Andrew Cunningham

Don’t give these alt accounts oxygen. It feels good to think there is a secret group of heroes working within government agencies to save them, and that might be happening in places. But these accounts are mostly chasing clout and stealing content, exploiting worried people for financial gain.

i think the correct way to think about the lonely boy question is not "how do we reach out to incels?" but "how do we make sure that a teenage boy looking for romantic advice isn't flooded with right-wing propaganda?"

Great day for everyone whose 2024 brand move was claiming that Dems were exaggerating how bad Trump would be.

“Whether there is popular support within our coalition for this” also not really a reliable indicator at this point, so much of what is happening is that a few specific weirdos are in positions of huge power and free to attack whatever their specific pet issues are

What’s a technology that you think is overhyped? I’m going to give a sideways answer to this, which is that the venture capital business model needs to be understood as requiring hype. You can go back to the Netscape IPO, and that was the proof point that made venture capital the financial lifeblood of the tech industry. Venture capital looks at valuations and growth, not necessarily at profit or revenue. So you don’t actually have to invest in technology that works, or that even makes a profit, you simply have to have a narrative that is compelling enough to float those valuations. So you see this repetitive and exhausting hype cycle as a feature in this industry. A couple of years ago, you would have been asking me about the metaverse, then last year, you would have asked me about Web3 and crypto, and for each of these inflection points there’s an Andreessen Horowitz manifesto. It’s not simply that one piece of technology is overhyped, it’s that hype is a necessary ingredient of the current business ecosystem of the tech industry. We should examine how often the financial incentive for hype is rewarded without any real social returns, without any meaningful progress in technology, without these tools and services and worlds ever actually manifesting. That’s key to understanding the growing chasm between the narrative of techno-optimists and the reality of our tech-encumbered world.

Stand by this: www.politico.com/newsletters/...

Guy Who Constantly Just Says Shit Was Just Saying Shit

Wow. No way. This is a really interesting prediction for the future unless he happens to be selling glasses

Let's not forget that this seat was vacant because Islamaphobic Democrats wouldn't let Biden's appointee be confirmed. And Schumer let the clock run out.

This is so perfect. "Dead Center" and he's so far to the right that he's half off the cover

Entertainment Weekly headline: "Star Trek: Starfleet Academy exclusive first look welcomes new cadets, Paul Giamatti's alien transformation"

this better not awaken anything in me

What are these AI companies going to do if their products choke out the sources of information they depend upon to function? Is that just the end of new knowledge?

So much of our current problems is not a matter of insufficient regulatory mandates but rather that we have radically under-enforced, both by the government and through private litigation, the prohibition of fraud.

this is a good illustration of what “compromise” on trans rights looks like. there’s no “everyone gets rights but we take it easy on the pronouns.” if you head down that road you will end up denying that trans people are real.

Agree with this! We just got a slip that came home with our kid from daycare one day, pointing out that the program existed. And it’s a great way to get books that aren’t part of the typical Seuss etc. Kids’ Canon (the children’s room in our local library is also super well-curated on that front)

on top of everything else i’m not nearly as far along in the Chipotle Summer of Extras as i would like to be

i just want to leave that poor woman alone

The only not-real people allowed to be reported about as if they’re real people — it’s the law, they teach it in J school — are the Muppets

The utility of the internet was immediately apparent.

Free global communication at a time when long-distance phone calls were charged by the minute and faxes were the only way to send documents quickly? That was adopted at record speed.

But "AI" is a solution in search of a problem.

How many times do we have to remind people: the chatbot *cannot* admit to *anything*. It *doesn't know*. When you ask it about itself, it generates its answer the same way it generates your request that it write an email. It takes what you tell it and responds in way to sound plausible.

Trying to think of other revolutionary products that consumers repeatedly had to be tricked into paying for rather than ones that consumers loved and demanded

What if everyone eager to throw money at a "liberal joe rogan" that doesn't exist instead bought one failing local newspaper and hired a handful of real reporters and simply told them to go do journalism and print it.

HEY BUDDY HAVE YOU BEEN FLOSSING

turbines are cool, they make it look like we’re in The Jetsons, it’s so wild to me that there are a whole bunch of NIMBYs who have decided “i am a single issue voter, and the issue is this”

I would add to this that traditional newsrooms employ lots of people to do forms of journalism that have value but are unlikely to be profitable as standalone products.

Great points here. I love the few tiny, vibrant independent worker-owned publications that exist, and lots of excellent Newsletter People too. But these are tiny lifeboats, saving a bare handful of people from the wreckage of the USS Legacy Media

To look at this and still argue the rightwing majority was seriously and justifiably concerned about universal injunctions rather than treating Democratic power completely different than the Trump regime because they are opposed to the former and very much aligned with the latter is just silly.

<talking to another parent>: yeah haha he’s really into the movie Cars

<inside my head>: they MENTION leather interior seats in passing toward the end of the first movie, they know what interiors ARE, they must HAVE interiors, but we never get to SEE INSIDE, WHAT HAVE THEY GOT ON THE INSIDE

my five year old thinks Mater the tow truck is funny and as a result i am back on my bullshit

the other thing is that no one who fetishizes manual labor actually cares to improve life for people who are in those circumstances! no support for unionization or a generous welfare state! no interest in policies that make life easier for people who work their hands or afford them more autonomy!

i think that if you are an upper income writer living in a major urban area complaining about “the laptop class” — really, if you are a knowledge worker of any kind complaining about the “laptop class — you have an obligation to quit your job and go work in a factory for a year