To all the people I have interacted with over the course of my career, who told me data brokers were an essential pillar of the economy - won’t someone think of the advertisers! - and we couldn’t possibly restrict their data collection, use, processing and sales: Fuck you. You own this, too.

The most powerful people in our society are spending hundreds of billions of dollars in the attempt to make artificial human minds, while millions of real human minds are being left to die of disease, starvation and conflict. Of all the sick things about the “AI” quest, that is the sickest.

WHAT. THE. FUCK. Read this 🧵 Hey moderates/institutionalists: this is not the way. I don’t care if you think you’re just being “strategic” or “popularism” with this transphobic shit, it is a) wrong b) exactly why so many progressives (of all ages!) distrust you.

To all the people I have interacted with over the course of my career, who told me data brokers were an essential pillar of the economy - won’t someone think of the advertisers! - and we couldn’t possibly restrict their data collection, use, processing and sales: Fuck you. You own this, too.

Yep. @polphilpod.bsky.social and I made this point in this essay on Elon Musk's real fascist worldview, which all of you should read if you haven't yet, because (we immodestly insist) it breaks new ground. Also see the interview with one of the authors of "Muskism." newrepublic.com/article/2119...

No.

I don't think we should mince words. Transphobia and hatred killed May Pollard. The Idaho legislature killed her as surely as if they'd pointed a gun at her head and pulled the trigger. Anti-trans laws were the gun. www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...

This would throttle DC’s ability to self-govern. The $1b hole in DC‘s budget was caused by Congress, not the District, which has balanced its budget 31 years in a row. We should have the right to implement sound tax policy like any other jurisdiction. #handsoffdc oversight.house.gov/release/chai...

Accountability for the past is a crucial part of how we move on to the future. They’re not alternatives, they’re complementary. We didn’t dwell on the past enough last time, didn’t do enough accountability, and instead of letting us move forward, we got worse backsliding, with more now to rectify.

The Democratic presidential debates need to have spring loaded traps underneath each candidate and any time one of them says "we need to move on" or "I'm focused on the future, not the past" they should be immediately launched through the roof of the auditorium.

Since we’re all quoting Drezner to offer our policy priorities, mine is reforming the tech industry thru a combo of antitrust, privacy, prosecution & accountability for corruption & other crimes, & tax reform. As long as the broligarchy remains too rich for accountability, democracy is at risk

10 people in line to ask a question, 9 of them are men. Because women can read a room.

French is probably one of the most anti-Trump conservatives out there, but *his* priority for the future is preserving the anti-trans and anti-abortion legal victories that occurred under Trump. An expanded Court would undo all of that--which is precisely why we must pack the Court.

Oh look, it’s another 4-person panel with 3 men and 1 woman - which has been the formula throughout this conference. I respect a lot of what the center-left is doing but the gender vibes are REALLY off. #LibCon26

I can't believe this has to be said, but we should have real human teachers caring for our kids. www.brookings.edu/articles/a-p...

I’m also in the room. Also shocked at the enthusiasm for unilateral disarmament.

As threats against broadcasters continue, on @cdt.org's Tech Talk, @ashkhen.bsky.social and I chat with Jamal about broadcasters' First Amendment rights and how the bona fide news exemption from the equal time rule helps keep audiences informed. Listen here! cdt.org/insights/tec...

This Politico primer on the various “factions” of AI safety is helpful in that it disambiguates the different meanings attached to the term, which keeps us talking past each other - much as the term “AI” itself does. www.politico.com/news/magazin...

While Republicans and Democrats are growing suspicious of AI at roughly the same pace, right-wing politicians and influencers have embraced AI slop in a way that the left has not. Why? @alicetiara.bsky.social on the right's love affair with AI slop:

here's 180 seconds on why we need to stop a billionaire media merger, as told by the people who are about to be screwed by the merger

Just 10 billionaires have already poured over $600 MILLION into this year's midterms. In the entire 2008 presidential cycle, the last election before Citizens United, total billionaire spending was $16 million. If you're wondering what the real threat to "election integrity" is, it's Big Money.

if acquiring data like home addresses, birth dates, and the political affiliation of millions of U.S. voters is an urgent national security risk, boy do I have some bad news about data brokers

The tech industry wants us to believe its products are inevitable and we have no ability to stop them. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. It was great to chat with @thomas-dekeyser.bsky.social about how tech refusal is something we’ve done for hundreds of years — and continues today.

This is an astounding indictment of ICE’s training and hiring standards (Case Study: Nine Gazillion and Six):

Right now, Big Tech lobbyists are working overtime behind the scenes to block enforceable data privacy protections from becoming law in Massachusetts. Tell lawmakers: Stand up to Big Tech! action.aclu.org/send-message...

I am so here for this

"There's still gonna be more bloodshed unless they shut their mouth." Probably not a good sign when federal officials sound exactly like abusive husbands

No, this really really really is rape

No one wants to hear it but tracking everyone in your life is pretty much the gateway drug to the Armageddon you’re so afraid of.

Ah, yes, more "AI" hype

Person is eaten in Dahmer-involved gastronomy

once again saying: Nuremburg trials is the moderate position

Max Tegmark's Future of Life institute got a 600 million usd from crypto buffoon Vitalik Buterin (ethereum), and they're using this to brute force their "existential risk" politics as the only answer to AI issues. They're spending all the political oxygen in the room to talk about Godlike AI.

ICE is a menace to democracy and its murderous conduct should be soberly considered. But we should also recognize that these people are weak and sad and ought to be made fun of. Read more: www.theverge.com/policy/96430...

This morning in Biddeford, Maine, a 26-year-old man said goodbye to his wife and daughter and left for work. Moments later he was dead, shot in the head by ICE agents, the second man ICE has killed in six days. ICE is killing our neighbors. ICE cannot be reformed. Abolish ICE.

No one left of MAGA should think of tech companies are their friends.

I have no struggle with this at all. Who is this "most of us"?

I was sunning by the pool when the boxes arrived. And here in my hand is my life’s work: “The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War On Democracy.” Coming 8/18. Pre-orders make a huge difference! Make a fascist sweat—pre-order today! www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Ne...

History knows what they did and history will remember why DOJ did this.

I do think we should stop using the term "unitary executive" in public discourse and simply call it what it is: dictatorship

As I posted this piece there have been new media profiles about Gebbia that do mention his white nationalist postings on X. (They also get the tech wrong, but thats another story). Reflects two of the worst tendencies of our media: accepting everything the tech bro says and ignoring their politics

Exactly the same hype as movie theater barkers yelling "DON'T ATTEND THIS FILM IF YOU HAVE A HEART CONDITION" to get folks in the door.

Join us today at 1pm ET for a conversation with @hcrichardson.bsky.social !

Read this 🧵 👇🏻 The heart of the Bonkers Billionaire Beliefs is misanthropy: deeply hating humanity & wanting to replace other people with automatons. These bros see human complexity, emotion, and interpersonal friction as attack on their own claims to supremacy.

Misogyny. This specific political tendency is called misogyny.

the final reckoning between AI hype and reality is upon us. buckle up.

NEW: Today, @thenation.com published a story from our very own @dylangyauchl.bsky.social and @juliepitta.bsky.social, President of @phoenixprojnow.bsky.social, about leaked documents from the Abundance Network's plan to take over the Democratic Party.

this is like the literal opposite of true. the most fruitful eras of the modern democratic party coincided with periods where the walls separating political radicals from the mainstream were way less solid

When people ask me what the phrase "artificial intelligence" means, my short answer is, it means "venture capitalists, give me some money". But OUP asked me for a longer answer, given here and summarized in the section headings: doi.org/10.1093/9780...