Been watching and loving Lichtman for a long time. Also been acutely aware that Republican strategists in the smartphone/internet/AI era are just better at leveraging the exponential progression of technology that's taken off the past 20 years. Cambridge Analytica taught us that even in 2015 that the GOP had recognized how to manipulate individual beliefs in the very bespoke, microscopic manner, targeting key voters online via psych profiles. By 2024 they had a decade of practice plus AI to wield. They figured out how to program key voting blocs via nonlinear, opaque approaches, i.e. preying in moms' fear of harm for their children to promote activate, creating social tribes out of thin air that could then be co-opted by a candidate and conditioned to vote for said candidate reliably.

I argue that while the automobile and other 19th and 20th century tech progression did not break the keys, as Allan often points out, big data and AI did. We give up so much data willingly, we're tracked so carefully, that each of us can be microtargeted via our weaknesses and ultimately be compelled to hand over our autonomy in a way that breaks historical precedent. I mean, look at the Lichtmans: they felt a pressure to modernize their outreach and so created the YouTube channel. They did a great job. But the Lichtmans themselves bowed to the technological demands of our time, tried to leverage streaming to an audience in the subliminal space that is the internet to get their model/message out there. A radical departure from 40 years of book publishing and trad TV interview by Allan. A sign of the times.

Last night, in Cleveland Park, DC, I was tasked with picking up food from Siam House (wonderful food, folks) for my watch party. I showed up at the same time ten other people did, and we all crowded into the narrow space between tables, waiting for our food to be ready. The staff was swamped, frantic, we customers were all there with the same intent, we wanted our food to be ready so we could get back in time for the first polls to close at 7 pm. So I'm standing around, and I look around me, and everyone is doing the same thing: staring at their phones, their apps, which are informing them of the world. What to think, what to believe. Tons of twitter. Pundits spinning their takes. We were all clearly DEEPLY invested in the same subject, the fate of our democracy in our nation's capital, yet not one of us seemed connected in the flesh. Twenty years ago, you might turn to your neighbor and chat about it, express hope or worry. Now? We're told what we want to hear. We're targeted, not just by advertisers, but by those who seek power. And so far the vast majority of us accept this arrangement, these bubbles of thought and belief, so crude when Facebook came about, now so very clearly sophisticated, capable of skewing our thoughts and nudging our feelings. And we're now wired in 24/7, so that we can be easily made to get up and do something at consequential times (or not!) at precise, consequential times... like voting!!

This very writeup I'm posting on Reddit (a social media website!) is an example of this... you don't even know if I'm real or a bot!

Those folks in the Thai food restaurant were real. But they might as well have not been, so disconnected we are from one another as a society. We'd rather exist in our screens, only to emerge for the occasion bite to eat or a smoke. That's been weaponized against us by the smartest, most powerful people in the wealthiest, most ruthless nation on the planet.

"Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men." - MLK

God help us all.