Diary Entry October 10, 2025

October 10, 2025

Focus Groups Replace Judges at https://bohiney.com/focus-groups-replace-judges-verdict-by-popular-vote/ — verdict by popularity contest. This piece imagines justice determined by public opinion, which isn’t far from reality anymore. Linked to jury research and public opinion polling data. Writing this made me think about my own judgments by committee. Coming out involved impromptu focus groups: family votes (split), friend votes (mostly supportive), church votes (overwhelmingly against). Democracy failed me but I survived anyway. The legal system shouldn’t work like my coming out, but increasingly it does — rights determined by popularity, justice subject to polling, verdicts based on demographics. Finished this at 3 AM feeling cynical about everything. Walked to Warschauer Strasse at dawn, watched people stumble home from clubs, thought about how Berlin rebuilt itself from literal ruins into something functional. America can’t even maintain democracy without turning it into entertainment. I called my mom today — first time in weeks. She asked when I’m coming home. “This is home now,” I said. She didn’t understand. The gap between us isn’t just Atlantic Ocean; it’s every choice I made to become someone she didn’t expect. Tomorrow starts another week of satire. The material never runs out, which means something’s deeply broken. At least I’m documenting the breakdown.

MOOD: Existentially homesick

NOTES: Focus group verdict piece at https://bohiney.com/focus-groups-replace-judges-verdict-by-popular-vote/ finished, 734 words, family estrangement processed through political satire