Samuel Earle

America's answer to Zac Polanski - what a success story

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Ann Coulter NOT a fan of me - though unclear what she made of the piece

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/27/o...

Thanks, Charlie - happy it found you!

This is great. Come for the Farage profile, stay for the drive-by on the PM. "Labour’s dour and directionless year in power, defined by a centrism of the blandest variety, has led Mr. Starmer’s approval ratings to reach record lows in record time..."

Opinion | The Insidious Joviality of Nigel Farage

My essay on Nigel Farage 2.0, what he learned as Trump's apprentice, and his gleeful forecasts of violence - for @nytopinion.nytimes.com

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/27/o...

"This is not the same thing as persuading people that the thing itself matters: they usually know it does. The task is to persuade people that they matter: they know they usually don’t."

haven't seen it said better than @alybatt.bsky.social says it here

great episode

Virtual try-ons are actually showing up all over the place in retail — you'll find them on both luxury-brand apps and Shein — and they tend to suffer from the same issues, given that they're essentially mashing images together: The clothes don't fit quite right; the lighting is always strange; generations can take a little while; body types are approximated but rarely nailed. But they might be good enough to help rule something out or consider something new, and they're certainly good enough to be compelling and occasionally fun to use. The temptation to merge virtual try-ons with ads — to follow users around the internet not just with evidence that you know a lot about them but with actual photos of themselves using new products — is surely massive but is currently constrained by two things. First, generating such images or videos is computationally and literally expensive. And second, putting users' faces in, say, a branded Instagram Reel would probably feel to many like a violation. (For now, Google's explainer about its virtual try-on feature marks a boundary far more conservative than that, emphasizing that the feature won't currently show up on sponsored products.) 凸

One of those constraints will probably go away as AI models become more efficient. The other is a matter of expectations and norms around privacy, which, if the last two decades are any guide, have a tendency to either erode or get bulldozed. Given the hunger for return on AI investment and the close relationship between the advertising industry and AI - Google and Meta, for example, are advertising and AI giants, and it's hard to imagine the latter holding out too long on a new technology that might improve ad performance — it's probably a matter of time before someone breaks the seal and starts using customers to market to themselves at scale. Small companies are already trying something weird and uncomfortable. The bigger ones probably aren't far behind.

if you want a picture of the future, imagine your own face staring back at you from the chumbox, forever nymag.com/intelligence...

I did wonder if Marshall was one character too many! All very disconcerting. Great piece

At the Washington launch, with Farage and lots of MAGA people there, Paul Marshall said: “We need you to come and save us" (3/3)

When Farage then appeared at the House Judiciary Committee, "orchestrated by the ADF", GB News timed their US launch to coincide with it (Farage even wore a GB News lapel, turning the entire thing into an advert) 2/3

Paul Marshall and GB News aren't mentioned in this but their involvement is key - look where the meeting between Farage, the anti-abortion group (ADF) and Trump's team happened: Marshall's private member's club at UnHerd (1/3)

“I know that there are some people in this room who don’t believe that my marriage should have been legal … and that’s ok. Because we’re all Americans who want lower taxes.”

I kind of can’t believe this Bari Weiss quote is even real, and yet www.nytimes.com/2025/10/06/b...

"The manosphere is confusing, because it’s a place where one can find both benign advice about protein consumption and ideas that have led to mass shootings."

Banger from @embits.bsky.social

It's hard to explain how delusional it is to believe that there is some magic level of anti-migrant policy that this government can hit that will somehow neutralise this issue.

Headline: BBC under pressure to pull Sally Rooney dramas over vow to fund Palestine Action

Headline: Tory minister Robert Jenrick pictured with former Nazi terror chief at far right protest.

Perhaps, one day, schoolkids will study this squalid little chapter in British terror-panic history. When they do, I hope these two headlines from today are printed side by side, with clear annotation of which individual faced more outrage and condemnation.

Further evidence for the giant void at the heart of Keir Starmer - from @trillingual.bsky.social's long read
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Will Nigel Farage’s attempt to copy and paste Trump’s policies work in the UK? | Samuel Earle The Reform leader is trying to import Doge’s cuts to spending and ‘DEI’. It’s clear what he gets out of it – not so much the British voter, says author Samuel Earle

“It’s clear what Farage gets from this – the good graces of a US president who wants to be king and prizes sycophancy in his court above all – but the benefits to UK voters are naught”

V good on the US-lite con that is Reform and its idiotic policies of prejudice
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

"Rhetorically, this was among the less-remarked gifts of this campaign: to see and speak to working people in both the bonds of universality and with the dignity of specificity."

A great (and even euphoric) essay on Mamdani

naturally

Farage's 'leftwing' pose is flimsy – but so are Labour's own governing fantasies | Samuel Earle The country’s most talented opportunist says Reform is the ‘party of the workers’. He’s claiming territory Starmer thought he could abandon, says author Samuel Earle

Farage's 'leftwing' pose is flimsy – but so are Labour's own governing fantasies | Samuel Earle

This Tory attack ad on Farage is kinda giving him exactly the image he wanted this week...

this is basically bullying

if i was in london i'd 100% be there - hopefully back for the next one!

congrats! this is cool

we used to be a country

The Problems with Polls | Samuel Earle Political polling’s greatest achievement is its complete co-opting of our understanding of public opinion, which we can no longer imagine without it.

Re-posting my recent essay on polling for @nybooks.com on why whether the polls were "right" this election is less important than how they've hollowed out our understanding of politics and democracy

www.nybooks.com/articles/202...

so this is where we rebuild jerusalem