- @UrbanAnthroWatch: #MissouriFreehold isn’t just a political anomaly—it’s a living anthropology lab. Contract law instead of government? Let’s see if it scales.
- @MattMarmaduke: It’s only been a thing for 353 years here… I suppose that could be a fluke
- @DrLenaCordwainer: Apparently, they forgot to teach you the social contract and the basics of government wherever you got your anthropology degree from. All residency and citizenship in every single country is based on a contract. The difference in The Freehold is the decision whether or not you want to become a resident and later a citizen. You are free to walk away.
- @GreenFeastCollective: Watching V’ren engineers talk about gardening like it’s holy nearly broke me. I’d trade my job for one day in that soil.
- @FreeholdHR you are welcome to apply
- @CollapseScholar27: Call it neo-feudal if you want. But Marmaduke’s model proves post-state governance can still deliver potable water and algebra.
- @FarmerPaul4069: Any system that turns zebra pastrami into school lunch is doing something right. #TANSTAFL #FreeholdFarmLife
- @MaryYao: In true irony of #TANSTAFL, Students in Freehold schools eat two free meals a day, shared with staff and students
- @QueerDataWitch: “Let the loud ones sing.” That V’ren girl is braver than most adults I know. I want her on a T-shirt. #PostCasteKids
- @AngelinaReyes Homestrad karaoke night might be painful for a while, but it is certainly going to be fun.
- @KinseyHart: Uncle Matt will show us the way…
- @BeulahChakrobarty: Uncle Pitch Perfect is probably contemplating how much extra beer he will need
- @ChiefLarry; Not the most Christian thing you could say, but probably true. He will love them anyways… #LoveTheLittleChildren
- @AngelinaReyes Homestrad karaoke night might be painful for a while, but it is certainly going to be fun.
- @OnlyRealistLeft: The Freehold doesn’t offer equality—it offers belonging with conditions. Don’t confuse freedom with franchising.
- @JoJoKennedy: Yet still more equality than I ever saw living in Boston or Charlotte
- DrLenaCordwainer: Too true. My citizenship contract is a single page with everything spelled out. My Philly Condo agreement had a 200-page introduction of nothing but legalese, before they got to the actual 500 pages of must-never-do rules.
- @JoJoKennedy: Yet still more equality than I ever saw living in Boston or Charlotte
- @TiniklingFan89: Tiri Tall dancing with bruised ankles made me weep. That’s how culture evolves. That’s how joy survives. #CrossworldChildhood
- @AfroEcoSolar: Post-collapse and still no real grid failure? Missouri might be the first climate-resilient state-by-choice.
- @SnackMathAdvocate: Bina Son is now my personal hero. “Snack math” is officially the most wholesome STEM pipeline ever. #MathIsDelicious
- @OldWorldLegalist: No taxes, no judges, no elections. What happens when the founder dies?
- @RayyaChakrobarty: Wrong on all counts… he will be missed as he is the best of us.
- @JoJoKennedy: We will mourn his passing and hope he has prepared his successor well.
- @GuerillaArchivist: If you’re not documenting the new rituals in Missouri, you’re missing the actual birth of hybrid human-V’ren civic culture.
- @VrenDiaspora: Our children are safe. Our memories are intact. Missouri is no longer a landing zone—it’s our ground zero for healing. #WeRemember
- @BioethicsNow: Marmaduke’s answer to “who gets to stay” is deeply contractual. Not everyone sees that as a comfort.
- @MattMarmaduke: There isn’t a place in North America that doesn’t work this way.
- @EarthKidsFirst: These kids walk between languages, laugh across species lines, and don’t flinch at difference. We should be learning from them.
- @XenoPragmatist: Honestly shocked how well contract law is holding the Freehold together. Human or not, everyone signs something. #PaperCiv
- @GothVeganEngineer: Kemin Sol assembling Ikea furniture while dismantling centuries of caste hierarchy is my new favorite mental image.
- @EconAfterCollapse: The Freehold isn’t a tax shelter. It’s a values filter. Only those willing to commit, stay. That changes the economic calculus.
- @FirelineMedic: Renn Son wants to be the first V’ren EMT. I want him on my crew when the next storm rolls in. #FieldReady
- @RuralArtsReview: “Wood smells like stories.” Beti Shan’s got more poetry in her than half the New York scene. #FabricatorPoet
- @SkyNotCeiling: The kids from dissolved castes aren’t bitter—they’re searching. And they’re being raised to ask better questions than we ever did.
- @NoGodsNoGrain: Yeah, yeah, it’s a Freehold not a kingdom. But let’s not pretend a sovereign with a samosa isn’t still a sovereign.
- @MattMarmaduke: Aye, call it Freehold, fief, or field of frogs— A crown is still a crown, though grease-stained with samosas. Wouldst thou uncrown a lord for love of lentils? Fie!
- @TechnoPastoralist: The Freehold is literally doing post-industrial pastoralism—with AI-guided seeders. I didn’t think I’d live to see it.
- @HydrothermTears: Humidity ruins everything. Except human-V’ren cooperation apparently. That was the best bit of the day.
- @BalkanLibrarian: The difference between memory and myth is how well it’s archived. Missouri’s about to become required reading.
- @DanceThroughPain: “Dance through the pain. Make it part of the rhythm.” Kara Son is twelve and already understands more than most CEOs.
- @StreetsideShrines: I cried when Matt pointed out the Shinto shrine. My obaasan was married at one in Kyoto. I didn’t think any survived. #ContinuityMatters
- @ColonialWatcher: Missouri isn’t post-race. It’s post-caste. And that comes with new frictions we’re only starting to understand.
- @ChefRebuilder: Pastrami made from zebra. Brought down during a pandemic of roadside zoo refugees. Served with aioli made from local eggs. This is the Collapse Kitchen we deserve.
- @ContractualCynic: You can’t just legislate fairness—but maybe you can write it down, sign it, and enforce it at arbitration. We’ll see.
- @SingLoudestOne: Let the loud ones sing. Let the V’ren kids tell us what peace should sound like. #CrossoverGeneration
- @NewsWeCanChew: #ZebraPastrami in school lunches and all I get are freeze-dried corn bricks. America’s got tiers.
- @Technomancer91: Base-12 power grids are the flex of the century. If Marmaduke opens-source codes that interface, Earth jumps 20 years overnight.
- @KayForTheCommons: “You can leave” isn’t freedom if you have nowhere to go. Let’s not confuse contract law with consent. #FreeholdDebate
- @MattMarmaduke: I didn’t have to let you stay in the first place. Go tell Google or Meta that they owe you a place to live that they can’t kick you out of. Any other landlords put up with that bullshit? #InquiringMindsWantToKnow
- @ContractualCynic: I have read their charter, no one is born a citizen here except for the kids of The Freeholder. Where does that leave anyone?
- @AshleyMerchant: Citizenship is by sponsorship. I wasn’t born one, I was nominated by my parents as they were by theirs. This has been true in my family for generations.
- @CultOfInfrastructure: You know what keeps me up at night? Not the aliens. It’s the idea this guy could run Amtrak better than we ever did.
- @FormerFedByline: Missouri just redefined deterrence as “raccoon mitigation by goddaughter.” I love this timeline.
- @AstroBabel: Imagine your startup fails and your girlfriend gets a neural interface job in the Freehold. What do you even do after that?
- @UrbanLumberjack: “He shares tech but not tactics.” That’s a quote worth carving into a courthouse wall. #NeuralEthics
- @BroDirt: That base-12 grid explanation hurt my head more than the training modules probably do.
- @JeongDoesAgro: They’ve got zebra pastrami, vertical rice terraces, and hydro-cooling for servers. Meanwhile, I can’t get my lettuce to germinate. #CollapseGaps
- @FatherOfThree: Say what you want about Matt, but if your wife’s a nurse, you get a house for a dollar. I’m listening.
- @FreeholdHR: We have had recruiting offices in every major city for more than 50 years
- @CircuitSeeker: V’ren gear runs clean. I got to test a medical relay module last month. No drag, no latency. But yeah—it hurts on entry.
- @ReclaimRustbelt: What if the Freehold isn’t utopia, but just what happens when you build something on purpose?
- @FloydReyes: If it were a Utopia we wouldn’t have to defend our borders against feral tigers or cull kangaroos to prevent crop destruction
- @WokeButTired: “Performance is survival. Satisfaction is retention.” HR departments everywhere, take notes. #MissouriManual
- @CornbreadVoter: They made the alien math work for Missouri corn prices. That’s the real science fiction.
- @PracticalMagicMech: Still wild to me they’re using alien language fluency as workforce onboarding. HR’s gonna need a whole new playbook.
- @ExoLegalist: The arbitration choices are smart—especially offering Columbia as a neutral third party. That’s consent design, not coercion.
- @VelvetColony: Let the girl sing. Let the boy interface. Let the data run clean. I’m moving to the Freehold. #newamericanmythos
- @KoreanGrandmotherInSpace: I like the part where they feed the children. Not many places do that anymore. #JustSaying
- @Outstate_Analyst: He didn’t call it civilization. He called it a workshop. That’s deliberate. That’s dangerous. That’s inspiring.
- @NoRoomOnTheArk: Please explain how a guy with 7,000 citizens has better emergency response than most city-states.
- @Oxana2423: He is a logistics guy who makes sure our rigs are stocked and running well, not an ass kissing politician.
- @ShenWilson: His motto is: “Get Shit Done!”
- @CommsInTheDark: If they ever release the translation backend on that V’ren interface… it’ll change every language learning system on Earth.
- @SolarpunkStepper: The only real leap is trust? That’s either the most profound thing I’ve heard or a cult slogan. #StillThinking
- @TransitMoth: Grid uptime in the Freehold: 99.9%. Grid uptime in my building: 7 hours since Thursday. I hate it here.
- @EchoThrenody: He said: “Don’t expect me to polish the crown.” But man, that myth is burnished to a high shine. #Mythsmith
- @AngelinaReyes: HR has already received 345 inquiries about this as a potential job posting. Unless we post a job it isn’t available. Also please quit asking if any other part of him needs buffing; that is just unprofessional to send to HR. Inquire about here: r/TheresASubForThat
- @ParallaxAudit: They’ve got fallback successors, internal audits, and community metrics… This is the most functional post-collapse polity I’ve seen.
- @LittleLeagueDad: Upgraded every diamond to LLWS specs,and he put in an ice rink for his dead wife? This man is playing SimCity for keeps.
- @CorySchultz: He didn’t take credit for the new swimming pool movie venue, but should get it. We voted, he funded, and #SharkWeek2440 is gonna be awesom!
- @CulturalGravity: The Freehold is equal parts engineered resilience and narrative glue. No wonder the old powers are afraid of it.
- @MudOnMyBoots: Just say you don’t want to live in a failed condo in what used to be Ohio and go. I’ll be here with the base-12 irrigation system.
- @SyllabiAndSamosas: This is the only civilization where I can teach V’ren phonetics in the morning and eat goat vindaloo at night.
- @VijayaChakrobarty: Just wait until you have been here long enough to have Roo Vindaloo or Gator Phaal
- @GhostOfCivics: You don’t build a new system by arguing with the old one. You build one that works—and people come. #ShowMeSomethingBetter
- @CulturalConduit: When a girl in a dress says, “I like how it swirls,” you don’t just smile—you build a civilization where she’s allowed to say it. #ChemDebut #NewTraditions
- @MattMarmaduke: Just a shout-out to @Amazon whose team knew part of fitting in would be to have clothes that fit well. Our lovely Chem may only be 12yo but stands 5’10”. #TallGirlProblems
- @GalacticForks: The fact that they’re serving gator Szechuan-style while discussing aquifers and birth rates? Missouri just became the center of the universe. #FoodIsPower
- @MattMarmaduke: I am sure Kansas is jealous, as usual…
- @PostCollapsePlates: Alligator + turmeric + dill = diplomacy. I want this cookbook. #FreeholdFeast
- @SocioSyntax: Kelai offering co-parenting applications and dart skills in one conversation is how you win cultural soft power. #VrenCharmOffensive
- @SustainMissouri: Farming, aquifers, invasive species management—all in one shared meal. This isn’t dinner. It’s how civilizations grow. #HydroCivics
- @PlanetaryParenting: V’ren girl calls him Uncle Matt. His response? No bowing. Just be a kid. This is the kind of parenting ethos I want to export. #RespectWithoutHierarchy
- @InterspeciesEtiquette: “Tonight I’m Uncle Matt.” That’s how you rewrite protocols without erasing meaning. #NewNobility
- @OverLunchDiplomacy: So much subtle magic in that scene where Chem nearly bows—and gets offered samosas instead. #SoftPower #VrenDaughters
- @TraditionRemixed: A V’ren feast this size would require a lord’s treasury. In Missouri, it requires a few thousand volunteers. I’m emotional. #FeastOfFunction
- @GoatCheeseIsSexy: I came for the okra. Stayed for the interstellar co-parenting manifestos. #FreeholdDinner
- @MJ_TruthTeller: The pickled okra was fire!
- @AsiaTastesChronicle: Vietnamese fish sauce. Sri Lankan pastries. Missouri corn. I’ve seen the future, and it tastes like diaspora done right. #CulturalMosaic
- @AlienFoodie: L’tani is now our snack queen. Whipped cream pancakes and vinegar fries for the win. #PancakesAndProximity
- @QuietHierarchy: Watching T’monn say “grace period” like it was a treaty clause gave me chills. #CasteToCommunity
- @LegacyLadles: The Times asked what hospitality meant to V’ren. The answer? “Rare. Sacred. Expensive.” That’s respect. #DinnerDiplomacy
- @UncommonTable: “Solidarity in sauce” might be the phrase of the year. #FoodAsActivism
- @RethinkWasteland: This isn’t a cult of personality. It’s a compost-driven utopia with goat cheese and job contracts. #ShowMeCiv
- @HerdingHumans: That whole thing about scavenging alligators vs. kangaroos and camels? Missouri is feral now and I LOVE it. #InvasiveElegance
- @LetThemEatTwizzlers: L’tani has had burgers six different ways. I hope her seventh is in a drive-thru convertible date montage. #AlienRomCom
- @MissouriIsReal: What do you mean fish fingers and custard are real and they’re being served alongside gator nuggets?? #KidFeastMissouri
- @AnthroCrumbs: Peter Owusu’s line about reverence and making do might be the best expression of collapse resilience I’ve ever heard. #GhanaToGrainbelt
- @ForkedFutures: V’ren rituals, American IPA, and 137-year-old grandmas with bourbon sweet tea. This is the sci-fi I was promised. #CivAfterCollapse
- @MattMarmaduke: @LolaRhea is one of earths greatest treasures and been my greatest joy to have known her my entire life.
- @PlanetPhoodies: “Composting lecture with a cocktail.” That’s my new dating standard. #FreeholdStandards
- @RiceAndRebuild: Lola Rhea’s rice is hope. Period. #FilipinoPride
- @MattMarmaduke: She keeps all of our Pinoy Hearts strong #PinoyPride
- @CeremonyInChopsticks: No forks. No titles. Just community. That’s real leadership. #ShowMeEtiquette
- @NeoCasserole: Jessica Nguyễn blending rooftop goat and catfish into Vietnamese classics while quoting her Marmaduke mom? I want this show greenlit. #BiculturalKitchen
- @TwilightDining: “Into the Mystic” playing as dishes rotate and kids lead kids… this is communion, not just cuisine. #DinnerAsRitual
- @FashionAfterFall: Sloane said LBDs and diamonds still belong in the wasteland. Missouri agrees. #WastelandElegance
- @TasteOfAllegiance: K’rem picked beer as the flavor of loyalty. I’m not crying. You’re crying. #IPAAndOaths
- @HumanAfterAll: The way Matt tells a kid she looks great in a dress, then tells reporters he wasn’t always good at hosting? Yeah. That’s the kind of fallible strength I can follow. #ShowMeHome
- @AllianceOfAppetites: This whole thing was Missouri’s foreign policy, human culture revival, and First Contact therapy session—all served on one rotating table. #WelcomeToTheFreehold
- @HybridRoots: “Memory is not metaphor. It is measurable.” I didn’t expect a xenobiologist to explain my PTSD better than my last three therapists. #TvalKnows
- @FarmToStars: “We don’t build until we hear laughter.” Kemin Sol, you’ve built a whole new architectural manifesto in one line.
- @PossumDownrange: “Orbit is easy. Atmosphere is the trick.” New favorite quote, new favorite alien pilot. #SquishedPossumForLife
- @PostCollapseParenting: The Son-Shan kids are how I want my kids to talk about me when I’m not in the room. “He taught the babies. Fed them. Walked with them.” Goosebumps.
- @PlanetaryPolicyNow: The caste convo with Taval and Kina is going to shake policy circles. “You thought loyalty could be inherited. But it must be earned.” Yes. This.
- @OutpostAnthro: T’val’s description of trauma as a molecular event makes me rethink every refugee resettlement model we’ve ever used.
- @BrokeButBuilding: V’ren engineers complaining about IKEA instructions is the cross-cultural solidarity I didn’t know I needed. #WeAllSuffer
- @MsMartinezEats: I know we’re supposed to be serious about the interviews, but I would absolutely trust J’orel with my life and my lunch. #PilotCrush
- @VocalForLocal: Earth humidity “courts” the metal. Beti Shan is a poet in a welding mask. #EarthIsAlive
- @TweenDiplomat: The way Pina and Aven describe human kids—braids, corn bags, weird squirrels—I’m living for this low-key alien exchange program.
- @DustOnTheMicroscope: Serin: “Flirting. Also, people ask my opinion.” She’s 18 and already living the dream. That’s how integration should feel.
- @BlueyScholar84: S’rala T’all is watching Bluey with her son to study human culture and I will never emotionally recover. #PeakAnthropology
- @QuietStrength: “I limp. That makes me memorable. If they see dignity in it, I’ll try to live up to that.” S’rala, you just redefined grace.
- @FoodIsMemory: Beti talks about courting metal. Lola Rhea talks about rice as memory. What is this Freehold feeding these people?
- @AngelinaReyes: Love and acceptance, the same as when Matt’s dad helped my parents immigrate from Japan 45 years ago. #KeepingTheFaith
- @NewRootsNow: “Don’t just coexist. Co-create.” Nira Kam just won the slogan wars.
- @ExCastesAnonymous: Taval Tall’s daughter: “I’m not asking permission. I’m claiming my own place.” Whole generation unlocked right there.
- @TerraXenoTrust: J’orel: “You don’t fly Earth—you argue with her.” I don’t know why that moved me, but it did. #SentientPlanetFeels
- @SnacksAndStats: “Math leads to snacks.” – Bina, age 10, future Nobel laureate. Call it now. #SnackMath
- @LolaRhea: I taught high school math for 54 years, might have had better luck with some students had I used this approach. #SnackMath
- @DiasporaOfLight: “The soil smells different after rain.” I don’t know why that line hit me so hard, but I had to go sit outside.
- @GroundedSystems: When Kalir said Earth circuits are “stubborn,” I felt that in my bones. Our tech needs therapy.
- @JustTheSparks: “We build the sparks that hold it all together.” These engineers make the poets look lazy.
- @ReformedLadders: Taval: “Question every ladder before you climb it.” I want that on every university wall and corporate office door.
- @DataIsCulture: T’val’s line about children born in peace vs. fear—that’s the future of public health research right there. #BioMemory
- @PossumPilotsUnion: Who do I talk to about getting J’orel V’ani his own call sign? Dude flies like the sky owes him rent. #PilotGoals
- @GlobalCousins: “We’re not guests. We’re partners.” Damn right, Jema. This is how you rebuild from exile.
- @QuietAscent: The fact that Earth gravity makes V’ren bones ache—and yet they still show up to build our homes—puts our complaints into perspective. #Respect
- @GenderedPlanets: “The girls say human boys are more exciting. That hurts.” – Renn. That line cracked my heart open. Masculinity’s a universal struggle.
- @KellyMarmaduke: just remember exciting doesn’t equal responsible. I am 26 with a 13 year old daughter. #SpeaksFromExperience
- @CasteCrashers: Kina: “Don’t recreate what we fled.” A warning. A manifesto. A mother’s voice. We need to listen.
- @WeldAndWhisper: Kalir saying he “courts the metal” now instead of commanding it… that’s the kind of humility Earth demands.
- @SingItTiri: “Let the loud ones sing.” From a 12-year-old ex-noble girl finding her voice. I don’t even care if she can’t carry a tune—I’ll listen.
- @TranslatingTrauma: T’val’s line: “Trust repairs tissue faster.” Can we get that embroidered on lab coats, please?
- @AncestralAirdrop: Taval Tall: “We’re the future you tried to erase. And we’re still here.” Every diaspora knows this feeling.
- @ChickensAreChaos: Lo (age 7): “Chickens are weird. But tasty.” Best culinary review of the year. #VrenFoodie
- @ShipsAndSeeds: “I want to understand what Matt means when he says the soil smells different after rain.” M’rak, welcome to Earth. You’ll get it soon.
- @LearningToRun: Teli learned to jump fences and run errands and be “too loud.” Sounds like she’s mastering girlhood Missouri-style. #TrailKidEnergy
- @MattMarmaduke: I wish my sister was here to be tita to so many girls from so far away who act just like she did as a kid
- @ArrowRockDave: Annette would have loved this.
- @AngelinaReyes: She lives on in all of us who knew her
- @Oxana2423: Yours and Matt’s stories about her are what inspired me to become a paramedic
- FloydReyes: My first week teaching at the high school she managed to set the chemistry lab and I thought I would lose my job. Sort of remember @Oxana2423 doing the same thing.
- @Oxana2423: Wasn’t my fault you didn’t properly explain why one shouldn’t mix powedered aluminum with iron oxide and heat. Curious girls are going to be curious and just saying something is bad is like your mother telling you a boy is bad.
- @AngelinaReyes: You have a point… I remember my mom saying something about @FloydReyes being a bad boy
- @MJ_TruthTeller: Grandma dotes on him now.
- @MattMarmaduke; That is before your mom learned about handcuffs
- @MJ_TruthTeller: Grandma dotes on him now.
- @AngelinaReyes: You have a point… I remember my mom saying something about @FloydReyes being a bad boy
- @MattMarmaduke: I wish my sister was here to be tita to so many girls from so far away who act just like she did as a kid
- @MiddleOfTheGrid: When Beti said Earth fabrication is about coaxing not commanding—I saw every climate crisis differently.
- @CultureShockTherapy: Serin: “Humans talk during meals. Loudly. With opinions.” We don’t know how radical that sounds to some cultures.
- @AllSystemsFeel: Renn says “pain has color here.” Can someone please get him into med school ASAP?
- @CatchMeLako: Lako: “I’ve never had one hop in my lap, call me cute, kiss me, and bounce away.” That’s it. He just discovered teenage girls.
- @MattMarmaduke: Sounds about right from my memory… #CountryGirls
- @NeoKinship: Kalir raised 8 kids before rejoining the workforce. Now he holds 3 PhDs. Why are we not rethinking every parenting policy around this?
- @MattMarmaduke: I have long encouraged my employees on maternity/paternity leave to upskill through one of our company paid for programs.
- @WeatherHasMood: “Atmosphere is not a system—it’s a creature.” If you know, you know. #MidwestWeather
- @KitchenAnthropology: T’val sees bonding, trust, and biology in salsa cravings. Never felt so seen while elbow-deep in a Doritos bag.
- @MattMarmaduke: I remember a young @AngelinaReyes trying to get a priest to bless a bag of #CoolRanch because communion wafers suck
- @RabbitsRunWild: Every boy on this planet is now trying to figure out where to find a rabbit-girl like Lako described. Good luck, buddy.
- @MattMarmaduke: Great you just had to put it that way. We are already fielding way too many questions about alien #NekoGirls now we are going to have to deal with questions from teenage boys looking for their own little Mirkos
- @UnplannedDebuts: The story of Chem’s surprise social debut with Matt calling himself “Uncle” was pure healing energy. #FoundFamily
- @InterstellarFlirtation: “I’ve also fallen in love with Twizzlers.” L’tani, I never felt closer to a space warrior in my life. #SnackTruce
- @NoMoreQuietGirls: Tiri: “Fuck being quiet.” Me: standing ovation. Also me: forwarding to every 12-year-old I know.
- @MattMarmaduke: I am looking forwad to meeting young Tiri. #CountryGirlsRule
- @HumanMathWins: “Human math is funny—but it makes snacks easier to count.” Why does Bina already understand economics better than me?
- @FloatingIsFreedom: Aven: “I liked floating in the pool. I want to learn how to swim.” Earth gravity may be heavy, but water still lifts.
- @BlueyTheory: S’rala and M’rak discussing Bluey as anthropological canon has broken my brain. Australian toddlers now shaping alien culture. #BlueyEffect
- @GriefAndGrowth: “The absence of contact would have killed us more slowly.” T’val turned cross-species intimacy into a survival ethic.
- @LearningFromLo: “Chickenjoy is life.” —Lo, age 7, philosopher, prophet, future mayor of the Freehold. #ChickenIsEternal
- @AmeliaRQuinto: Lo might be green on the outside, but that statement says he is filipino on the inside. #PinoyPride
- @HardWeldedHope: Beti: “On ship, you command the metal. Here, you negotiate.” That line lives rent-free in my head.
- @NoMoreRituals: J’orel: “Orbit is easy. Atmosphere is the trick.” If that’s not a metaphor for trauma and healing, I don’t know what is.
- @DecolonizingHousing: Nira: “Don’t just coexist. Co-create.” Should be spray-painted on every prefab unit from here to orbit.
- @SnackEconomist: Bina: “Be kind. Even your math teacher needs a snack.” Unions should adopt this as policy. #SnackSolidarity
- @SpeciesWithStories: T’val: “Earth endures grief by rooting it in story—and harvesting new myths.” This is why I write.
- @ShovelDiplomacy: Kemin: “You either move material or you don’t. And if you don’t—someone hands you a shovel.” Productivity gospel.
- @SongsOfTomorrow: S’rala wonders what language their children will sing in. I’m crying into my cereal again. #HeritageInTheMaking
- @MJ_TruthTeller: On average Freehold kids are the biggest polyglots in the world. I could speak English, Japanese, Spanish, and Russian before I turned 12. My last GF English, Spanish, Polish, German, Sindarin and Dothraki
- @SoreBonesSoftHearts: All these V’ren kids aching from gravity but still learning cornhole? That’s commitment to the bit. #MidwestInitiation
- @HonorByEffort: M’rak: “Loyalty is not owed to blood, but to honor.” Said it like he meant it—and lived it too.
- @UnquietGirls: Between Tiri’s “fuck being quiet” and Kara’s tinikling shin bruise kiss story, I believe Earth girls and V’ren girls are gonna run the world.
- @MeltedWelds: Earth humidity is ruining V’ren welds but making their families stronger. I don’t know how to feel, but I feel it.
- @RedLightAndRain: M’rak misses red light from the clouds. Kalir misses the breath of air through the hull. Grief in poetic fragments.
- @MathAndMischief: Human math makes snacks easier to count. Never has numerical imperialism sounded so delicious. #SnackMath
- @FreedomToFlirt: Serin: “People ask my opinion. Also, the flirting.” And just like that, Earth got its first V’ren dating app.
- @VillainArcWho: Renn: “That hurts.” Someone please write the soft boy hero arc for this V’ren med student before he ends up villain-coded.
- @TerrySueAbas: Met Renn tonight at the fair and I won’t let him code for villain. #ThinkImInLove
- @BuildingBelonging: “Someone gave us tools and said, ‘Start here.’” That’s Kemin. That’s hope.
- @ArrowRockDave: We have tried to give this opportunity to many over the years. Somedays it takes, and we are rewarded for our faith. Sometimes it doesn’t, and we wish them well. Either way, starting with faith and an opportunity has been Matt’s way since we were kids.
- @RootsBeforeRain: Aven: “Build the roof before the rain.” Twelve-year-old construction Zen master has logged on. #FoundationsMatter
- @TavalWasRight: “We’re the future you tried to erase—and we’re still here.” Goosebumps. Every resistance movement just got a new anthem.
- @T’valSaidSo: “Memory is measurable.” Every cell remembers. Every trauma. Every tenderness. #CellularTruth
- @SkyDoesNotJudge: Sael: “The sky never looks down on me.” Possibly the most liberating thing ever said about Earth.
- @EngineeredEmotion: Kalir: “What greater work could there be than shaping eight children?” V’ren dads might be the final nail in fragile masculinity’s coffin.
- @ChiefLarry: I was very touched by that, having more kids than anyone else around these parts. I have long held similar beliefs and tried to pass it on to my sons.
- @CornholeDiplomacy: V’ren boys losing to little girls at cornhole might be the most important cultural exchange of the decade.
- @HonorAndHydraulics: Kina: “Cooling systems must be honest—they’re designed to fail.” And suddenly I understand every relationship I’ve ever had.
- @LetThemSing: “Let the loud ones sing.” Yes, Tiri. And let them lead, cook, weld, dance, grieve, and thrive.
- @RuralCodeSwitch: Kemin Sol saying Earth teaches you to build with humility—that hit deep. Base-12 to base-10 isn’t just math, it’s mindset. #BridgingWorlds
- @CornholeOverlord: The real revolution was losing to a 10-year-old in cornhole and deciding to join her civilization instead. #MidwestPower
- @BioCivicGrid: “We all work, or none of us eat.” If that doesn’t define mutual responsibility in post-collapse governance, I don’t know what does. #FreeholdValues
- @MapleDiaspora: “Earth smells like stories.” I cried. This is what rootedness sounds like. #FromCasteToCommunity
- @ContractIsCivic: A justice system with no prisons and 99.9% uptime on the power grid? It’s not theory—it’s Missouri. #FunctionalCollapse
- @DadFromQuebec: My kids now want to study at a school that teaches ethics and alien anthropology. Thanks, Missouri. #PostCollapseEducation
- @PacificPlanter: V’ren building fruit tree gardens next to modular homes? This is the permaculture dream. #GrowTogether
- @DecentralEyes: Arbitration that works, logistics that move, and classrooms with joy? Call it what you want—it’s working.
- @LunchNotWar: Food diplomacy and contract law might actually fix more than we think. Missouri is building peace one dish at a time. #PastryTreaties
- @BilingualByNeed: Kids learning English in the morning and V’ren songs after lunch? Missouri’s got bilingual schooling figured out.
- @TanyaCarterCotes: Last school year, Arrow Rock Elementary had teachers who could speak a total of seven combined languages and a total of 341 students who could speak a combined 19 languages. Adding V’ren will be important, but not really a big deal considering it follows Germanic sentence structure
- @NewWorldDockets: The Freehold legal model feels more corporate than civic—but maybe that’s the future.
- @HectorHerodotus: I mean, it has only been the basis of North American governance for 317 years. Just because they forget to teach the Confederated Corporation Agreement of 2123 where the megacorps came to an understanding with 5002 minor corporations and divided up the country, where you are from the rest of us know this.
- @FarmGridWatch: Fascinating how hydro dams and base-12 tech are reshaping power export models. Curious what comes next.
- @MattMarmaduke: Some really neat ideas for collaborative projects were pitched to me on Saturday. I told them to go build prototypes.
- @ShiftWorkState: The “staff reveal” report gave me real insights. Red mugs, long shifts, and surprisingly loyal workers.
- @LunchTrayEthics: Zebra pastrami and Szechuan gator aside, those student-led food experiments are real education.
- @JennyLittle: At least 3 of the 4 days our kids are in classrooms, they help prepare their own food and take responsibility for cleaning up the mess too.
- @PostCivicNotes: Freehold schools don’t test—they mentor. If nothing else, it’s a case study in post-disaster pedagogy.
- @AtlasMapsLogistics: “Logistics is loyalty” sounds like a motto, but also seems to explain a lot about their success.
- @ShenWilson: That ship landed under emergency power at 9:30 Thursday morning. Even before negotiations were done or the all clear from medical was given, we were making sure more than 10k wounded people could be seen too, locally, their family could be near them, and no one would go to bed hungry that night. Before the day was over we had breakfast and lunch preparations for Friday well in hand, land being cleared so people could spread out more with services tents close at hand and what meant more than anything to one man I met who lost his wife and three kids was Matt ordered wheat harvested early so there would be ground they could bury their dead.
- @AnthroRightsNow: Arbitration, not austerity, and story-rooted grief response? Freehold may be writing a new rights model.
- @PolicyTriage: Okay, but who wrote these residency contracts? “Fair” is subjective when you can’t negotiate from strength.
- @MattMarmaduke: No residency agreement anywhere in the world lets the person applying to reside there the ability to cherry-pick the rules they will and won’t follow and call it negotiations
- @GridlineGhost: Base-12 neural interface modules that “hurt on entry”? We’re just skipping OSHA now?
- What fucking world do you live in? OSHA hasn’t been a thing since Trump and Doge destroyed it over 400 years ago.
- @TwoTaxOpinions: 99.9% uptime sounds great, but I want to know how long that lasts after Marmaduke steps down.
- @MattMarmaduke: Unless my successor is stupid, you won’t even know I am gone.
- @SoftFailSystems: If everything’s a contract and nothing’s a right, what happens when the power balance shifts?
- @MattMarmaduke: hate to tell you we live in a galaxy where might makes right. The only rights you have are the ones you are strong enough to defend.
- @CulturesNotCommodities: The Globe & Mail headline read like joy—but replacing caste with integration-by-contract still feels extractive.
- @FlatpackDystopia: Freehold bragging about IKEA furniture while scrapping real social services is peak collapse comedy.
- @MattMarmaduke Social services are only necessary in places with high unemployment, and community members don’t take care of one another.
- @StudentDebtCrater: Teaching “memory transfer ethics” instead of paying teachers? Sounds like a sci-fi smokescreen.
- @MattMarmaduke: Plenty of things the interface won’t teach. We still need teachers.
- @FreeholdHR We are currently hiring more than 700 classroom teachers. Before January, that number will jump to 7000. We have a need of 5000 nurses and 10,000 other medical personnel in that same time frame.
- @MattMarmaduke: Plenty of things the interface won’t teach. We still need teachers.
- @NoFreeLunches: Let’s not glamorize a settlement built on cheap labor, emergency housing, and glorified arbitration.
- @MattMarmaduke: labor is only cheap where there is massive unemployment. Emergency housing is better than no housing. Everyone is free to go somewhere else, even the V’ren. As far as I know, not a single one has accepted the millions of contract offers made to them to do just that.
- @yukilopez901: At present, there are 12 who have accepted temporary modeling contracts. BTW Boss, why is @CK asking if you are interested in doing underwear modeling?
- @MattMarmaduke: I have been mistaken for the very model of a modern Missouri Marky Mark
- @yukilopez901: At present, there are 12 who have accepted temporary modeling contracts. BTW Boss, why is @CK asking if you are interested in doing underwear modeling?
- @MattMarmaduke: labor is only cheap where there is massive unemployment. Emergency housing is better than no housing. Everyone is free to go somewhere else, even the V’ren. As far as I know, not a single one has accepted the millions of contract offers made to them to do just that.
- @GridGlorifiersAnonymous: You know who else promised 99.9% uptime service? Enron.
- @gretajackson313: So did your mom.
- @PossumMusk: Still waiting for the gator nugget recipe that comes with a side of unregulated power monopolies. #EatTheContract
- @WeldedWisdom: “We build the sparks that hold it all together.” Kalir isn’t just talking electricity. That’s the future in one line.
- @PolyglotPrepper: Kids switching between Bluey and V’ren nursery chants like it’s nothing? We are witnessing the formation of a new civilization. #CrossoverCulture
- @MaryYao: Codeswitching is a playground art form here.
- @SolarGridMum: They said their welds taste different on Earth. Who else gets poetry from electricians? #CraftedConnections
- @DiasporaDoctrine: “We are not guests. We are partners.” That Jema quote should be carved in stone somewhere. #FreeholdFuture
- @CompostCapitalist: Every system built at the Freehold has one rule: prove it works. From gardens to governance. That’s my kind of realism.
- @ResettledByChoice: I grew up in a trailer with broken AC. Now we’ve got V’ren moms fixing climate controls with poetry. I feel seen.
- @SkyShiftLogistics: Missouri’s supply chains haven’t buckled under refugee intake. That alone is impressive. Still waiting on case studies.
- @DataVerses: Neural interface adaptation in a week? Either the training’s brutal, or we’re more compatible than we think.
- @AlexandraWood; My sibs and I didn’t have as much trouble with it as our parents, but I confess it still hurts. Age matters, too. My younger sister said it was like a headache that lasted 10 minutes but went away. Mine got so bad I had to stop after 30 minutes.
- @AlloysAndAnkles: If welding is like courting and dancing is like diplomacy, then the Freehold might be the first romantic technocracy.
- @GrassrootsAnthro: The grid may run on Base-12, but the culture clearly runs on dinner tables. Curious to see what cracks first.
- @RewildingPolis: “The air is a creature,” said a V’ren. Welcome to the Midwest.
- @MattMarmaduke; Ain’t that the truth. Looking forward to the new weather satellites the V’ren will deploy in the coming weeks. Seen too many lives and too much destruction that could have been avoided by the functioning system destroyed during the mid-2020s
- @YoungEthicsForum: Teaching consent and caste history to twelve-year-olds is not utopia—it’s overdue.
- @ForgeAndFeast: V’ren talk about loyalty like it’s currency. I’m intrigued, but what happens when payments lapse?
- @BeyondUN: No elections, no oversight, no centralized defense. This doesn’t scale—but it doesn’t have to. Missouri isn’t exporting a model. Yet.
- @yukilopez901: You are likely confused about no elections because you can’t see them in the Freehold App as a non-resident
- @PragmaticPanic: The arbitration stuff sounds fair—until you’re the one with no friends in Columbia. #ContractTrap
- @@yukiobrien186: If you are worried about the Columbia Arbitration board siding against you, a) your case is weak or b) maybe you shouldn’t have pissed them off with a time-wasting frivolous legal challenge
- @HollowHope: “Let the loud ones sing.” That’s cute until someone with power decides the lyrics are too radical.
- @SnarkAndCynics: Everyone loves a welding poet until the weld fails. I’ll take function over metaphor any day.
- @CivicIllusionist: We’re celebrating a place where labor replaces law. Romanticize it all you want—it’s still a power structure.
- @AshleyMerchant: Outsiders like you seem so confused about laws here. That is probably because they fit on a single sheet of paper and don’t require a law degree to interpret them
- @PilotOfNothing: “Earth is alive.” So are the potholes, J’orel. Hope your shuttles have good suspension. #MissouriMood
- @JuniorSuarez: You won’t find potholes in Saline County on my watch, not with Matt’s least expensive car, a brand new Porsche Carrera
- @V’renFanFic: I just want to know which one of these engineers is single. Asking for… science.
- @BettyLiu: Our local thirst trap @MattMarmaduke is not dating anyone…
- @PossumSnackClub: The real legacy of this place will be snack math, alien barbecue, and school lunches that slap.
- @GridlockedForever: 99.9% uptime? LMAO. That’s just what the V’ren think is happening. I bet my VPN drops less.
- @BobbyLee: Why is a guy who claims to work for Google, who claims to be the most secure connection on the planet, bragging about using a Meta-Starlink VPN? Pretty sure that goes against your employment contract and the M/S TOS, which forbids Google employees from using their services. @GoogleHR and @MetaStarlinkTOS
- @CornbreadDenier: Alien food, foreign governance, kids raised on Twizzlers and treaty law. The Midwest is lost.
- @CircuitDaddyV: I’ll sign a contract, sure—so long as it includes snacks, welding metaphors, and hot alien dads. #FreeholdMeUp
- @MyceliumMindset: “Don’t just coexist. Co-create.” Nira Kam gets it. That’s the post-collapse ethos we’ve been waiting for.
- @WendallCho: Since the collapse, Missouri has been the heart of co-procreating. Where once whites dominated, we now mostly import them as contractors from places like Poland, Denmark, and France. If you don’t have a Lola or Abuela in your family history, chances are your family hasn’t been here very long.
- @KinshipForge: The quiet trust between V’ren and human workers is more revolutionary than any treaty. #LaborAsDiplomacy
- @SnackMathAlumni: Bina inventing “snack math” might’ve saved STEM education. I’d vote her class president tomorrow.
- LolaRhea: Looking forward to meeting this young one.
- @Base12Believer: If Earth adopted even half the Freehold’s logistics, we’d have working trains by now. #MathThatMoves
- @TrustTheTorch: J’orel trusting kids more than generals? That’s who I want flying defense missions. #PilotWisdom
- @HonorCircuit: Kalir and Beti weld dignity into every panel. Eight kids. No complaints. Just sparks and commitment.
- @FamilyFirstPostState: The Freehold proves you don’t need a flag to build a nation. Just trust, terms, and daily work.
- @XenoBotanica: “The dirt here clings.” That line from Nira hit harder than expected. Earth changes you.
- @BridgeKidsChronicle: These mixed-language children are already shaping the next civic order. We should follow their lead.
- @HandsInSoil: Replacing towers with orchards isn’t just romantic—it’s structural repair for the species. #GrowHome
- @PostCastePathways: Watching ex-nobles teach welding? That’s how you bend hierarchy into humility.
- @AdaptiveAnthro: Contract law aside, it’s the food and shared labor that seems to be doing the real integration work.
- @LearningToSpeak: “Language is interface.” That line will haunt my next six UX projects. #DesignMatters
- @FloatingThroughGravity: Aven wants to swim. Earth may be heavy, but water still lifts. #BuoyancyIsHope
- @YouthAndYields: These kids are growing crops, friendships, and the first truly hybrid childhood we’ve seen.
- @NeuroBurnout: Neural syncing in a week sounds fast. Sounds brutal. How many don’t make it?
- @aaliyahmurphy646: It is brutal, but it is efficient. You get a kill switch to shut it down if the pain gets too bad, plus you are being monitored the entire time by an experienced tech. I was only down for enough to make sure I could do my job as a paramedic.
- @ContractualEdge: “You can leave if you want” only works if there’s somewhere better to go. Most don’t have that.
- @MattMarmaduke: Stating you will only obey the law if you feel like it is how we ended up with collapse. Tell me you will leave only if you have a better option will have me ask if you prefer to live somewhere else or die where you stand.
- @GridSkeptic9000: All this talk of uptime and interface training—where’s the accountability? Who certifies the data?
- @AliensArentMagic: We’re romanticizing tech we barely understand. Neural systems, legal experiments, could go sideways fast.
- @MattMarmaduke: The Freehold has been a sovereign state for 353 years without a civil war or collapse. The US had both in 297 years and was rotten to the core for an entire century before it collapsed.
- @SnapdragonSpeaks: I don’t need utopia. I just need a job, a roof, and a place to raise my kids without fear. The Freehold sounds like it might be that.
- @JennyLittle: Not to sound unsympathetic, but this is exactly the wrong attitude. Don’t come telling us what you need. Come to us telling us what you can offer. If it is something we need, we will provide for you.
- @WendallCho We’ve taken in refugees, orphans, and retirees. But none of them asked for charity. They said this is what I can do. Is there a place for me? There usually is. That’s the difference.
- @Oxana2423: I came here at 3. Became a citizen at 16. I wasn’t promised anything except a shot—and I took it.
- @AngelinaReyes: I knew you would become a citizen the day you came to me as a 9 years old and asked what can I do to become a citizen.
- @Oxana2423: You told me to get through grade school and pick a job we need people to do, and when I had learned it, you would sponsor me. Funny thing is how well that works. I told a young V’ren boy I met that very thing last night.
- @AngelinaReyes: I knew you would become a citizen the day you came to me as a 9 years old and asked what can I do to become a citizen.
- @Oxana2423: I came here at 3. Became a citizen at 16. I wasn’t promised anything except a shot—and I took it.
- @CasteToCashflow: If you swap bloodline for contracts, you still need someone to write the terms. Who holds that pen?
- @MattMarmaduke: We have used the same basic contract for 300 years.
- @HostileTakeout: Gator nuggets and colonial nostalgia. Sounds like a fever dream with seasoning.
- @dmitrisato350: Sounds like lunch at Down on the River Cafe
- @TempestInAGrid: Earth circuits don’t like alien power. Call me when they stop frying modules every 3rd install.
- @FloydReyes: You must be a shitty electrician if you are hooking up sensitive electronics with an incompatible power source.
- @StillPayingTaxes: No taxes? Cool story. Bet they still charge for bandwidth and dental.
- @MattMarmaduke: Unfortunately, the broadband backbone in the region isn’t owned or operated by me, nor are the Starlink-Meta satellites. As for dental, that is covered under my employee benefits package at no cost, right up there with the rest of the medical services
- @FreeholdHR: Are you useful? Are you just willing to work hard? Free Dental starts on Day 1
- @QuietContracts: People keep asking “what’s the catch?” But if the catch is you work and follow the rules, is that really a catch?
- @WendallCho: That’s just it, there isn’t a catch.
- @HectorHerodotus: With so many people looking for a catch they can exploit is why they find so many people as unacceptable as immigrants.
- @AshleyMerchant: Nobody said it’s easy. Just clear. Most people think fairness comes with loopholes. Here, it comes with expectations.
- @FreeholdHR: We give the terms up front. That’s not bait. That’s just how contracts are supposed to work.
- @TanyaCarterCotes: The ‘catch’ is that you have to mean what you say and do what you promise. If that scares you, maybe stay where excuses work better.
- @FreeholdFluff: Show me an alien girl doing taxes and crying over rent. THEN I’ll believe the hype.
- @MattMarmaduke: Show me a single mother crying over rent and whether she can afford to feed her kids, and I will show you a woman who lives anywhere but here. We take care of our own, even the ones who don’t work for me. The ones who work for me have never had to face such issues while in my employment.
- @TrustButWary: A system built on goodwill, fast arbitration, and solar power? Sounds like it runs on hope and duct tape.
- @AshleyMerchant: When your government is run by an engineer, your society doesn’t require duct tape to stay functional
- @ShenWilson: Solar arrays don’t run on hope. They run on supply chain planning, inverter redundancy, and staff that shows up every morning. We’ve got all three.
- @CornholeOverlord: The real revolution was losing to a 10-year-old in cornhole and deciding to join her civilization instead. #MidwestPower
