, Tennessee Brando—contributors who showed their receipts, called out lies directly, and didn’t waste time with “both sides” false equivalence when one side was openly confessing to authoritarian plans.

I recognized something: These people are doing journalism the way it needs to be done in an era of manufactured confusion.

So I asked myself: How do I help them reach more people?

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Teaching Algorithm Literacy in Comments

My answer was simple: Teach the audience how YouTube algorithms work.

Most people don’t understand that their attention isn’t passive. When you:

• Click on a video

• Watch it all the way through

• Like, comment, subscribe

• Come back regularly

You’re not just consuming content. You’re generating data that tells YouTube’s algorithm to show this content to more people like you.

Your attention is power. Use it strategically.

So I started writing comments explaining:

• How engagement metrics work

• Why watching full videos matters

• How subscriber funding creates editorial independence

• Why “click, like, subscribe” isn’t just a catchphrase—it’s how you help trustworthy journalism reach people who need it

I also started teaching what I call “constitutional loops and paradoxes”—the ways democratic systems can trap themselves in procedural contradictions.

IKEA flat-pack political science for people watching news.

Not because I had credentials. Because I saw people hungry for frameworks that helped them understand what they were witnessing.

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The Subtle Confirmation

At some point, I sent a message: Just explaining what I’d been doing in comment sections.

That’s when I knew: These aren’t just media personalities chasing engagement. These are people who recognize, when they see it. They’re serious. They’re trustworthy.

And they’re building infrastructure that democracy needs.

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Following Them to Substack

When someone from the network mentioned they were also on Substack, I looked it up.

I’d never heard of it.

But I understood immediately: A platform for subscriber-funded, independent writing. No algorithm gaming. No corporate capture. Just direct connection between writers and readers who value the work.

The same funding model MeidasTouch used for their journalism.

Democratic funding for democratic content.

So on March 6, 2025, I launched my Substack under the name “Cognitive-Loon.”

Not to build a brand. Not to monetize. To support pro-democracy work by teaching dimensional thinking frameworks that help people:

• Recognize authoritarian patterns

• Navigate algorithmic information environments

• Maintain cognitive capacity under propaganda pressure

• Build epistemic resilience

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Why “Cognitive-Loon”?

Three reasons:

1. The Loon Is a Warning Bird

Loons are water birds known for their distinctive alarm calls. When the water gets polluted, loons are among the first to sound warnings.

Democracy needs clean information ecosystems the way loons need clean water.

I’m making warning calls about epistemic collapse.

2. Reclaiming “Crazy” as Dimensional Competence

People who think dimensionally often appear “scattered” or “all over the place” to linear thinkers.

Trump calls his rambling “the weave” and claims it’s genius-level thinking.

I call mine “cognitive-loon” and acknowledge it looks chaotic—but explain why it’s actually tracking multiple causal streams simultaneously.

The difference? I’m honest about it. And I can actually explain the pattern I’m seeing.

3. Signaling to Fellow Neurodivergents

“If we don’t laugh, we’ll all go full Loon. And frankly, some of us are already halfway there.”

I’m directly addressing people who process information differently. Who see patterns others miss. Who’ve been told they’re “too sensitive” or “overthinking” when they were actually perceiving accurately.

You’re not broken. You’re processing dimensionally.

Welcome to the flock.

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What I Learned from MeidasTouch

Watching them operate taught me several things about why their model works:

1. Speed + Accuracy = Trust

They do rapid-response journalism. When something happens, they name it immediately with primary source documentation.

They don’t wait for the “narrative” to settle. They call authoritarian behavior what it is, in real-time, with receipts.

Traditional media is still parsing “is this really fascism?” while MeidasTouch is already showing you the historical precedent and explaining the implication chain.

2. Show Your Work

They don’t ask you to trust their authority. They put the video clips, documents, court filings, and direct quotes on screen so you can verify independently.

This isn’t just transparency. It’s teaching pattern recognition.

When you see the receipts repeatedly, you learn to spot the patterns yourself.

3. No False Balance

They don’t platform bad-faith actors. They don’t give equal time to documented liars.

This isn’t bias. It’s preserving signal clarity.

When you introduce noise into your signal by hosting people who are actively lying, you destroy your audience’s ability to recognize patterns.

MeidasTouch refuses to do that.

4. Community, Not Just Audience

The “MeidasMighty” aren’t passive consumers. They’re active participants who validate each other’s perception and distribute trustworthy information through their networks.

That’s not a fanbase. That’s distributed cognitive infrastructure.

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Why I’m Writing This Manifesto

After eight months of writing on Substack (259 articles so far—YES I have a problem, apparently), I’ve been developing frameworks for:

• Pattern recognition in authoritarian systems

• Dimensional thinking about democratic dysfunction

• Epistemic hygiene in manufactured confusion environments

• Survivor-vision as legitimate journalism methodology

And I keep coming back to MeidasTouch as the practical example.

They’re doing something right.

But I don’t think they fully understand why it works at the neurological and structural level. Maybe?

And if you don’t understand the mechanism, you can’t systematize it. Can’t scale it. Can’t teach others to replicate it.

So this manifesto is my attempt to:

1. Explain what MeidasTouch is accidentally building (pattern recognition journalism)

2. Show why it beats traditional media AND propaganda networks (it validates accurate perception instead of manufacturing confusion)

3. Provide actionable frameworks for scaling this model across all platforms and formats

4. Make the case for why this is the future of journalism in post-truth environments

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The Deeper Pattern

I didn’t set out to become a Substack writer.

I set out to help pro-democracy work by teaching people how to think dimensionally about system failure.

I found MeidasTouch doing honest journalism with a democratic funding model.

I taught algorithm literacy in their YouTube comments to help them reach more people.

I followed them to Substack to continue supporting their work through educational frameworks.

And along the way, I realized: They’re not just doing good journalism. They’re pioneering a completely different model that happens to be exactly what democracy needs right now.

This manifesto is me trying to give them the theory behind what their instincts are already doing.

Because if we can name the pattern, we can teach it.

And if we can teach it, we can scale it.

And if we can scale it, we can build journalism infrastructure that’s immune to manufactured confusion.

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What This Means for You

If you’re reading this, you’re probably either:

A) Part of the MeidasTouch team wondering who this Cognitive-Loon person is and why they’re writing manifestos

B) Part of the MeidasMighty community who followed the link from a comment or share

C) A fellow cognitive-loon who found this through pattern recognition and wants frameworks for what you’re sensing

D) Someone from traditional journalism curious about what these “new media” people are doing differently

Regardless of which category you’re in, here’s what I want you to know:

This manifesto isn’t theoretical. It’s based on watching real journalists build real infrastructure that’s actually working.

This manifesto isn’t academic. It’s written in accessible language because democracy requires educated citizens, not credentialed experts gatekeeping knowledge.

This manifesto isn’t neutral. It’s explicitly pro-democracy, pro-truth, and anti-manufactured-confusion. If you think those positions are “partisan,” we probably disagree on fundamental epistemology.

This manifesto is practical. Every framework includes actionable steps for implementation. No fluff. No spin. Just patterns and tools.

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A Note on Lagom and Service

There’s a Swedish concept called “lagom”—roughly translates to “just right, not too much, not too little, everyone gets some.”

It comes from “laget om”—”for the team.”

I write freely on Substack because I believe democratic consciousness education should be accessible to everyone. Some readers absorb a lot, some a little. But everyone gets access.

Lagom. For the team.

That’s why I’m not behind a paywall. That’s why I write in plain language. That’s why I use IKEA flat-pack frameworks instead of academic jargon.

Not because I’m dumbing things down. Because I’m building infrastructure.

Like the water tank in the changing room at Swedish sports clubs. Everyone gets water. Some drink more, some less. But the water is there, accessible, shared.

That’s the model.

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What Comes Next

The rest of this manifesto will:

1. Explain the neurological basis for why pattern recognition journalism works

2. Analyze what Fox News actually does (and why MeidasTouch’s model beats it structurally)

3. Provide the three-layer editorial framework for every story

4. Give actionable implementation steps for every role in a news organization

5. Show how to measure what actually matters (literacy, not just engagement)

6. Make the case for why this is how journalism survives in post-truth environments

It’s long. It’s detailed. It’s occasionally sarcastic and frequently earnest.

It’s written for people who care about democracy surviving and are willing to do the work to make that happen.

If that’s you, keep reading.

If not, that’s fine too. Lagom. Everyone gets some.

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One Last Thing

I’m not a journalist. I’m not a media theorist. I’m not a political strategist.

I’m someone with wolf-grandmother survival instincts and a Instrument engineer father who taught me to watch instruments and sound alarms when the sensors scream.

I’m a cognitive-loon making warning calls while teaching others to read the patterns.

And I found MeidasTouch doing the same thing through journalism.

So this manifesto is my way of paying it forward.

They taught me that rapid, honest, receipt-showing journalism can compete with propaganda networks.

I’m trying to teach them why it works and how to scale it.

That’s the deal.

Now let’s build the future of journalism.

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Peace, Love, and Respect to the beautiful cognitive-loons, the MeidasMighty, and everyone else trying to keep democracy’s water clean.

—Hans Jonsson
Dimensional Thinker
Professional Warning Bird
259 Articles and Counting

🦆🕯️💙

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