Category: Bibliography

********** The Rise of Techno-authoritarianism

;widows: 2;-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;text-decoration-thickness: initial;text-decoration-style: initial;text-decoration-color: initial;word-spacing:0px”> No more “build it because we can.” No more algorithmic feedbags. No more infrastructure designed to make the people less powerful and the powerful more controlling. Every day we vote with our attention; it is precious, and desperately wanted by those who will use it against us for their own profit and political goals. Don’t let them.

 

Even the Koch Brothers Weren’t This Brazen

Ultrarich tech elites are becoming much more prominent in American politics—and they don’t care who knows it, @alibreland writes.

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/12/tech-billionaires-trump-administration/680930/?gift=yGKGqaI9BMfIDuch_TrGYevrEMblfWcyYo_kiMY2t-Q&utm_source=email&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=social

The energy is different now. “There’s a real shift in ruling-class vibes,” Rob Larson, an economics professor who has written about the new ultrarich and Silicon Valley’s influence on politics, told me. Many of America’s plutocrats seem not to care if people know that they’re trying to manipulate the political system and the Fourth Estate in service of their own interests. Billionaires such as Andreessen and Ackman are openly broadcasting their political desires and “definitely feeling their animal spirits,” Larson said. Or, as the Northwestern University political-science professor Jeffrey Winters put it in a postelection interview with Slate, this feels like a moment of “in-your-face oligarchy.”

Regardless of its provenance, the practical impact of this behavior is a less equal system. Many people are worried about President-Elect Donald Trump’s forthcoming administration’s corrosive effects on democracy. The corrosion is already happening, though. A particularly vocal subset of the ultrarich is steering the ship, and doesn’t care who knows.

Trump’s Red-Pill Podcast Tour

Recently, Donald Trump has sat down with podcasters including Lex Fridman, Logan Paul, and Theo Von.

“The podcasters get views, status, and revenue, and Trump gets access to their audience, which is dominated by young men,” @helenlewis writes.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/09/trump-lex-fridman-podcast-tour/679702/?gift=yGKGqaI9BMfIDuch_TrGYSXD9AK1hgD6UF2fLx59V4M&utm_source=email&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=social

Trump Won. Now What?

“We must learn to live in an America where an overwhelming number of our fellow citizens have chosen a president who holds the most fundamental values and traditions of our democracy, our Constitution, even our military in contempt,” writes @davidfrum:

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/11/trump-wins-second-term-presidency/680546/?gift=yGKGqaI9BMfIDuch_TrGYeNsz2jSGfT7pbNrMljqnWs&utm_source=email&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=social

What the Left Keeps Getting Wrong

“The stale politics of identity that tries to reduce even the glaringly inconvenient fact of Trump’s multiracial alliance to ‘white women’ stands in the way of overcoming the real democratic crisis,” @thomaschattwill writes:

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/11/progressives-errors-2024-election/680563/?gift=yGKGqaI9BMfIDuch_TrGYQ0ZTjV0SIZXSSiawPyd0Qw&utm_source=email&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=social

***** What the Left Keeps Getting Wrong

“The stale politics of identity that tries to reduce even the glaringly inconvenient fact of Trump’s multiracial alliance to ‘white women’ stands in the way of overcoming the real democratic crisis,” @thomaschattwill writes:

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/11/progressives-errors-2024-election/680563/?gift=yGKGqaI9BMfIDuch_TrGYQ0ZTjV0SIZXSSiawPyd0Qw&utm_source=email&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=social