Chatbots aren’t conscious, but the specific details as to why are important @virginiaheffernan.bsky.social joined @matthew.flux.community for a wide-ranging discussion about minds, meaning, and artificial intelligence which introduces his new Epistemic Flux Theory:

With Callais decision, the right-wing Supreme Court majority has unveiled the inescapable reality of Republican white supremacism Democrats need to find a way to rally a majority against the dire threat of GOP racism and its threat to modern America Via @jtccarroll.flux.community:

MAGA is not a monolith, and that’s why Trump’s poll numbers have fallen Pollster Stephen Hawkins joined @matthew.flux.community on "Theory of Change" to discuss his 11,000 person survey of Trump voters that reveals many internal divisions, including some younger men being much more extreme.

I spoke with the great @matthew.flux.community about why a classic liberal arts education is actually a safer-than-ever bet in an age of machine-augmented intelligence plus.flux.community/p/in-the-ai-...

Love or hate LLMs, there will be plenty of jobs in the future because of their limitations. People who can think broadly and clearly will have the advantage.

In the AI-powered job market, knowing what truth looks like will matter most @nilsgilman.bsky.social on why a classic liberal arts education is a safer bet in an age of machine-augmented intelligence

In the latest Theory of Change, @ajbauer.bsky.social joins @matthew.flux.community to discuss his new book about how the myth of "liberal media bias" has warped American politics. Even Democrats and the mainstream media have been badly damaged by this manipulation:

To achieve a beautiful future, we must never stop imagining @monikabielskyte.bsky.social joins @matthew.flux.community to discuss how to rescue the future from Big Tech dystopianism

Donald Trump’s belligerent attacks on the Pope are backfiring badly Picking a fight with a peace-mongering pontiff may well pay massive future dividends — for opponents of the president and MAGA. Via @jtccarroll.flux.community:

My latest: Historians are now saying the Trump era is a Second Gilded Age. If that's true, Democrats must realize that fake populism can only be defeated by real populism

New from @matthew.flux.community: Barack Obama reading books to preschoolers with Zohran Mamdani is a very big deal. The former president seems to have realized that Democrats cannot defeat Trumpism unless they include all of the party’s voters.

🧵Trump's war against Pope Leo is about something far larger than his foreign wars, it's actually a struggle for control of American Christianity. This thread will summarize the main points of my latest essay about how Trumpism is a replacement Christianity. Continue or click through:

Trump hates Pope Leo because he sees himself as the real vicar of Christ, @matthew.flux.community writes. The president is trying to rebuild Christianity in his own image, but the first American pope is standing in the way.

Young men are being drawn to the beauty industry through toxic ‘looksmaxxing’ trends Ideas that first began among incel communities are spreading far beyond

Military officials warned not to obey illegal orders as Trump’s Iran ‘deadline’ looms Laws against war crimes will still exist, even after Trump is not president

To derail and defeat Trumpism, we need a broader public awareness of how the president's sociopathy merges with longstanding American pathologies.

James Talarico is setting an example of a liberal Christianity that is unapologetically both things--while also being inclusive of non-religious and non-Christian people. @aselrod.bsky.social and @matthew.flux.community discuss why this is the way:

Pam Bondi’s DOJ abandoned 23,000 criminal investigations in shift to immigration Even investigations into fraud and abuse were dropped

Eddie Dalton isn’t real, but what does that mean? Computer-generated soul music is taking over the internet, raising questions about where humans think art lives

Christian nationalists promote praying to ‘kill’ political opponents and stop them ‘by any means necessary’ ‘We want him crucified—with Christ,’ former Pete Hegseth pastor says of Texas Democrat James Talarico

Thinking about space aliens can be fun and exciting, but it can also teach us about human science and communication. Particle physicist @danielwhiteson.bsky.social joins @matthew.flux.community to discuss his new book, ‘Do Aliens Speak Physics?’ Perfect for your weekend queue:

Many people are aware of Republican efforts to restrict reproductive healthcare, but it's crucially important to realize that these proposals are part of a much larger right-wing project of removing women from American public life. @susanrinkunas.com and I put the pieces together here:

Dobbs v. Jackson was just the beginning of the reactionary assault on women @susanrinkunas.com joins "Theory of Change" to discuss the right's sprawling effort to eliminate birth control, abortion pills, and women’s rights as a whole:

As Trump's illegal attack on Iran goes sideways, Democrats must fight further war funding The case for Democrats opposing budgetary support for more mayhem in the Middle East (and very possibly beyond) is overwhelming

Culture, dating, and politics still haven’t adjusted to women’s economic independence Siri Dahl on how women remade the economy and adult media, and why that’s also good for men

This was a great conversation between myself and Matt Sheffield on why the Democratic Party has low approval ratings despite trouncing the GOP in special elections all year.

Caving to the radical right's cultural power never works, but the libertarians who call themselves centrists keep suggesting it anyway. @parkermolloy.com and @matthew.flux.community discuss how the right polices language rather than make arguments, and why the issue is never the issue.

People often think of right-wing conspiracy nuts as Nick Fuentes or Alex Jones look-alikes, but the reality is that many conspiracists are women. @noellecook.com joined me to discuss her new book profiling why millions of women have descended into extremism

Democrats are on an election win streak despite having a badly damaged brand, what’s going on? @davidoatkins.bsky.social joins Theory of Change to discuss why Americans are voting Democratic despite not approving of the party.

Right-wing extremists are often perceived as mostly men, but QAnon and related conspiracy traditions have numerous women who believe In the latest Theory of Change episode, author @noellecook.com discusses her book, "The Conspiracists: Women, Extremism, and the Lure of Belonging"

Judging has always been a political profession. But after the Warren Court, the liberal legal establishment deluded itself into thinking that judges were objective gods in black dresses. All of the things you hate about SCOTUS go back to this horrible error. @elienyc.bsky.social and I discuss:

Legal formalism distorted liberal politics and handed the Supreme Court to the radical right The Nation’s @elienyc.bsky.social joins @matthew.flux.community to discuss how the left misunderstood that jurisprudence is inherently political--and usually conservative

It's important to recall that it wasn't that long ago when Congress actually was willing to assert its constitutionally defined war powers, even though today's Republican leaders are refusing to do so

After condemning Trump's unauthorized attacks on Iran, some congressional Democrats are talking about funding it. This would severely undermine their moral credibility with voters, @jtccarroll.flux.community writes plus.flux.community/p/assenting-...

How the sex, drugs, and rock and roll counterculture fell in love with Donald Trump and Jesus Aaron Rabinowitz of @etvpod.bsky.social discusses ‘high weirdness’ and why so many of the hippies were actually just conservative anarchists plus.flux.community/p/how-the-se...

How you think about minds influences how you view the world Philosopher and geneticist Johannes Yaeger on how digital computing metaphors cannot capture what biological minds are

Plunging U.S. into illegal war with Iran, Donald Trump reminds us he's the true menace to our country In his half-hearted attempts to sell war with Iran, Trump sticks to a stale authoritarian script: we are beset by evil enemies that he alone can vanquish via violent retribution

Did OpenAI reject its stated core concerns about AI running fully autonomous robots and conducting mass surveillance of Americans? It sure seems that way. I parse the language and provide the background here:

Epstein files show a financier obsessed with excluding women from science and tech "No really smart women – none"

Instead of watching Trump lie and ramble for an hour tonight, you should watch, listen, or read the latest Theory of Change episode in which @jeetheer.bsky.social and I discuss how tech oligarchs like Peter Thiel and Elon Musk are literally basing their politics on sci-fi novels.

Why big tech billionaires are trying to make dystopian science fiction into reality The Nation’s Jeet Heer on how today’s tech oligarchs are trying to enact the authoritarian fantasies of Robert Heinlein and Ayn Rand

People sometimes say that quantum physics is "stuck," with no major discoveries since the Higgs boson. This is inaccurate; but it's worth considering that the dominance of the "Copenhagen interpretation" is holding things back. I talked about it with Oxford University physicist Vlatko Vedral:

My latest at @flux.community: In the Trump administration's elevation of lawless federal agents, we can see a parallel denigration of the meaning of American citizenship. 1/ plus.flux.community/p/all-the-ki...

Robert Kennedy’s MAHA cult is making America sicker: A new scientific establishment is attacking evidence-based medicine plus.flux.community/p/robert-ken...

Financially struggling Americans have no interest in participating in a political system that’s failed them Sociologist @daniellaurison.bsky.social discusses new research on why many low-income don't vote

AI content is here to stay, laws and norms need to change accordingly Large Language Models are enabling the non-rich to get cognitive assistance, but they’re also enabling junk and manipulation. Political leaders have to step forward. plus.flux.community/p/ai-content...

All the king’s masked and anonymous henchmen: In the Trump administration's elevation of lawless federal agents, we can see a parallel denigration of the meaning of American citizenship plus.flux.community/p/all-the-ki...

Robert Kennedy’s MAHA cult is making America sicker: A new scientific establishment is attacking evidence-based medicine plus.flux.community/p/robert-ken...

Christian right groups launch new coalition to ban marriage equality Reactionary religious groups plan to leverage Republican Supreme Court majority to overturn same-sex marriage rights nationwide plus.flux.community/p/christian-...

The START nuclear weapons treaty is expiring this week, but Trump doesn’t seem to care. Even Russian president Vladimir Putin has proposed extending it for an additional year.