Maybe we're all asking the wrong question about the Massachusetts Lesbian Bar. Maybe what we should be asking is "Can this bar's drama save modern journalism?" www.theargumentmag.com/p/can-the-ma...

Can the Massachusetts lesbian Bar save journalism?

Also: Clavicular gets charged and the most popular song of the year you may not have heard.

theargumentmag.com

I wrote about how a small group of billionaires Streisand Effect'd themselves and made Macklemore a martyr, and how this is yet another example of how pro-Israel groups fail to understand how toxic and unpopular they've become:

Why is Substack filled with religious debates? Why is the MAGA influencer scandal still going? And what, dear God, is an ‘aura battle’? www.theargumentmag.com/p/god-is-bac...

God is back on the timeline

Plus: aura battles, Trump influencers, and YouTube retirees

theargumentmag.com

Pretty good piece from @jeremiahdjohns.bsky.social in the Argument on the Hank Green Situation www.theargumentmag.com/p/the-heresy...

The heresy of Hank Green

Thou shalt not use ChatGPT.

theargumentmag.com

I wrote about the Jason Arday scandal: What does it say about our most prestigious institutions that they all failed to respond to the warning signs, and it took a race science Substacker to blow the case open?

A group of gooners calling themselves the “White Knights” helped take down a sex trafficker. I wrote about what their story reveals about online culture and digital community.

New from Infinite Scroll: The 'Cuck Internet Theory', Hollywood turns to Reddit for new material, an update on the predicto-crypto-gamble economy, social media bans, political bias in AI, and much more! www.infinitescroll.us/p/weekly-scr...

Weekly Scroll: We're Back!

An overstuffed, mega-sized Weekly Scroll returns to action

infinitescroll.us

I recently did this @cato.org podcast on potential alliance between libertarians and abundance liberals, with prominent abundance liberalism advocate @jeremiahdjohns.bsky.social (Ryan Bourne moderated). And even greater agreement than I expected! shows.acast.com/5e28e0d8963f...

The Abundance Alliance? | Cato Podcast

shows.acast.com

New from me over at @theargumentmag.bsky.social - Why Bo Burnham's 2021 special "Inside" is the definitive piece of art of the 2020s - for reasons both good and bad, intentional and unintentional. www.theargumentmag.com/p/the-most-2...

There have been a lot of arguments going around that the clipping economy makes a lot of online popularity somehow fake, or not real. But that misses the point - the clips are no longer just promoting other content. The clips ARE the content.

We built a society where attention equals money, where it's easy for extremists to build a huge platform, and where there's no downside to bad behavior. Why are we surprised that enterprising shitheads like ChudTheBuilder figured out how to industrialize antisocial content?

Our new video roundup includes a clip (by me) on what the lastest Kash Patel saga reveals about Trumpworld; a clip by @jeremiahdjohns.bsky.social on Mamdani's grocery store plan; and a clip by @jamellebouie.net on his call for an "imperial Congress." Subscribe to @theunpopulist.net!

Kash Patel Is Talented In One Thing—Trump Sycophancy

Senior Editor Berny Belvedere explains in his debut video (taking the first step to internet stardom) in our early-May video roundup

theunpopulist.net

Ben Shapiro's rag The Daily Wire is in free fall. Why did their audience abandon them?

I wrote today about the death of gatekeepers. It's had a lot of positive effects, removing barriers and enabling new voices to flourish. But it also has a downside - decision makers are now chasing clout rather than taking their editorial function seriously.

From @jeremiahdjohns.bsky.social's latest:

When you enter into online discussions, the chances are that the person you’re talking to is more online that you could possibly imagine.

I wrote about Bryon Neom, bimbofication, and how this all ties back to MAGA's views on women and meme culture:

The decentralized nature of modern conspiracy communities is something that wouldn't be possible without social media - any any exploration of conspiracy culture has to grapple with how social media amplifies the dumbest voices in society.

Trump's approach to geopolitics uses essentially the same logic as the Underpants Gnomes: Step one: Bomb Iran Step two: ???? Step three: The region is peaceful and democratic

I'm back in The Dispatch today, arguing that progressive institutions have leaned so hard into inclusivity they've actually started excluding people, and are so afraid of being mean they harm more people than they help.

One of the most interesting ways to see the true 'center' of social media was this graph of meme origins from KnowYourMeme. YouTube + 4chan dominated early internet culture, Tumblr had a few influential years, then Twitter was the center of everything until the rise of TikTok.

The rise of looksmaxxing memes and drama is effectively social media creating a decentralized, distributed form of soap opera/pro wrestling.

How do we build meaning in a world where AI does most of our thinking for us? Are we going to become the parrots?

They're coming up with new and advanced forms of NIMBYism in Europe you couldn't even imagine

Feels like there are symbolic links between Clavicular, who is a facially attractive 'looksmaxxer' but is so awkward and devoid of personality that he repulses most people, and modern right wing politics, which cares about creatin spectacle on social media rather than actually accomplishing anything

This from @jeremiahdjohns.bsky.social is correct. The End of History is a great book.

Why is the Department of War posting Clavicular memes? Why did Will Stancil get punched? And what does it have to do with the increasingly strong filter bubbles we're trapped in? www.infinitescroll.us/p/the-jester...

The Jestergooning Administration

Clavicular gets mogged, Will Stancil gets punched, and X still promotes Nazis

infinitescroll.us

Mr Beast lined up one person from each age 1-100 and had them race to a finish line, and the overhead camera is an oddly beautiful data visualization of speed by age.

Is YouTube redistributing views from top YouTubers to less popular ones? Is Khaby Lame's 9-figure brand deal a scam? It's the Weekly Scroll: www.infinitescroll.us/p/weekly-scr...

Weekly Scroll: YouTube Communism

Weird brand deals, viewer redistribution, and some very good items

infinitescroll.us

Why is ICE focused so heavily on Minnesota - which is not a hotbed of illegal immigrants? Because the people in charge were, above all else, obsessed with creating content. And that attitude starts with the White House.