Losing My Perspicacity November 15, 2024

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Good morning, and welcome back to another Free Friday here at Losing My Perspicacity. Boy, am I glad to see you today.

Before we get into the news, I have to bring up an embarrassing oversight on my part. If you look at the bottom of this email, you’ll see several buttons. One says “Buy Me a Coffee!” where you can toss me a couple of bucks for the effort, even if you aren’t a premium subscriber. I like being able to shoot some cash the way of a content creator every now and then when I appreciate their work on any given day, so I added it at the bottom and didn’t think much more about it. In fact, I’m pretty sure I looked at someone else’s newsletter and added it because they had one. Anyway…

Imagine my surprise when I got an email about transferring my “coffee” funds to my bank! You guys have been sending me coffees all along, and I never said thank you because I had no idea. So THANK YOU to all who have sent me a little treat. I appreciate it more than I can express. The current media landscape is such a mess (more on that in a moment) and I’m still not sure going the newsletter route is viable, financially, long-term, but just seeing those “coffees” and little notes from readers brightened up my whole day. Thanks a bunch!

Speaking of the media landscape, I think the election (and the shitshow that’s come after) crystallized pretty well why independent media is going to be so important for the next four years. If you’re so inclined, please consider becoming a premium subscriber and support independent journalism.

Today: How algorithms killed democracy; Mark Zuckerberg makes Kendall Roy look cool; Harrison Butker is going away for a while (thank God); the NWSL semis are locked and loaded; Always make sure to invest in a good bear; And introducing the Donald Trump Cabinet sexual assault/misconduct tracker.

Let’s go.

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How algorithms killed democracy

I can’t even begin to count the number of times I’ve heard people lament the gulf between the left and right by saying, “It’s like we live in two different worlds!”

If you’ve seen the documentary The Social Dilemma, you know that absolutely everything that you see on any of your social feeds is driven by algorithms, which are basically a complicated set of rules that determine what content is prioritized in your feed. A more straightforward way of saying it is that, if you click, like, respond to, or even pause for a period of time on certain content, the algorithm will recognize that you liked it and will try to show you things that are similar. For example, if a guy surfing the web regularly likes and shares clips from Joe Rogan’s show, the algorithm might say “hmmmm. Charlie Kirk is like Joe Rogan, so I’ll show him Charlie Kirk videos, too.” Next thing you know, our hypothetical scroller is awash in content coming largely from sexist right-wing accounts.

That’s the overly simplified response to the “it’s like we’re living in different worlds!” complaint. We are. We are looking at two completely different sets of information from opposite ends of the spectrum, largely because of our addiction to social media.

In his excellent newsletter, Ed Ziton wrote a bit about this problem this week.

One of the biggest takeaways from The Social Dilemma is how adamant so many of the bigwigs in the tech industry are that their kids and their family members don’t use the products they peddle. They know social media it’s designed to keep you endlessly scrolling, trapped in a doom loop of your own design. Should we really be surprised that people on the right were unaware of some of the basic tenets of the Republican platform, like a national abortion ban… I’m sorry, “minimum national standard?” Much of what their timelines are showing them are bogus claims that kids are getting sex change operations at school and that Kamala Harris is a socialist.

I’m not letting the MAGA crowd off the hook for their virulent racism, misogyny, transphobia, etc., but I do think we have to acknowledge the realities of swimming in toxic social media context day in and day out. I’ve certainly become more liberal since the advent of social media, largely because I’m now connected to so many diverse people who have caused me to think differently.

Add to this the fact that media literacy and basic knowledge of how government/the economy works seem to be at an all-time low, as every video explaining how tariffs work to Trump voters demonstrates all too clearly.

tiwaworks01

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My kingdom for a basic civics test before adults are allowed out into the world.

When an algorithm bombards users with information from right-wing man-boys like Charlie Kirk and Nick Fuentes, telling them Trump will lower inflation and that Kamala Harris has tanked the economy, they don’t have the 1) discernment to know that Charlie Kirk is a MAGA shill that everyone used to laugh at on Twitter, and not a reliable source of news, and 2) the basic knowledge of how the free-market economy and government operate to call bullshit on it. It’s a recipe for disaster.

Former Facebook exec Frances Heugan, who was intimately involved in watching big tech gurus like Mark Zuckerberg “repeatedly prioritized profit over safety,” said as much when she testified before Congress in 2021:

Meanwhile, the Silicon Valley bros, who have become billionaires by finding ways to hook Americans on social media, are busy kissing Donald Trump’s ring. They don’t care about the future of the country, their role in decimating legacy media, or the hate and misinformation on their platforms that helped usher in the second term of a would-be dictator. They only care that the Trump administration doesn’t enact policies that would turn off the spigot of cash flowing their way.

Worse, how we come back from this is anyone’s guess. Americans are so used to getting their “news” from social media that it’s unlikely everyone will suddenly go back to reading (gasp!) actual newspapers with vetted reporting. Why would they? They can sit back and let the TikTok chick who warns them about the dangers of vaccines also explain that Trump will lower the price of oil. She knows it’s true because she read it on someone's raw milk blog. And that’s before we get to the political biases and cowardice of the billionaires who own big media outlets. Around and around we go.

Meanwhile, I know dozens (if not hundreds) of experienced journalists who are out of work and can’t even get an interview. If LinkedIn is to be believed, nearly every job in journalism has over 100 applicants—some as many as 500-700 applicants. Personally, the only bites I’ve gotten for full-time “reporting jobs” have been to train AI models (sad trombone), which the tech bros ensure will lead us to a better world.

Considering the world they’ve given us so far, I’m skeptical.

Mark Zuckerberg channels Kendall Roy

Mark Zuckerberg is reportedly worth $202.2 billion. While that Montgomery C. Burns-esque number can certainly buy him a lot of things, one thing Zuckerberg can never buy is not being a total doofus.

Behold, Zuck’s new release with T-Pain (what are you doing, T-Pain??)

This was Zuck’s “tribute” to the “dating anniversary” with his wife, Priscilla Chan, purportedly because “Get Low” was playing when he first met Chan at a college party.

The cringe is off the charts, and it’s giving Kendall Roy.

Actually, I think “L to the OG” is way catchier.

Oh nooooo, not Harrison Butker…

Shout out to Mike Tanier for this one.

We have to laugh or we would weep.

The NWSL semi-final round is locked in

Great news for the NWSL: For the first time ever, the league surpassed 2 million fans in attendance this season, and both semi-final games and the November 23 championship match will be broadcast on network television. #EveryoneWatchesWomensSports

Don’t skimp on your bear, kids

Four people in LA were arrested this week for insurance scams involving cars allegedly being ransacked by a bear. There was just one problem. Let’s go to the video tape:

Yeah, that’s a guy in a bear suit, and he doesn’t seem to have done much in the way of studying the way a bear moves. He also wore a brown bear costume, despite the fact that black bears are the only species of bears in the state. Grizzlies went extinct in California 100 years ago.

They should have gotten the guy from The Revenant, who insists he could have done a better job. Their first mistake? Bears don’t crawl around on their hands and knees, dumbasses.

Trump cabinet sexual misconduct allegations counter

So far, Donald Trump has nominated 24 people for cabinet and White House positions. Yesterday, I wondered out loud on social media if anyone is keeping track of how many of these nominees have been accused of sexual assault or misconduct. As the old saying goes, if you want anything done right, you have to do it yourself, so today I’m introducing the Official Trump Administration Sexual Misconduct Allegation Tracker.

Donald Trump has been found liable for sexually assaulting E. Jean Carroll and accused by more than 25 other women of various forms of sexual misconduct. As I’m sure Trump himself would tell you, he is the most important and biggest, most beautiful member of his cabinet. Unfortunately, we are counting men and not allegations, so he only counts as one.

Next, we have the nominee for Attorney General, Matt Gaetz, who was under investigation by the House Ethics Committee for trafficking a 17-year old girl, who testified to the Committee that Gaetz had sex with her when she was underage. Gaetz put an abrupt end to that investigation by resigning from the House, but I’m still hoping someone will grow a conscience and leak the report. That makes two.

Then we have Pete Hegseth, the Fox and Friends host who Trump has nominated to head up the Department of Defense. News broke today that Hegseth was accused of sexual misconduct with a woman in 2017. That’s allegation number 3.

Let’s talk about Aaron Rodgers’ favorite cabinet pick, RFK Jr., the guy who literally had his brain eaten by a worm, dumped a bear carcass in Central Park, and severed the head of a whale and strapped it to the roof of his car. If you guessed he has an allegationout there, you’d be right. Kennedy allegedly texted an apology to a former babysitter who accused him of groping her on multiple occasions in the 1990s. That’s four.

I know it’s not a real department, but Elon Musk has been tapped to co-head a very legit big boy Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE, because Elon operates on the same level as a 14-year old boy), along with Vivek Ramaswamy. Musk, as you may know, was hit with a lawsuit from former SpaceX employees who alleged that they were fired for raising concerns about gender bias and sexual harassment at the company. Musk also reportedly paid a flight attendant $250,000 to settle a claim that he exposed himself to her and solicited her for sex. According to the lawsuit, he told the attendant, “If you touch my weiner, you can have a horse.” Not only that, seven women at Tesla also sued Musk for sexual harassment. We’ll call that five, though it feels like Musk should account for at least three.

As far as I can tell, that’s it for the allegations of sexual misconduct we know about for Trump’s nominees. It feels odd to say “that’s it” about a Presidet-elect nominating FIVE men with allegations of sexual assault/harassment for high-ranking roles in his administration, but here we are. I’ll keep updating the tracker if more information comes to light.

Finally…

I vowed to leave you on a high note each day, and I will hold to it. Before I go, I wanted to let everyone know where to find me on the dreaded social media. I’m on Facebook, Insta, Threads, and Bluesky, all under @juliedicaro. Even that feels like way too much social media, so not sure how long all that will last.

You may have seen this Wheel of Fortune fail going around:

It reminds me of this sketch Melissa McCarthy did on SNL, which always cracks me up. “Pass the Mash!” has become my household’s version of Rickrolling.

I won’t tell you to have a great day, I’ll tell you to survive as best you can and make it to the weekend. Survive and advance!

See you all on Monday.