"it's giving war crime"

On rising action against oppressive states, and why tech and fashion have become the same industry.

Apr 12, 2026

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🦿 HIP REPLACEMENT🦿 this week is a BIG one as Ben Dietz and I were joined by AI literacy expert Jeremy Carrasco to dive into the thinking behind slop viewership, TMZ’s political pivot, and which platforms are doing a good job — and a bad job — of regulating misinformation from AI. Listen on Substack, YouTube, or Spotify.
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How Trump Took the U.S. to War With Iran
US, Israel, Iran agree to ceasefire
Trump’s tipping point
Pope Leo denounces Trump’s threat
Vance leaves Islamabad without a deal

Twas a big week for Trump’s Iran conflict, of typical tantrums with genocidal threats in a war no one asked for. Glad to see the #woke Pope is speaking up! Also: I want to start seeing receipts for huge rescue missions like this, which are being gloated about but shouldn’t have happened to begin with — and cannot be cheap.

At least 182 killed across Lebanon

As if the above evil wasn’t enough. Awful.

USPS: suspend pension, 4-cent price hike

This is and isn’t as dire as it sounds, but a continued drumbeat of frustration as we near sixty days of a not-fully-open government despite all of the above.

Sam Altman May Control Our Future
“he’s a pathological liar”

Huge week for Karen Hao, who was repeatedly vindicated by the brutal New Yorker Ronan Farrow story about Sam Altman. If you read Empire of AI, none of this is surprising. Sama and Salad Fingers need to get lost!

Anthropic’s Mythos Heralds New Era
Anthropic Sparks Urgent Warning to Banks
Anthropic’s bid to win AI publicity

Stunt queen behavior. These “AI wars” are like watching the most insufferable 22 year olds at Fiesta Cantina in WeHo fight for the bartender’s attention: ENOUGH.

Strongest El Niño in a century?
Epic winter drought creates a bleak situation

I’m already sweating over the idea of this summer.

How India plans to count 1.4 billion people

India is embarking on a huge census, which feels like it will be a big cultural moment, not just because they’re now including caste (oy).

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“So you’re weaponizing nostalgia to engineer the conditions for a big populist government takeover.”
“Oh no, Rao.” She looks at him with something like pity. “No. That’s not it at all. Governments are redundant entities these days. They have their uses, but they’re not where power lies.”
“Corporations.”
She shakes her head. “People.”

This is a discussion in the final act of Helen MacDonald and Sin Blaché’s 2024 sci-fi novel Prophet, about nostalgia becoming a literal chemical weapon that places people in suspended animation. It’s a fascinating book, as nostalgia obviously is a key weapon to tame, to dull, to prevent people power from taking action. Prophet is fiction but a quick squint at culture shows the concept doesn’t go deep enough: it’s not just nostalgia but overconsumption, overwork, and overburdening people that make them too dumb and numb to do anything. Such is our soundtrack to the bread and circuses.

Is that not the goal of the K-state? Inequality is creating tensions, which flared up a bit this week: a 2022 World Economic Forum clip on the metaverse (lol) went viral on all sides of the political spectrum as journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin paraphrased an idea of an uneven future to a Meta executive: “There’s going to be people of means who are going to travel, and then there’s going to be people who are of lesser means, who might actually be able to use a device, to travel to the same place, but from their couch.”; a CNBC clip made the rounds due to its tonal dissonance, thanks to host Sara Eisen: “This deadline that President Trump has set, 8PM, has threatened to destroy a civilization…How does an investor process that? Is it a bigger upside risk or downside risk?”; former Secretary of Commerce and Rhode Island governor, Gina Raimondo, appeared on the Bloomberg Odd Lots podcast to talk AI, where she shared a questionable “little theory” about the laid off: “It’s much easier to start your own business, because of AI tools. Now, lots and lots of people make a living with a restaurant or a coffee shop or whatever. I think it’s possible we see a real explosion of online, new services, new online products, because people can start a business with AI.” We could continue — Democrats pivoting to tax cuts! — but we’ll stop there.

As chatter around the draft heats up, you can understand how and why regular people are starting to get mad as hell as they realize they are the Lomans: This is what I get for living in the so-called best country in the world? An abusive relationship? A techno oligarchy that overstimulates us all? The economy slumps for most of us, inflation suffocating with no end in sight. Conversations of wealth gaps boil as the “new” retirement age ticks to 85, marking a grim low to an already low state. “White-collar workers became more like cogs in a machine than self-directed professionals, more like machinists labouring under a shop steward than valued apprentices ascending a path to partnership,” Aeon’s Sam Haselby said of work, of our white-collar sweat-shop. AI is used to monitor the poor, harassing them and denying them time and attention — meaning humanity is now a luxury product, as The Nation poses. “Sam Altman proposing to literally meter intelligence is just the most egregious proposal of such an anti-human industry,” Paris Marx wrote of tech leaders like Elon Musk and right wing politicians seeking to block the poor from knowledge by selling intelligence itself. “With how hard the American government is going to say who is a citizen versus who is not, you would think being born here came with something,” a popular TikTok observed. “I want to live in the country where Bryon Noem can have giant tits! That’s the thing — but they won’t let us!” someone else stated. “Go to the dentist, go to work,” a massively viral TikTok rambled. “GOVERNMENT! GOVERNMENT! POLITICS! THE PRESIDENT!” she screamed. “Brunch?” she asked, from her palm. “WORK! WORK! WORK!” All this — and “whitey’s on the moon” as Gil Scott-Heron said, now conjured through TikTok, calling attention to a $100 billon mission that shouldn’t be celebrated in unequal times.

“Enough is enough!” is the rightful sentiment to being told to eat shit from all angles for too long: we’re arriving at the breaking point as genocide spreads, as life in the modern world is a hostage situation unless you’re at the top of the K. “This guy hasn’t paid federal taxes in 50 years,” AJ+ shared of a man’s protest against decades of presidents-as-war-criminals, representing a trend of people not-paying taxes in the same vein — a la: a “tax strike.” A huge turn out to yell at kings that is nulled by said kings, leaving us pointing at each other wondering who the revolutionaries really are. “It’s giving war crime,” an unlikely white drawl from Georgia said of this moment. “This is an emergency appeal to tech workers at the following companies,” Cy Canterel pleaded on TikTok. “We must not participate in atrocity. Refuse illegal orders.” “Gen Z workers are so fearful AI will take their job they’re intentionally sabotaging their company’s AI rollout,” Fortune reported. The refusals are happening, or at least Luigi Mangione’s torch is finally passing: “If you’re not going to pay us enough to fucking live or afford to live, at least pay us enough not to do this shit,” a warehouse worker in Ontario, California said this week while lighting palettes of paper towels ablaze, setting the whole site into flames as people post memes, make swag, and tag this as our Boston Tea Party moment; a man named Daniel Alejandro Moreno-Gama threw a Molotov cocktail at Sam Altman’s house on Friday, a person whose social footprint asks what we’re all thinking: “What will their children say those few brief moments, before their lives end,” Daniel wrote on his alleged Substack last month.

This proves a comment that has stuck with me for months, from the writer and thinker Sarah Schulman in my interview with her: “People are very far ahead of their governments.” She was alluding to how change isn’t happening from the top down but the bottom up and, when pushed beyond our limits, we will stop speaking loudly and act even louder. Who is surprised a worker lit a warehouse on fire to the applause of viewers? Who is surprised people are trying to bomb Sam Altman’s house? Not I, as I’ve rambled about this for months if not years. Some are listening (Maine became the first state to ban data centers, south Jersey is mobilizing against new centers), which will eventually ladder up higher. Pope Leo, for example, is a very active listener: “God does not bless any conflict,” he Tweeted; “Hundreds of millions of people throughout the world are immersed in extreme poverty…Disproportionate wealth remains in the hands of a few,” he Tweeted; “Absurd and inhuman violence is spreading ferociously through the sacred places of the Christian East, profaned by the blasphemy of war and the brutality of business, with no regard for people’s lives,” he Tweeted. A shift is occurring because the tools of pacification — nostalgia, overconsumption, overwork, overburdening — don’t feel that great when the polycrisis is bigger than buzz: more and more are coming to the conclusion that people have the power. Settle in, as a new act is starting.

Native American dice more than 12K years ago

Cool “gaming” news: Native Americans were using dice 12,000 years ago. And decorating them too! These die are 6,000 years older than the previously assumed “oldest dice.” Gambling and gaming…always on-trend.

A Real-Life Hannah Montana
“far more interesting plot”

I’m obsessed with the author of The Housemaid, even if I will never read her work. But to rip off her wig, to reveal her true identity, because she can quit her job as a brain surgeon? Iconic. We stan.

CBS reveals how it will replace Colbert
Colbert’s Billionaire Replacement

This downgrade will be studied, as poor billionaire Byron bought this time slot to take his cable access concept national. Start the lettuce counter for when this enshittifies from right-wing rot.

Where Does a Dog Belong?
Does the New York ‘Times’ Need a Magazine?

If anyone reading this works for New York Magazine, please tell me what bug went up y’alls ass this week because there were so many hateration stories this week. Another point on the board for rage bait as the new clickbait, because they got my click even if they’re liberal-leaning gossip bits. (But: dog owners do need to get a fucking grip and be better people, which I say as one dog owner to another.)

Do men or women have worse farts?
“a series of FART sound effects”

This week in farts! First, in case you were wondering what The Washington Post has been up to, the same newspaper that broke the Watergate scandal, has news that all genders of farts are just as bad. Second, ChatGPT has interesting thoughts about farts, which further emphasize how fucking stupid that tool is — and might become a trend.

A Corporate Retreat Went Very Wrong

A delightful story of Plex’s corporate getaway that dissolved due to a Survivor theme gone very extremely wrong.

Tom DeLonge Showed Trent Reznor A Photo

Of what? A dead alien, making this the week’s best headline. While we’re here enjoy an all-timer of a correction from FT, which inspired people to share similar favorites.

Boards of Canada spark comeback rumours

Code red for some of us (which is a similar code read for a different some-of-us thanks to the return of AHS: Coven).

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Dyson launched a $99 personal fan, with an ad of women walking in Paris, dancing in clubs, and watching tennis along with images of a Uniqlo’d out dude, a fabulous woman of a certain age, and a young person taking a photo with an old digital camera. “Tech is getting fun again,” someone observed. But more importantly: “Dyson including a digicam in the product shots signals culture + fashion, not tech.”

Here’s the thing: tech is fashion now. A soulless industry that is facing increased pressure from all sides to prove its worth is trying to turn itself inside out to match another industry in pursuit of money who sells “cool” you can wear. Product drops as techno retail, developer conferences as runway shows, products as accessories: spot the difference, if you can. “Taste is a new core skill” is less a statement about taste itself being something that is developed — or that is even a worldview — but a purchasable feature, an object that can be cherry picked to signal meaning, associations, and values: a sexy ad campaign for a high-tech fan calls in a digital camera for no other reason than to dog whistle associations of stylishness, that “cool” comes via uploading your software. Sell fashion, if you can’t sell tech.

But also: fashion is tech now. The domain of clothing is no longer about style or art as craft has been replaced with clothing-as-content, SEO-friendly creations that feel like keyword clouds our eye-scanners review to express value instead of covering for our human bodies. As explained, the new Devil Wears Prada represents this best — prestige outlets as advertorial experience, soulless Frankenstein music chanting slang to capture the FYP, film as affiliate marketing — as this isn’t a movie but an interactive ecommerce experience: like the new Mario, it is evil and illiterate, a product and not art. The cozying up with tech leaders — Mark Zuckerberg at Prada, Bryan Johnson for Matières Fécales, Jeff Bezos at Schiaparelli — furthers the groan as power isn’t parodied but an accessory to propel. Is it at all surprising that (two years later) fashion and AI continue to encircle each other, intertwining in public while pretending no one cares? None of this is to mention the damaging qualities of “tech” within the system already, from plastic clothing to in-feed points-of-sale.

This is less a tug-of-war and more a braiding, an explanation for why new clothing in this era has become a mishmash of god-knows-what that feels less and less appealing (hence the rise in vintage). Yes, we the tasteful can pat ourselves on the back because we hate Silicon Valley’s tech pants and tech vests — but can we really, if all the “coolest trends” are gorpcore and hiking and climbing culture fusing fashion with activity? The fashion snake isn’t eating itself but instead forming a figure eight with tech’s snake, mouths locked not to tails but to the tips of their pricks. This confusion is expressed as buzz for snoafers and snoccasins and mallet flats, “office sirens” and “quiet luxury” and “Y3K”: are these not designs by and for social media buttons, less creative and more a pressed duet or remix button? As I said to Cris while attending a presentation for Iceland’s Ranra this week, viewing their clothing amongst similarly buzzy brand peers like Ssstein, Village PM, and Rier: the feeling is less of something new but that the “cool thing” in contemporary fashion now is dressing like a 1990s dad who works at IBM but keeps getting lost at lunch on a hike. Even the coolest of the cool in the industry cannot escape tech’s talons! It’s starting to feel like these industries are too entangled for either of them to be ever be cool again.

We knew this was coming given tech has eaten art as art eats tech — but it didn’t feel like it would happen so soon. A nylon soullessness is draped over the world as these industries try to sell a cool that upholds a current politic (the purity of wellness, the emptiness of expression) that is hollowing out difference and furthering inequality. Could this be the definitive 2020 style? The smothering of style, expression murdered in the name of money? This is an era not marked not by design or creativity but by the glossy iridescent sheen of bubbles about to burst.