I’ve never seen any of the Alien vs. Predator movies, but I would imagine there’s a moment while you’re watching where you have to come to terms with the fact that it doesn’t matter who wins - humanity is f*cked.
That’s kind of how it feels right now. The most successful cult leader in America going toe-to-toe with the richest man on earth. What wins out - the fascistic populism of Trump loyalists or the Money™? We’re about to find out. It is America, though, and money talks. Even with all of his drug-induced feuding and paranoia, it’s concerning to know that Musk is not actually the most dangerous man in Washington, nor is Trump. Hell, they might not even be the third or fourth most dangerous.
JD Vance, the Vice President, has a long-standing relationship with Peter Thiel, David Sacks, Mark Andreesen, and recently revealed - Curtis Yarvin in the scathing 50,000 word New Yorker piece from this week. The TLDR is that Yarvin is the dark enlightenment guru all the techbros are reading when they get rejected by another Tinder match in San Francisco and a prime example of why we should force people to take liberal arts classes.
These men, the “trolligarchs”, have a long game to play. Trump won’t be around forever, and having one of their, admittedly less polished, lackeys overseeing an operation to consolidate all of our data in the federal government is all they need to fully take the system over. Just ask Candace Owens and Nick Fuentes - admittedly unexpected allies who have recently taken to correctly calling Palantir (Peter Thiel’s mega evil tech defense company) the Deep State. Go on Chapo, Nick.
Ultimately, even if Musk loses this battle, it’s unlikely his ilk will lose the war.
On the other side of the fight are the Theocratic fascists. With money and goals of their own, puppet-mastering outcomes like Project 2025, they’re ultimately playing second fiddle to the trolligarchy, whose control of government contracts and the internet make them the supervillains sci-fi horrors are made of.
What does any of this have to do with creators? Well, for those in the know this has basically been an impromptu holiday. Can’t remember the last time the internet felt quite so alive (except for maybe the other internet holiday, which will go unnamed so I don’t end up on some sort of list but it featured a Super Mario character).
That said, we’re facing very real, very persistent threats from within the White House. Whether it’s Trump, technofascists, or theobros, the enemies of our country are circling the wagons on the White House lawn. Defeating them will take unprecedented levels of class solidarity and a sharp awareness of who the real baddies are—a task progressive creators are more than ready to take on.
Trump instituted another travel ban this week. What was once met with massive protests at our airports, this barely registered as news. An upsetting trend as the American public is met with daily news crisis and fatigue. // @mcbeanimmigrationlaw
Elon vs. Musk feud and more details about the disagreement on the bill and how the fight developed // @lanajharris
As Tesla stocks plummet post fight, Trump has indicated he would be getting rid of his Tesla // Dash Dobrofsky
TikTok is rolling out new “self care” features that give users more control over their content. While this can still be a path to censorship and should be watched closely, we hope that this is a step toward more user-controlled decision-making about their algorithms which could help address extremism and misinformation sharing.
Creators are using AI to chat with their followers and it is having some nasty unintended consequences. As creators identify fast ways to connect with their audiences these shortcuts could actually do more harm than good as the creator found that the AI version of herself encouraged self-harm and could be goaded into uncomfortable conversations.
Creator Congress got two grants this week for program management and we couldn’t be happier to see our little organization growing.
If you are a Creator and have not yet filled out the application, please do. Link here.
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In solidarity,
Rynn
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