As an online MAGA discussion continues, the probability of a laudatory reference or comparison to Hitler or to Nazis all-too-briskly approaches 1.

You can't logic your way out of being burnt out. Unless you're me. Who should be able to do it and it's a personal failing that I can't

You're living through one of the biggest technological transformations in world history and it has nothing to do with AI

GenAI truly was the worst technology to come along at this moment. An energy and water guzzler when we most urgently need to take climate action. A disinformation machine as our journalism fails. A bias machine as fascism takes root. A job killer in a cost of living crisis.

My boss: so how's our fourth quarter looking? Me, the sales manager at the company that makes inflatable frog suits: well, you're never going to believe this, but

Oh shit. President Crimes and his crimes friends are committing crimes with the fake money for doing crimes. Have you guys seen this.

The thing about crashing a tank through a museum of antiquities is that you don't have to be a particularly skilled driver to do a lot of damage.

If you don’t like being called a racist, maybe don’t make a career of saying things that appeal to racists, don’t create a political party that keeps attracting racist candidates, don’t fawn over racist world leaders, and don’t make a convicted racist the guest of honour at your party conference.

It's strange to think that in the future, this period in American history will be defined by footage of ICE and the military roaming US streets, speeches from the president declaring war on his own citizens, and articles like this.

Who is telling the Labour Party that the way to blunt Reform's momentum is to fundamentally agree with them but propose alternate bureaucratically nightmarish forms of nativism?

I fully expected the second part of that statement to be '...and Labour feels that the policy doesn't go far enough. We will implement it faster and better and more cruelly than they could!' like they did every time the Tory government announced some illiberal bullshit policy.

this most "this could have been an email" thing i've ever heard

An identity war is, quite literally, the worst possible issue on which to attach it. "Let's roll IDs out, so we can more easily spot who is not part of the in-group" is the most damaging imaginable start to this conversation.

oh boy this is gonna get a lot of use in the group chats

If you're on LinkedIn, here's the opt-out for LinkedIn's AI bullshit using your content. www.linkedin.com/mypreference...

The Disney parodies… holy shit

In the 2010s, this country's elites were thrown onto social platforms with everyone else and could finally read what we all think about them and it caused them so much psychic damage that they decided to destroy both the internet and democracy to make sure nothing like it ever happened again.

Bruh

Just a reminder: they were never actually against cancel culture. They were against the cancellation of people they agree with or like. They’ve always been enthusiastically in favor cancelling people they don’t like. If you took them at their word you’re a useful idiot.

The Speaker of the House of Representative telling elected civil politicians to "yield" to military force. A significant moment.

there is a simple question the government has fundamentally refused to answer here and it is plainly "is this proportionate policing"

Time for some more posting about Empire prep to keep myself motivated and to give myself a quick break. This afternoon has been adding the new Artisan Item to my datasource and printing some more almanacs - as well as stickers to add to the existing ones to update them. Next: Commissions book update

Two trials will be repeated endlessly despite always producing the same results: 1) Does UBI work? (yes) 2) Does AI improve productivity? (no)

Someone you know IRL showing you something they used AI to make or do feels like a someone trying to impress you with a dead rodent that's been run over by a car. This is not good what do you expect me to do with it

As a historian of computing, can confirm, this is exactly what happened

look, it might not have worked with the public, but at least it was the wrong thing to do morally

I would like to think they’ll draw the right conclusions from this. I don’t.

What's the most amount of red flags you can fit in a paragraph?

There are no sacrifices that will keep any right-wingers happy. They're not going to say "okay, we got rid of trans rights, gay marriages are OK" or "we stopped small boats, people with leave to remain can stay". They'll want another target. Appeasement is pointless. Don't give them an inch.

NEW The UK constitution is even more vulnerable than the US constitution In the face of an illiberal radical assault, what has happened politically in America could easily happen in the UK By me, at @prospectmagazine.co.uk www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/law/th...

You can't really criticise someone for shouting from the sidelines if you're following their instructions.

Opinions are like arseholes, everyone's got one and no one wants to wake up and see Nigel Farage's.

The most impressive thing about this campaign is how *creative* they are. They’re trying new stuff! Multiple times during the last few months I’ve thought “wow, I’ve never seen a campaign do that.” Much more of that needed everywhere.

every “ancient tradition” was invented between 1848-1870 and every “modern perversion” is so ancient as to predate writing

The U.K. Online Safety Act was (avowedly, as revealed in a recent High Court case) “not primarily aimed at protecting children” but at regulating “services that have a significant influence over public discourse.”

This is one of the most beautiful things I have witnessed, the craft here is impeccable.

I cannot conceive of the evil that had to be present in the heart of whoever decided this book series shouldn't have a consistent font or direction of text on the spine. Monster.

Fantasy Paperwork FTW! 📚🌈✨😅😭😭

Slightly diminish a band: Damp Damp Damp

Please pay no attention to the 13 new AI data centers we're building. Now get rid of your picture of the last time your mom held your baby before she died.

really feels like housing affordability is one of the most important political issues of our time, affecting nearly every aspect of our lives, and everyday our mainstream political discourse is about whether sour cream is woke or not

I will never forgive the rotten bastards we have in charge. 14 years of things getting worse, a huge mandate to change things in a meaningful way, and what do they do? Go after marginalised groups for no fucking reason other than spite and appeasing the ghoulish press. A generational betrayal.

I feel like every single day I need to post a reminder: if you ask an LLM about itself it DOES NOT KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT ITS INNER WORKINGS and WILL NOT TELL YOU ANYTHING ACTUALLY ABOUT ITSELF. It just (as it always does) will make up some plausible sounding answer.

The University of Warwick has paid a lot of money, I'm guessing, for their internet banner ads on the Guardian and elsewhere. But they can't spell "curiosity". This isn't a US-UK variant. They just, genuinely, have a massive spelling error in their banner ads.

I don’t know why this incenses me as much as it does, but it does: we very likely have a thousand plus Mozarts *right now*. But they make non-Western art in economically destitute conditions so they have to do other work to pay bills; if you cared, UBI’d be more important to you than going to space

JESUS CHRIST THOUGH