Last week I read The Sirens' Call from @chrislhayes.bsky.social. It made me think about the relationships between social media platforms, attention, and choice, and how much of our lives we unconsciously surrender to algorithms.

The line between being an influencer and a journalist has never been thinner. Are we all suffering for it?

Why does Taylor Lorenz constantly find herself in the center of online drama? It's because she can't separate her job as a journalist with her desire to be an influencer.

When Facebook started, Zuckerberg talked about how his goal was to build human connections. Now Meta optimizes their apps to maximize the amount of time you spend scrolling Reels, alone. Is there anything still social about social media? www.infinitescroll.us/p/social-med...

Gavin Newsom is trying to answer two very simple questions: Does anyone hate Republicans as much as he does? And can trolling propel a Democrat to the presidency?

🎙️ Just dropped a fascinating podcast episode with @jeremiahdjohns.bsky.social , co-founder of the Center for New Liberalism! We covered everything from political hobbyism to why social media culture keeps melting our brains. Have a listen: open.spotify.com/episode/0ieB...

There’s nothing in right wing politics more important than pissing off the liberals. And if the liberals aren’t mad enough, the outrage machine will manufacture angry liberals out of thin air. www.infinitescroll.us/p/in-search-...

It's been funny to watch the Coldplay CEO scandal develop, but the punishment - the sheer scale of being ritually humiliated by the entire internet - doesn't fit the crime. www.infinitescroll.us/p/weekly-scr...

There isn't going to be a 'client list' and Epstein almost certainly killed himself.

An update on our friends over at X

There seem to be two camps in the GOP right now - those who are embarrassed by what’s in the big Republican bill (but voted for it anyways), and those who just want to make gleeful hype video about alligators eating immigrants. www.infinitescroll.us/p/weekly-scr...

Check out my podcast episode with liberal political writer @jeremiahdjohns.bsky.social about topics he doesn’t usually cover: dating, marriage and gender! www.cartoonshateher.com/p/podcast-je...

Why is every social media site more and more dominated by shortform vertical video? And what does any of that have to do with crabs? www.infinitescroll.us/p/the-carcin...

This edition of the Weekly Scroll is frankly, incredible: * Bill Maher loses a war with a Stick Account * The sad saga of Tiny Chef * Serious developments in AI copyright law * Why is Substack so liberal-coded? * YouTube's slop problems And more! www.infinitescroll.us/p/weekly-scr...

The New Liberal Action Summit is back for our fourth year! We're bringing together center-left members of congress, thinkers, activists and leaders to revitalize liberalism in America. Scholarships are available for those who want to attend! cnliberalism.org/nlas

The Internet was a different places in the mid 2000s - more anarchic and chaotic, less dominated by platforms, and generally weirder and freer. What was virality like in the age before capital-C Content dominated the web? www.infinitescroll.us/p/videos-bef...

Nobody in left-of-center politics can shut up about the book Abundance. But what are we really fighting about when we fight about Abundance? www.infinitescroll.us/p/fighting-a...

Some thoughts on the Menswear Guy, ICE protests, and our inability to be normal www.infinitescroll.us/p/can-anyone...

I wrote a post about an issue I’ve been thinking over for a while: How does Russian propaganda work? Not the propaganda they aim at the West, but what they aim at their own citizens. How is Russia creating a new cohort of fascists in their youngest generations? www.infinitescroll.us/p/z-generati...

I'm sorry, but we have to stop calling everything slop www.infinitescroll.us/p/stop-calli...

This week's Weekly Scroll: New popes, cooked students, meme wars, and a very good 16th century TMZ www.infinitescroll.us/p/weekly-scr...

It looks like you're a celebrity embroiled in a scandal. Don't worry, the pros are here to help. Just stay away from ukuleles. www.infinitescroll.us/p/crisis-pr-...

The revelation this week of secretive right wing group chats filled with billionaires & media moguls is the culmination of a long running trend: important conversations are moving away from global social media platforms and into private or semi-private spaces. www.infinitescroll.us/p/weekly-scr...

Older books are selling, newer ones aren’t. Old Music is all the rage, newer artists can barely get played. Older video games and old movie franchises suck up all the attention. Old art is strangling new art www.infinitescroll.us/p/old-art-is...

AI slop has been a problem on Facebook for years, but it’s starting to become a much bigger problem on YouTube as well. Plus! Kanye's album, vibe shift corrections, and the Dr Pepper Guy - it's the Weekly Scroll www.infinitescroll.us/p/weekly-scr...

Remember: Donald Trump is killing your 401K and eroding the value of the dollar, but on the other hand, he's also causing mortgage rates to skyrocket

I did a great podcast with @jeremiahdjohns.bsky.social all about the Canadian election. Give it a listen! podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/d...

The Globe Emojis are pondering violence, social media is bleeding into traditional media, and the kids are dancing with Le Poisson Steve. It’s the Weekly Scroll: www.infinitescroll.us/p/weekly-scr...

Paying kidney donors would save tens of thousands of lives every year. The End Kidney Deaths Act is in the House right now to do so. We don't have to accept deaths from kidney disease. We know how to save these lives. We just have to take the step. thedispatch.com/article/end-...

Republicans spent years complaining that free speech was under attack. Now Donald Trump is instituting a new Thought Police and they've all gone silent about it. www.infinitescroll.us/p/the-new-ag...

In which I debate myself on whether or not we should ban mobile gambling on smartphones: www.infinitescroll.us/p/should-we-...

Have the tariffs started causing conservative influencers to turn on Trump? www.infinitescroll.us/p/weekly-scr...

There is no grand plan behind the Trump tariffs. There is no secret theory among his team. They're just idiots. www.infinitescroll.us/p/there-is-n...

We've now lost almost 1 trillion dollars of stock market value for each trans athlete in the NCAA

Sarah Wynn-Williams’ new book, Careless People, isn’t just a collection of darkly funny stories that are embarrassing for Facebook’s leadership. It’s also a sign of our current political era, where carelessness and incuriosity are virtues and not vices. www.infinitescroll.us/p/internet-b...

I really hope Elon keeps doing his 'choose a person to pay a million dollars for coming to his rally'. Because it's actually a very stupid, ineffective way to spend a million dollars and may even have a net negative impact because it feels skeezy.

No idea how you even get through here

Because I can't resist poking the bear - should people really hate the Studio Ghibli AI art as much as they do? No other topic I write about seems to get people as mad as the AI art discourse. www.infinitescroll.us/p/weekly-scr...

Why is Millennial comedy edgier than Gen Z comedy? How did technology change Gen Z humor? And is the Soup Time Frog meme Dada? www.infinitescroll.us/p/how-the-in...

I just had to use two-factor authentication to buy a smoothie but Tulsi Gabbard's passwords are sitting right there on Reddit so cool

Tariffs are the act of shooting yourself in the foot with the hope that the bullet will then ricochet and also hit your enemy

Democrats can't just sit around talking about messaging strategy. They need to change their actual policies if they want to win. thedispatch.com/article/demo...

Read Jeremiah Johnson's first piece as a Dispatch contributing writer: thedispatch.com/article/demo...

Welcome Jeremiah Johnson to The Dispatch!

This week's Weekly Scroll: Gavin Newsome's dumb podcast gambit, Male Morning Routines, Idiot Plots, and feral Lorde fans: www.infinitescroll.us/p/weekly-scr...

Wondering if we wouldn't be better off with this crew

Some folks are trying to cancel Harry Sisson for flirting with lots of women on Snapchat. When did we decide that 'being a dumb fuckboy' should be treated with the same seriousness as a sexual abuse scandal? www.infinitescroll.us/p/midweek-sc...

Why have JD Vance memes taken over the internet? Does he just have a funny face, or is there a deeper meaning? www.infinitescroll.us/p/weekly-scr...

The internet really feels like a place where you used to discover things serendipitously. Now everything is algorithmically optimized and locked behind platforms. www.infinitescroll.us/p/trapped-in...