James Pogue

And so all of a sudden, things that Kaczynski were saying, you know, in his critique of industrial society, in his critique of something that goes a lot deeper than communications technologies, all of a sudden that started to make sense to people on a gut level who would have never shared this years ago. And I think broadly speaking,

And so all of a sudden, things that Kaczynski were saying, you know, in his critique of industrial society, in his critique of something that goes a lot deeper than communications technologies, all of a sudden that started to make sense to people on a gut level who would have never shared this years ago. And I think broadly speaking,

We may still have an entire societal consensus on both left and right that once the technology is here, you can't really put the genie back in the bottle. But I think we also have a pretty broad-based societal consensus on left and right that these technologies are not benefiting us and that it would almost be better if...

We may still have an entire societal consensus on both left and right that once the technology is here, you can't really put the genie back in the bottle. But I think we also have a pretty broad-based societal consensus on left and right that these technologies are not benefiting us and that it would almost be better if...

Let's not say necessarily they'd never been invented, but if some, let's say, societal agency, some force within our society have been able to corral how they function and what they did to us during that period.

Let's not say necessarily they'd never been invented, but if some, let's say, societal agency, some force within our society have been able to corral how they function and what they did to us during that period.

You know, I mean, this is kind of... If you want to talk about, like, how this whole thing could, in my opinion, end up going pretty bad... Well, I mean, there's a million, million different ways this could all end up going bad, and in certain ways it already is.

You know, I mean, this is kind of... If you want to talk about, like, how this whole thing could, in my opinion, end up going pretty bad... Well, I mean, there's a million, million different ways this could all end up going bad, and in certain ways it already is.

But part of it is that Trump himself, as the sort of kingly figure looking down over this squabbling coalition, he's a patronage politician at this point. And... You know, if you're a patronage politician, you look down at the sackums around you and you say, well, that guy's got a constituency and I've got to keep that guy happy.

But part of it is that Trump himself, as the sort of kingly figure looking down over this squabbling coalition, he's a patronage politician at this point. And... You know, if you're a patronage politician, you look down at the sackums around you and you say, well, that guy's got a constituency and I've got to keep that guy happy.

And so, you know, correct me if I'm wrong, but it was originally Trump saying, yo, TikTok, we got a problem here. And then he flipped because he discovered that there was a constituency for it that was going to hurt him if he lost them. And so I would wager, you know,

And so, you know, correct me if I'm wrong, but it was originally Trump saying, yo, TikTok, we got a problem here. And then he flipped because he discovered that there was a constituency for it that was going to hurt him if he lost them. And so I would wager, you know,

based on the conversations I've had with JD over the years, I would wager that if JD had had his way, there would still not be TikTok. I would say as well, just from my own perspective to editorialize a little bit, something opened up in our society when we saw TikTok go down for a minute. Because I think there's been a pretty long period in our history where we just thought...

based on the conversations I've had with JD over the years, I would wager that if JD had had his way, there would still not be TikTok. I would say as well, just from my own perspective to editorialize a little bit, something opened up in our society when we saw TikTok go down for a minute. Because I think there's been a pretty long period in our history where we just thought...

We do not have the state capacity to shut something with 170 million users and however many billions of dollars in revenue that it has.

We do not have the state capacity to shut something with 170 million users and however many billions of dollars in revenue that it has.

And through some combination of sort of Trumpian resurgence and a real belief that they can suddenly like wield the levers of state in ways to do their stuff that are far more powerful than they believed in 2016, something has opened up where everyone kind of realizes now that the state has to get back in the driver's seat.

And through some combination of sort of Trumpian resurgence and a real belief that they can suddenly like wield the levers of state in ways to do their stuff that are far more powerful than they believed in 2016, something has opened up where everyone kind of realizes now that the state has to get back in the driver's seat.

So to keep with the old school leftism for a second, what's the phrase, you know, dismantling the master's house with the master's tools?

So to keep with the old school leftism for a second, what's the phrase, you know, dismantling the master's house with the master's tools?