The great gastropod fraud

With the creation of X/paypal, tesla, and spacex, Musk has bought himself an enormously long leash.

"Trust me Bro" goes a long way with him. Not saying it necessarily should, but it absolutely does.

Please do know, professor Caroll, that I am pro-individual/liberty. I just see the downside here: for people who want clear cultural norms they can straightforwardly adhere to, then the weakening of cultural norms can be extremely exhausting and anxiety-inducing.

As an example to illustrate: what it means to be "feminine" or "a good wife" are defined by cultural norms. But if enough people buck those norms.... the norms disappear.

Some of the "Tradwife" movement, imo, is women not just wanting to live that way, but to re-establish that as the standard/norm.

I think this is very insightful, but I would add one friction: to some extent these "roles" only exist precisely because so many people conform to them. If many people stop conforming, the appeal goes away!

Also refutes the argument that people were tough on crime during the Crack epidemic (as that hit urban/ Black neighborhoods hardest) and then got soft and empathetic when Opiods hot the White, rural communities.

Nope. People got tough on crime in both cases.

I often tell sarcastic jokes to my wife where I ask incredibly stupid questions as if I were hopelessly naive (e.g. asking what someone on a TV show means when using obvious sexual innuendo, as if I dont understand). One side benefit is that when I really do ask stupid questions, she cant tell!

"Back in the day when we were young, none of my friends had back pain. If doctors are so great at medicine, why do so many of my friends have back pain now?"

Hope I look way hotter in 23 years

It's sort of like a dibs system, Joe. If I call "signature policy!!!" You're not allowed to mess with it.

I agree its specious, but i would argue that double speaking buzzwords like this long outdated AI. We do not need to invoke AI itself to imagine a company telling us that down is in fact up.

Reminds me very much of the Hooli exec on Silicon Valley -- he had a guru who essentially operated to validate all the CEO'S most banal thoughts as profound and wise

I disambiguate this from social issues where I think many people (including @mattyglesias.bsky.social) feel Democrats are *significantly* or even *mostly* correct -- but even disagreement on 20% can create huge rifts!

One of the reasons to focus on social safety net issues for Dems is that they are so obviously correct on this topic that it tends to be highly unifying

Great article, Conor. One thing I didnt see mentioned there: one defense if tariffs (by the few willing to defend them) is that it is a one time price increase, but this rolling attempt to keep prices low will almost surely make inflation a slow burn instead.

@hananiarichard.bsky.social has been saying for a while that the Tucker/Fuentes/Groyper wing would win the civil war for a while now, and hard to read stuff like this and not conclude he is correct

I think we're looking at a different trajectory in term 2: Trump started lower and then plummeted fairly early in his first term (specifically when he axed Comey), but then steadied and remained very flat for the rest of his term.

This time, he started higher, his decline slow, but steady.

Thank you for the part you play in this, Joe. I want to add something else to the analysis: last night showed the way forward for Dems was to expand the tent to include people like Mamdani *and also* people like you or Spanberger.

Different parts of the country need different types of dems.

I think this is the most telling one. Even if you think Khan has been mediocre, it seems really strange to get hysterical about a mediocre administration.

They talk as if New York is going to light on fire in a few months