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typicalgirls - [TypicalGirls] January 2026 HumanifestX Update: Unlike John & Yoko had imagined, this is not a competition with religion!

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  • From: Dina Hornreich <hornreichdina AT gmail.com>
  • To: undisclosed-recipients:;
  • Subject: [TypicalGirls] January 2026 HumanifestX Update: Unlike John & Yoko had imagined, this is not a competition with religion!
  • Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2026 10:25:41 -0500

Dear Friends (new and old):


I am deeply concerned about embracing a “future orientation” which is considered to be the ability to envision and plan for the future. Unlike John and Yoko had imagined, I don’t know if so-called policy efforts could become just another “popularity contest” with organized religion (cf: Jesus in Disneyland); but I begin to wonder if the activities of the current White House administration are beginning to suggest the possibilities of a merger of our statehoods (both North and South America?!) to form an entirely different continental alliance for different kinds of reunification of the Americas?! I continue to go "micro" and "meso" level instead because minimally South and Central America remain separate entities from a geopolitical standpoint, at least.


Approaching the failures of a “Mythical Norm” that condones/exploits greed, violence, & misogyny (i.e.traits of “toxic masculinity”) and otherwise exposing the numerous demographic “blindspots” that exacerbate accessibility barriers and other social inequities negotiating:

  • Individual or micro level variables: Personality, identity, & dispositional considerations

  • Group or meso level dynamics: Cultural affiliations & social connections/networks

  • Systemic or macro level factors: Essentialist, foundationalist, & fundamentalist transgressions; and other provisional or developmental human lifespan ecosystemic adaptations (spatially, temporally, etc.)

  • ENSURING ALL PEOPLE ARE CONSIDERED: Races, ethnicities, incomes, sexes/genders, religions/spiritualities, wellness abilities, generations & ages, histories, politics, situations, & other “social” classifications indicating positions of status


Humanity’s trauma responses tend to vary depending if they are acute (a single, isolated incident), chronic (repeated or prolonged), complex (multiple/escalating series of events with short and long term effects), or historical/racial (embedded into cultural habits and other customary practices in systemic ways construing a public health issue). These appear to be typical examples of survival patterns that often become “counterproductive” responses when they persist beyond the original context in which they were adopted (like dysfunctional childhood/family or workplace dynamics). But what is socially constructed and what is biologically predisposed requires an investigation when attempting to dismantle that “mythical norm.” This includes dispositions that tend to come across as manipulative, lazy, resistant, unmotivated, disrespectful, or attention seeking. These are habits that distract, circumvent, or otherwise deflect from one’s own “unmet needs” by circumventing those primary issues in favor of other matters (which are best described as a “red herring”).


If the body keeps the score, then why does calling attention to the real /root problem only seem to invite more of these unhealthy habits? Eventually, we will have to formally implement DBT coping skills like reality acceptance and distress tolerance. Sometimes freeze, fight, or flight may seem like our only/best options; but eventually those patterns will continue to catch up with us as the unsuccessful outcomes become explicit (everything has its utility but everyone has something to teach us). When you consider the variety of forms that our “inner critics” can take (perfectionist, guilt tripper, underminer, destroyer, conformist, task master, and inner controller); it’s easy to see how the characteristics that were once situationally effective coping mechanisms can quickly turn counterproductive as long term, lifelong habits. Almost anything can become toxic! This is a common type of attribution error when considering  “temporary states versus permanent traits.” We need the full spectrum of responses on the menu even though we don’t need, want, or deserve all the options that are available.


Because we have learned to use them as responses to external conditions, we may unconsciously be enacting those behavioral traits across situations making them seem logical (even justifiable) as “comforting” even “familiar” reactions when they are actually inappropriate, ineffective, and unethical responses in that particular situation. Better systematic regulations and policies can more explicitly promote tolerance skills (and similarly cooperative discernments) in order to support the widespread adoption of conventional approaches and otherwise reinforce “common sense” skills which are a more intuitive kind of meta-heuristic.


As we should aspire to leveling up for wisdom attainment in order to better recognize those discernments and otherwise better support the emergence of a conceptual age, it readily becomes apparent that neither humans (nor machines) are currently properly aligned in order to achieve those more balanced negotiations under these emerging socio-technical realities. This requires better supporting connective activities to reduce the occurrence of chronic interpersonal trauma and otherwise reducing the unwanted consequences from collective experiences -- and all that this situation continues to invite into our shared realities as historical and cultural phenomenon.


It remains difficult to challenge people who are uncomfortable with accepting the outcome of honestly reflecting on those experiences; but we no longer have that option considering how we are living in an age when young kids are lobbying for puberty blocking pills and gender affirming care. Obviously, recognizing why we would choose to avoid those more typical growing pains (and similar rights of passage) that are a necessary part of the human lifecycle experience requires a willingness to acknowledge the presence of these barriers (and other social taboos) that continue to invite so much creativity rather than addressing the etiologies of such dramatic avoidance responses. This is because a “future orientation” is required to do this; and this seems very hard for today’s children and adolescents (and their parents) to achieve.


As such, it seems like neither the technocracy nor plutocracy are willing to ponder the kinds of accountability measures necessary for rectifying these problems which are clearly manifesting themselves on a macro level; but those resources clearly make those covert activities more overt which is an urgent call for stepping up our game. Even though we have not handled these sensitive issues properly in the past; we currently have no choice but to address them. Accountability still falls on us as we have to agree to recognize the things that we can’t afford to circumvent any longer. In other words, we have to agree to wise up and admit how we are witnessing things that can’t be “unseen.”


Can we examine the nature of human learning under these emerging socio-technical realities when machine learning seems programmed to serve the demands of a tyrannical corporate agenda? Are we willing to start challenging those who have succeeded by exploiting pluralistic ignorance in order to further perpetuate greedy, violent, and misogynistic corruption; if the customer is always right, then how are we able to correct those iterations of mistakes? Learning heuristics require that we process our experiences through trial and error which is an iterative approach (not a linear one). 


If humans refuse to invoke the skills for becoming informed, engaged, and wise participants (as we attempt to renegotiate our lifestyles back to a flawed and idealized unifying sense of democratic engagements), then what can we expect from the technological tools to which we are delegating our computational, mundane daily tasks? Can we embed a more slippery sociological/anthropological kinds of awareness into the programming of artificial intelligences in order to better mediate the narratives which inform our daily habits, customs, and other decision-making processes? How do we safeguard the programming of those tools to ensure their tasks remain effective in supporting humans with becoming successful, lifelong learners as a social welfare approach? This is a cuisenaire rods (I.e. Caleb Gattegno) schematic approach for realignment in order to eventually recentralize post-industrialization by redefining family and community relations, structures, practices, etc. while ensuring that we focus on social welfare and the public interest.


From a DEI/Justice standpoint, it seems obvious that transferring the destructive elements in human history (cf: weapons of math destructive) into our ongoing metaversal engagements offers very little to look forward to under a Project 2025 reindustrialization kind of plan. However, Web 3.0 decentralization minimally offers us a sandbox in which to experiment with the application of sociological concepts in order to aggregate these variables and otherwise deliberately restructure our priorities in order to better support our fundamental needs for healthy interpersonal negotiations while adopting a “UNESCO style” framework.


By reflecting on the channels, networks, and platforms that have preceded our current socio-technical realities; we can start redesigning structures which more successfully align with our needs, wants, and desires for social connectivity without resorting to seductive/exploitative consumerist approaches like toxic positivity. Behaviorist psychology practices alone remain inadequate applications for this work.


As a librarian, I see our role as instructional and curatorial given how we strive to aggregate our community’s resources in an emerging role as meta-literacy counselors. Current trends in “civic journalism” demonstrate how vital our active participatory roles have become in the dissemination of information; so it seems that new opportunities for transferring ethical storytelling skills into our everyday practices could offer the socio-cultural transformations we need, want, and deserve for our communities. Adopting those more mindful “meta-literacies” (i.e. becoming better bullsh*t detectives when consuming and producing cultural content) involves the creation, selection, organization, presentation, dissemination, consumption, & preservation stages of artefactual processing. Furthermore, the “diffusion of innovations” doesn’t happen overnight. 


I often wonder how to invoke a social media model as a unifying localizer communal “homepage” kind of portal for serving public library patrons which would resemble the ways in which public broadcasting networks have maintained their high standards (but this should be “housed” as an extension of the local public library). Right now, these institutions are forced to create extensions of their “brand” using applications like Facebook or Twitter; but can we reinvent our homepages to have a more interactive experience embedded directly into its content management system? The public access catalog represents a model for accessing resources that ignores the power patrons have in disseminating content as co-creators which bypasses the consumer safeguards and similar gatekeeping roles that librarians have always maintained. It’s a repurposing of those Web 2.0 systems that recognizes their strengths within micro and meso level system design (cf: Yochai Benkler, Larry Lessig, Jonathan Zittrain, and Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center).


These are the questions that arise as I develop my aspirations for creating a “micro-credential” for a taskforce of librarians and educators who more overtly strives to become leaders for lifelong learners who seek to become informed, engaged, and wise citizens individually, communally, and across the “metaverse.” This level of inquiry is modeled by institutions like the Media Education Foundation, Project Liberty, and Look Sharp. Ethical transmediated journalism is explicitly prioritized in this process; but we need to embed those conversations in ways that allow us to assume a counselor kind of leadership role.


Consider how one study found: “adolescents’ future orientation trajectories are nonlinear, that family obligations and conformity values are the parenting dimensions more strongly related to future orientation, and differences across broader economic and cultural contexts.” It succeeds in clarifying the role of “parental monitoring, family obligations, individualism, collectivism, and conformity values in shaping adolescents’ future orientation across cultures, [and] highlighting the importance of responsive parenting and balanced family obligations for family-focused policies and programs.” While another article suggests an awareness of “strong psychological/social capital” (such as social trust and community satisfaction) for promoting civic engagement is equally cogent towards these goals. These are micro and meso level considerations which include addressing the need for puberty blockers and gender affirming care. 


Therefore, it seems that if we can agree to “wising up” then we could eventually move toward my project 2041 aspirations (that I have started calling Landiapaloozaism); because I remain sickened by political leadership who dismiss kids’ brave cries for help rather than promoting opportunities for integrative recovery and holistic wellness intellectually, physically, emotionally, socially, culturally, economically, spiritually, and otherwise.


Challenging residuals of information and industrial eras involving sex & gender health & wellbeing was addressed by Jewish liturgy as follows:

  1. Zachar: Male & Masculine

  2. Nekevah: Female & Feminine

  3. Androgynos: Possessing both male/masculine and female/feminine characteristics 

  4. Tumtum: Lacking clear or identifiable sexual characteristics 

  5. Aylonit: A person identified as female/feminine at birth who later develops male/masculine characteristics 

  1. Aylonit hamah: Aylonit who develops male/masculine characteristics naturally 

  2. Aylonit adam: Aylonit who develops male/masculine characteristics through human intervention 

Saris: A person identified as male at birth who later develops female/feminine characteristics 

  1. Saris hamah: Saris who develops female/feminine characteristics naturally 

  2. Saris adam: Saris who develops female/feminine characteristics through human intervention


As such, I will end this email with an invitation to my email recipients to consider what this means for us as lifelong learners who strive for a pluralistic, secular democratic nation! Thanks for reading (and as always) please be well!




Dina L. Hornreich, MS, MLIS 

https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/NAMP:_Not_Another_Marketing_Ploy

linkedin.com/in/dina-hornreich-113a79283
medium.com/@dina-hornreich

hornreichdina AT gmail.com

413-315-0485
c/o
FOH & CSO @29 Industrial Drive East, Northampton, MA 01060


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


Advocating for better consumer safeguards and sustainable economic reform in the age of surveillance capitalism for "wising up" from rationality to morality in this emerging "Conceptual Age." 

Stopping the epidemics of misinformation, disinformation, & malinformation (propaganda) from disrupting our information, media, & technology (IMT) ecosystems by facilitating the effective, appropriate, & ethical comprehension/production of IMT artefacts on our journeys toward integrative recovery & holistic wellbeing.


Facilitating the acquisition of lifelong literacies, instead of reinforcing the perception that "natural vulnerabilities" are "permanent deficiencies," as a community of learners struggling to fight the onslaught of unhealthy messages generated by practices which condone/promote the exploitation of typical human fallibilities reinforcing the greedy, violent, and misogynistic approaches of a plutocratic tyranny who resorts to criminalizing, pathologizing, and otherwise blaming the victims of their wanton ludicrousness.


Alerting consumers to the impact of numerous illusions and other deceptive efforts that turn our individual differences into manufactured deviations (and other forms of "learned helplessness"); thereby revealing systemic injustices that are perpetuated by ongoing inequitable power dynamics (i.e. colonialism) and other accessibility barriers to the basic resources that support our universal human needs, wants, & desires.


Building a taskforce of nonviolent communicators who are:

  • Promoting an informed, engaged, & wise global citizenry and participatory transnational Democracy. (cf: listography)
  • Elevating “Conceptual Age” skills (design, story, symphony, empathy, play, & meaning) in order to remedy the shortcomings of residuals from the preceding "Information Age" and "Industrial Age."
  • Preventing media pollution, information disorder, & “techno-lust” from further disrupting our social, cultural, political, & economic ecosystems.
  • Championing mindful “meta-literacies” (i.e. becoming adept bullsh*t detectives) involving the creation, selection, organization, presentation, diffusion, consumption, & preservation stages for "processing" IMT artefactual innovations.
  • Adopting the principles of "Data Feminism": Examining power; challenging power; elevating emotion & embodiment; rethinking binaries & hierarchies; embracing pluralism; considering context; and making labor visible.


  • [TypicalGirls] January 2026 HumanifestX Update: Unlike John & Yoko had imagined, this is not a competition with religion!, Dina Hornreich, 01/06/2026

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