We need to arm the airplanes.

The Dems had a weak message and they struggled to deliver it where it mattered.

They raised a record amount of money, and spent it on door-knocking and cable ads talking about a rebounding economy, the middle class, and diversity.

The voters who decided the election live in apartments and listen to podcasts, and see an economy in the shitter, and see themselves as working class (not middle) and just an average schmuck.

Total disconnect.

They didn’t even need to move to the right to reach these voters, and they alienated a bunch of the left by trying.

The main event really undercut the earlier fights.

Serrano vs Taylor was fucking amazing. Despite Taylor’s dirty moves, she couldn’t keep Serrano at bay for a single second. I can’t believe the judges robbed her of the win.

Mike Johnson: LA LA LA LA LA LA LA 🙉

Lemmy does not understand that people are leaving X cuz of Nazis, not cuz it’s a centralized corpo platform.

Looking forward to the Matthew Miller clips from this one.

People getting put on the no-fly list cuz of racial profiling, I guess?

I think the two most salient points here are:

1. Podcasts

TV and radio are dead, social media is a wasteland. Podcasts are reaching young folks, especially men.

Which brings me to…

2. Young men are in freefall

They’re doing worse than previous generations did at their age, across every metric you can imagine, and they’re also doing worse than young women.

That’s not to say we should stifle women’s success!

But if all you have to offer young men is a lecture on their unearned privilege, I think it’s not surprising that they take their business elsewhere.

Importantly: This doesn’t make them right.

But if we don’t figure this out, we’re fucked. We have to have a positive message for men who are struggling and desperate. If we don’t offer a plan, guess who will?

Some are just opportunists, but there are certainly true believers — either in specific technologies, or pedal-to-the-metal growth as the only rational solution to the world’s problems.

Andreessen is pretty open about it: https://a16z.com/the-techno-optimist-manifesto/

And Lina Khan will be right there!

“Unexpected button scurvy getaway”

I take it that “Pivot to AI” is the spiritual sibling of “Web 3 is Going Just Great”? I dig it.

If you have multiple cats and kids, it becomes like The West Wing.

new research suggests drinking didn’t stop as things returned to normal.

Hah! Normal?

The goat scream?

Lemmy needs more Hazbin.

2008 DNC was oblivious to Obama until the caucuses started, cuz polling (except for one agency) was consistently missing his popularity with first-timers, so they didn’t get much of a chance to stop him.

This was also before Citizens United, so there’s that too…

DNC in 2028: We’re finally ready to learn our lesson from 2016+2024 and listen to our base. We hear you loud and clear: “No more female candidates.” We will be reallocating AOC’s delegates to Chuck Schumer.

What is naive realism?

People also drink coffee while driving. It’s a depraved world out there.