"Smartphone theory of everything" explains many trends: • worsening mental health, esp women • rise of addictive gambling behavior, esp men • cognitive decline • lower coupling rates, so lower fertility • new information bubbles and global rise in populism

What we're going through now is nothing more than a global Revenge of the Loser - millions of pathetic, dysfunctional people uniting across political lines to suicide bomb anyone whose success make them feel bad. You can't understand the present moment if you won't acknowledge it

In COVID, the problem was health experts trying maximize health outcomes without regard for public policy cost-benefit. Health experts were right about health aspects, and wrong on public policy. With tariffs, the better analogy is that everyone knows that the sky is blue./1

Cameron 🇺🇸 🗽🦅 Thanks to the power of elite consensus the sheer dumbassery of the average American used to have next to no effect on American politics. Also, the internet has allowed the cranks to all coordinate and become an important bloc (and created more cranks). Now the asylum has fallen.

America has changed, the world has changed. People have become sadistic and nihilistic pigs because of social media.

Less than 24 hours ago, Google dropped Veo 3, blurring the line between reality and AI. Its video and audio quality is so lifelike, it’s unsettling. Here are 20 insane examples & a full guide on how to use it: 1) A standup comedian telling a joke:

I am constantly astounded by how trashy it all is yes the policies are bad put the aesthetics are just insulting

Yes, this seems bad but it is a small price to pay to prevent 3 trans people from playing JV HS girls field hockey.

A lot of the Biden discourse comes from young people who don't realize what age does to you. You *will* have trouble with stairs when you're 80. You will blank on the names of things, and the timeline of your long life will become muddled. None of this is a disorder, it's life.

This is a very tough lift, but not for the reason you may think. Mamdani combines youth, charisma, and skilled communication. But the communication skill is *predicated* on socialism because socialism produces easy answers. Communicating capitalism is harder and a rarer skill.

On that note, this is why I despise ageism in politics (and everything). Kids are actually quite stupid, and raising a generation to think that they hold the secrets of the universe and their life is over at 30 means that we're valorizing being a moron.

Real Ye The difference between Democrats and Republicans is that both of them think coddling and tolerating criminal behavior is fine and has no negative consequences, but Democrats think this about poor people, whereas Republicans think it about the President of the United States

Never forget that Trump’s campaign manager, deputy campaign manager, National Security Advisor, foreign policy advisor and political consultant were all convicted of felonies. Different juries, different judges, different venues. Trump hired a bunch of criminals and they were

Obviously the central villain here is rightwing media embedded into the state apparatus driven by a personality cult and grievance politics but the compete and total uselessness of supposedly neutral and liberal institutions to stand up to these fucking bullies is a close second.

One of the children who died thanks to Elon Musk's project to not save U.S. taxpayers any money.

Ultimately the question is never "what do conservatives need to do for liberals to respect them" but rather "what kind of insane toddler bullshit do liberals need to tolerate from conservatives". This is because the libs are the adults in the room and everyone knows it.

like, this is basically "I get to consider you untermenschen and treat you accordingly, but it is beyond the pale for this to impact your evaluation of me".

People are no longer free to tell their neighbors about the presence of masked government agents? Tech CEOs once again folding to govt pressure. Pathetic.

Republicans have their dream government but they're still not happy because all they want is the approval of cultural institutions.

The real reason so many people feel despair is MUCH closer to “I think my life will end in meaningless oblivion unless I am on an epic quest, a billionaire, or gigafamous, but this is gauche to admit and so I use proxy variables” than it is to “I can’t live on less than $140,000”