Starting things off with a fresh post from Brian Merchant: Tech under Trump, part 1

You just know Netflix’s inbox is getting flooded with the absolute worst shit League of Legends players can come up with right now

I don’t run any websites, what are you coming at me for

If H5N1 does turn into a full-blown outbreak, part of me expects it’ll rack up a heavier deathtoll than COVID.

If we came across very mentally disabled people or extremely early babies (perhaps in a world where we could extract fetuses from the womb after just a few weeks) that could feel pain but only had cognition as complex as shrimp, it would be bad if they were burned with a hot iron, so that they cried out. It’s not just because they’d be smart later, as their hurting would still be bad if the babies were terminally ill so that they wouldn’t be smart later, or, in the case of the cognitively enfeebled who’d be permanently mentally stunted.

wat

This entire fucking shrimp paragraph is what failing philosophy does to a mf

Character.AI Is Hosting Pedophile Chatbots That Groom Users Who Say They’re Underage

Three billion dollars and its going into Character AI AutoGroomer 4000s. Fuck this timeline.

Wired tried to put out a defence of tech and the result is incoherent drivel. See for yourself.

This is pure gut instinct, but I suspect Twitter’s probably gonna die sometime during Trump’s term - the banks which funded Musk’s takeover consider it their worst deal since the Great Recession, and the rapid exodus of users is gonna further cripple Twitter’s ability to attract advertising revenue.

Part of me suspects we’re gonna see Twitter getting banned somewhere during Trump’s term as well, a la Musk’s tangle with Brazil.

Dorsey jumping ship’s about as good a reason as any to jump to Bluesky, especially considering Twitter’s currently haemorrhaging users from the one-two-three punch of the AI training, the crippled blocking and THE ELECTION^tm.

By my guess, the AI training is probably doing the most damage - that one’s prompting artists to bolt for the exits, and if Tumblr’s NSFW ban taught me anything, its that if the artists start leaving, they’re gonna start taking their fans with them.

2. following on from 1, it’s kind of funny that the EAs, who you could pattern match to a “high school nerd” stereotype, are intellectually beaten out by an analog of the “jock” stereotype of sports fans: fantasy league participants who understand the concept of “intangibles” that EAs apparently cannot grasp.

On a wider note, it feels the “geek/nerd” moniker’s lost a whole lot of cultural cachet since its peak in the mid-'10s. It is a topic Sarah Z has touched on, but I could probably make a full goodpost about it.

Got recommended a video from a friend, and its a damn good sneer at the state of YouTube sponsorships:

Why YouTube Sponsors Are (Almost) Always Terrible

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(your shocked Pikachu was borked, I ended up fixing it out of frustration. Took me a couple attempts - standard formatting fucks it up no matter what, but code’s kinder to it)

This hits a lot worse after JD Vance became Vice-Pres Elect

Four Passengers Die in Burning Tesla After Electronic Doors Seemingly Won’t Open

I always had a hunch Teslas were death traps but Jesus Christ

Its gonna be the largest embezzlement scheme in US history, that much I’m certain. How much damage the pair will do to the federal gov I’m not sure, but I expect there won’t be much left of it once they’re done.

Elon Musk, Ramaswamy land Trump admin roles

President-elect Trump has tapped tech entrepreneurs Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead an advisory group focused on cutting federal spending and reducing the size of the government.

Trump announced Tuesday that Musk and Ramaswamy would lead his “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE), an initiative meant to “slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures” and restructure federal agencies.

We live in the dumbest timeline

Heads up, Zitron’s gonna drop

Misandry as a vague cultural meme about men being terrible and the friction that this causes, particularly for men struggling to find a healthy way to exist under patriarchal masculinity as discussed above?

Looking back, that’s definitely the kind of thing I was expecting to spike. I was just too deeply peeved about vaguely gestures at everything to see that clearly.

Should’ve probably posted this earlier, but fuck it: South Korea’s ‘4B’ Movement Goes Viral in US After Trump Elected

“4B” is shorthand for a South Korean movement in which women refuse to engage in heterosexual marriage, childbirth, dating, or sex with men. It comes from the words bihon, bichulsan, biyeonae, and bisekseu, all of which start with a Korean prefix for “no.” It originated in 2019 in response to a culture that women felt was patriarchal beyond repair, and has since gained some traction in other countries.

Also, fuck it, quick sidenote:

This is mostly gut instinct, like most of the Trump predictions I’ve made, but I’m expecting a spike in full-blown misandry over Trump’s term. Mainly because Trump managed to win over Gen Z men this election, and because the Trump administration is almost certainly going to town on abortion/women’s rights.

Starting off this Stubsack with a solid essay I ran across: Don’t expect the tech platforms to help us this time.