The United States was founded on speaking up against tyranny
This post isn’t about AI; it’s about our future
[Interrupting our regularly scheduled programming on AI]
The United States was founded on speaking up against tyranny.
Now is the time.
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What has happened in the US in the last few weeks, ranging from the firing of leading generals to using the military to detain undocumented immigrants to the mass cutting of science funding to the sharing of massive amounts of private information with unelected outsiders, is shocking.
The question is why all this is happening. One analysis comes from Karen Attiah, a Washington Post columnist, in her Substack, which she summarized on BlueSky:
and
I don’t know if her analysis is correct, and there may be other factors at play, but it harkens back to a quote from Martin Luther King, Jr., published in 1967, a year before he was assassinated. At the time, Dr. King commented on
“the unregenerate segregationists who have declared that democracy is not worth having if it involves equality. The segregationist goal is the total reversal of all reforms, with reestablishment of naked oppression and if need be a native form of fascism.”
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No matter what the agenda is, the means of proceeding are frightening and invasive. Zeynep Tufekci recently outlined one of the vectors by which the new regime is exerting its will:
Your address, your phone number, your income, your ethnicity. All in the hands of unelected outsiders who have had little if any background checks, and loyalties that seem to be more to their boss than country.
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We are living in dark times, and almost everyone is afraid to speak up.
But things are only going to get worse if we don’t.
Dr. Gary Marcus is an American citizen who has lost confidence in his nation.
Thank you, Gary. Another analysis that might resonate with you and your readers: https://www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/gangster-party
"The goal of all this is not “remaking the government in a conservative image”—it is “if you want anything, you have to ask me for it.” The rules that governed how the government works are tossed out and replaced with “Trump’s will.” That’s how mob bosses rule."
It will only get worse until more of us stand up and force them to stop.
To understand what is going on here, I believe that you have to go back to Musk's original pre-Paypal vision of X as the single site that offered all services including "information," commerce, and finance. The way he intends to get there is the same way Putin got where he is: cause a governmental collapse, privatize everything and divide it up amongst your fellow oligarchs, with you at the top.