Craighton Berman

Time for some niche content

What has 2026 taught us about being “above the law”?

Requiem for a coin; requiem for a nation

LOVE IS TOO WOKE

Ah, well a friend of mine is a PhD from that program, a focus on “interactive dynamics of improvising musicians”

U of C ethnomusicology?

Venezuelan Olympic team walks out: “Maduro was just arrested”

Ukraine walks out: “such a tough war”

Israel walks out: “Their team was killed by Palestinian twrrorists in 1972”

Iran walks out: “they were killing protesters”

Team USA walks out: “U-S-A. U-S-A. U-S-A.”

I watched a man use AI to tell me 18 year olds are too young to think for themselves. Technology is the ultimate gift to grifters who can now do almost literally nothing yet somehow do everything.

I watched food delivery drone drive around a man passed out on the sidewalk. I watched a guy have a conversation with two AI hosts talking about a book he had an AI write.

The real risk right now is that these two groups’ worldviews are so diametrically opposed that they will eventually find it impossible to even communicate. You can already see it now: brainrot, meme-speak, AI fever dreams, vibe-everything, cryptic-crypto-creepy, post-truth, grift or be grifted.

If we decide we want to control the tech, then we can create the legislation, societal safety nets and informed citizenry to make this reality. Technology is a powerful part of the human story, but so is the development of societies.

Their actual perspective was pro-labor, pro-quality, and anti-capital—in other words, pro-human. As opposed to assuming that all tech is inevitable, “Luddite Core” sees all tech decisions as choices made by humans.

The “Luddite Core” aren’t necessarily anti-tech but definitely pro-humanity. The original Luddite movement from the textile mills of 19th-century England has been incredibly misrepresented (by big business) over the centuries as an anti-technology and anti-change movement.

AI-everything, crypto, prediction markets, surveillance capitalism, deep fakes, the attention economy, autonomous delivery (of burritos AND bombs)—it’s all here to stay and nothing can stop it. Might as well learn it all fast so you can get the bag first—don’t be left behind.

“Techno Grifters” subscribe to the tech-determinism perspective that humanity has always grown from and with technology, so this latest wave is natural progression towards posthumanism.

I’m working on a theory about how we are starting to see a complete societal split based on how much humanity you are willing to surrender to technology. I believe this split will be so consequential that very soon the two groups will not be able to communicate with each other or socially relate.

Turns out defunding ICE means tanking the economy, so really it’s a matter of national security that we don’t ever abolish it.

Hey I made that

GENERAL STRIKE JANUARY 30 2026
🗣️ NO WORK NO SCHOOL NO SHOPPING
🗣️ CANCEL SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES
🗣️ STAY OFF AD-DRIVEN SOCIAL MEDIA

I’d laugh if it wasn’t just training him in the world of grift, gambling and slop.

I’ll ask my 11 year old about it today—if I can get him off “Steal a Brainrot”

It’s a “platform” — so it cannot be “terrible” because it doesn’t do “anything.” 🙃

Some do! But from my own son I have seen some problematic games on Roblox—games that center on “police vs prisoner” role play

¡Que sabroso!

Also incredibly midwestern with the lack of any spices whatsoever

Free and paid posters still available. All proceeds donated to ICIRR, $2500 donated so far.

craightonberman.com/Chicago-Know...

Picked this up at Extreme Noise Records in Minneapolis this week, as good a slogan for the moment as any #DontTreadonMN

(IF HELL IS REAL)