Amanda Unvarnished

Win or lose, the charges are an American tragedy.

Remember, You Asked For This by Nick Catoggio (thedispatch.com)

You asked for this. You, the person who voted for Trump in 2016 and/or 2020.

“Democrats” didn’t ask for this. They’re not the ones who chose to place the personal corruption and personality disorders of a lowlife from Queens at the center of our politics for going on eight years.

And they’re certainly not the ones who’ve grown “crazed” because they can’t accept the results of an election. One would think that might be obvious, but you’d be surprised at how much conservative commentary on social media last night strained to blame Democrats for the persistence of Trump’s appeal. Democrats just made Trump the frontrunner for the Republican nomination. Democrats are going to get Trump reelected again in 2024. Democrats have left Republicans no choice but to indict Barack Obama and Joe Biden at the first opportunity.

Democrats haven’t done anything. You’ve done it. To paraphrase Kevin Williamson: You’re choosing it freely. Nobody is making you do it.

“It is not the libs’ fault if Republican voters decide that their criminal, traitorous 2024 front-runner is even more appealing now that a grand jury has decided to officially indict him,” said Tim Miller, gently reminding the American right that they have agency in choosing their leaders.

The anti-vax-slobbering, Constitution-defying governor of Florida is sitting right there. He’s 35 years younger than Joe Biden, he won reelection by nearly 20 points, he’s checking every culture-war box on the menu, and he’s a mortal lock to appeal more strongly to swing voters than the twice-impeached, once-indicted coup-plotter.

If Trump wins anyway, then remember—you asked for this. Not Democrats.

Tl;dr: The harms from so-called AI are real and present and follow from the acts of people and corporations deploying automated systems. Regulatory efforts should focus on transparency, accountability and preventing exploitative labor practices.

The populist right has portrayed New College as a notorious example of indoctrination in higher education—a narrative that does not withstand scrutiny.

The Florida governor poses as a great admirer of the Constitution but is eager to betray it for political gain.

For several months earlier this year, I’d been chatting with Michael Shellenberger about the Twitter Files. He’d reached out to me in a Twitter DM on December 30th, telling me he wanted to better understand social media content moderation and transparency policy. Via phone, email, and text, we discussed topics ranging from state-sponsored disinformation campaigns, to the basics of content moderation (he was unfamiliar), to online speech. We talked about public trust