It's also true that Scott and Schrute can be vulnerable and likable, which raises the interesting question of, "do we live in Trump's and Musk's world *because* The Office made it more possible for some to sympathize with such characters?

Not to mention the familiarity of leaders who panic over imagined harms (and cry "terrorist" at the mere sight of a Brown man - "oh my god it's happening" - or "No god no" at the prospect of oversight)

Sure, no one's thinking about this when they share The Office memes, but maybe these have traction b/c their scenes resonate at a deeper level - recognition of annoyance at "superiors" who know nothing but claim otherwise (“You and I both see how dumb this is, right?”)

It's a script we know; we too have a racist sex pest bullshitting debt-riddled mediocre businessman leader with an inflated sense of intelligence/importance, a compulsive need to be liked, disdain for accountability, terrible policies, and a *mostly* loyal brusque Nazi-tied asst ("fascist nerd")

The camera work and mockumentary style are important factors, but there's also a reason why this exists: trumporscott.com

The Office is uncanny. I don't know how you can watch or think about it in the Year of Our Lord 2025 and not observe that its main characters are our main characters.

3. bullshit - both gain from "flooding the zone" without care (theconversation.com/chatgpt-kill...; theconversation.com/why-donald-t...) (3/3)

2. racism - attacks on EJ and DEI are justified in the name of "colorblind merit" (www.nytimes.com/2025/02/03/u...) while AI tools are developed and sold as race-neutral (www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?b...). Both reproduce racist outcomes. (2/3)

tsk tsk, this should've been a Q survey :)

seriously, it'd be interesting to know more about the "probably not" / "probably yes" folks. I would guess you have the "Never AI" students, but also the "I don't like AI, but I sometimes use it to get by in the broken system" students, et al.

w/ @rohawkins.bsky.social @jjsilvs.bsky.social

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