qualitative easing @someassemb1y

Because we get asked a lot. The Technological Republic, in brief. 1. Silicon Valley owes a moral debt to the country that made its rise possible. The engineering elite of Silicon Valley has an affirmative obligation to participate in the defense of the nation. 2. We must rebel against the tyranny of the apps. Is the iPhone our greatest creative if not crowning achievement as a civilization? The object has changed our lives, but it may also now be limiting and constraining our sense of the possible. 3. Free email is not enough. The decadence of a culture or civilization, and indeed its ruling class, will be forgiven only if that culture is capable of delivering economic growth and security for the public. 4. The limits of soft power, of soaring rhetoric alone, have been exposed. The ability of free and democratic societies to prevail requires something more than moral appeal. It requires hard power, and hard power in this century will be built on software. 5. The question is not whether A.I. weapons will be built; it is who will build them and for what purpose. Our adversaries will not pause to indulge in theatrical debates about the merits of developing technologies with critical military and national security applications. They will proceed. 6. National service should be a universal duty. We should, as a society, seriously consider moving away from an all-volunteer force and only fight the next war if everyone shares in the risk and the cost. 7. If a U.S. Marine asks for a better rifle, we should build it; and the same goes for software. We should as a country be capable of continuing a debate about the appropriateness of military action abroad while remaining unflinching in our commitment to those we have asked to step into harm’s way. 8. Public servants need not be our priests. Any business that compensated its employees in the way that the federal government compensates public servants would struggle to survive. 9. We should show far more grace towards those who have subjected themselves to public life. The eradication of any space for forgiveness—a jettisoning of any tolerance for the complexities and contradictions of the human psyche—may leave us with a cast of characters at the helm we will grow to regret. 10. The psychologization of modern politics is leading us astray. Those who look to the political arena to nourish their soul and sense of self, who rely too heavily on their internal life finding expression in people they may never meet, will be left disappointed. 11. Our society has grown too eager to hasten, and is often gleeful at, the demise of its enemies. The vanquishing of an opponent is a moment to pause, not rejoice. 12. The atomic age is ending. One age of deterrence, the atomic age, is ending, and a new era of deterrence built on A.I. is set to begin. 13. No other country in the history of the world has advanced progressive values more than this one. The United States is far from perfect. But it is easy to forget how much more opportunity exists in this country for those who are not hereditary elites than in any other nation on the planet. 14. American power has made possible an extraordinarily long peace. Too many have forgotten or perhaps take for granted that nearly a century of some version of peace has prevailed in the world without a great power military conflict. At least three generations — billions of people and their children and now grandchildren — have never known a world war. 15. The postwar neutering of Germany and Japan must be undone. The defanging of Germany was an overcorrection for which Europe is now paying a heavy price. A similar and highly theatrical commitment to Japanese pacifism will, if maintained, also threaten to shift the balance of power in Asia. 16. We should applaud those who attempt to build where the market has failed to act. The culture almost snickers at Musk’s interest in grand narrative, as if billionaires ought to simply stay in their lane of enriching themselves . . . . Any curiosity or genuine interest in the value of what he has created is essentially dismissed, or perhaps lurks from beneath a thinly veiled scorn. 17. Silicon Valley must play a role in addressing violent crime. Many politicians across the United States have essentially shrugged when it comes to violent crime, abandoning any serious efforts to address the problem or take on any risk with their constituencies or donors in coming up with solutions and experiments in what should be a desperate bid to save lives. 18. The ruthless exposure of the private lives of public figures drives far too much talent away from government service. The public arena—and the shallow and petty assaults against those who dare to do something other than enrich themselves—has become so unforgiving that the republic is left with a significant roster of ineffectual, empty vessels whose ambition one would forgive if there were any genuine belief structure lurking within. 19. The caution in public life that we unwittingly encourage is corrosive. Those who say nothing wrong often say nothing much at all. 20. The pervasive intolerance of religious belief in certain circles must be resisted. The elite’s intolerance of religious belief is perhaps one of the most telling signs that its political project constitutes a less open intellectual movement than many within it would claim. 21. Some cultures have produced vital advances; others remain dysfunctional and regressive. All cultures are now equal. Criticism and value judgments are forbidden. Yet this new dogma glosses over the fact that certain cultures and indeed subcultures . . . have produced wonders. Others have proven middling, and worse, regressive and harmful. 22. We must resist the shallow temptation of a vacant and hollow pluralism. We, in America and more broadly the West, have for the past half century resisted defining national cultures in the name of inclusivity. But inclusion into what? Excerpts from the #1 New York Times Bestseller The Technological Republic: Hard Power, Soft Belief, and the Future of the West, by Alexander C. Karp & Nicholas W. Zamiska techrepublicbook.com

Watch how the cycle works: 1. An allegation is made. 2. Journalists report the allegation. 3. NGOs cite the reporting. 4. The UN cites the NGOs. 5. A strongly worded report is issued. 6. Everyone cites the UN report. By the end, an unverified claim has been transformed into an accepted "fact" through repetition rather than evidence.

Eitan Fischberger @EFischberger

a week ago

Amazing how the UN can just deem a country guilty of committing sexual violence at a level akin to ISIS based on, what, Euro-Med and B'Tselem saying so?

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This is a great corrective! "The petrodollar story gets cause & effect exactly backwards. Oil producers priced barrels & profits in $ in the 1970s bc an infrastructure of global $ banking, what we now call the eurodollar system, was already in place - not in NYC, but in London"

"Before Enlightenment chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment chop wood, carry water".

癒しのお届け便 📦【動物】 @Bakutan_bot1

2 months ago

すごい状況だ…

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Powerful and sad.

Warren Kinsella @kinsellawarren

2 months ago

"In his book The Hidden Hand, Kinsella documents how the explosion of anti-Israel sentiment since October 7 is largely the product of a highly organized, well-funded & deliberately orchestrated propaganda campaign designed to delegitimize Israel..." nationalpost.com/opinion/why-th…

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This case out of Finland should make those of us in the U.S. feel incredibly grateful to have a First Amendment that protects speech particularly on matters of public debate.

"Hitler was a failed art student and a vegan who blamed all his problems on rich people and the Jews. "If he was around today, he'd be attending the Green Party conference' Superb @LeoKearse 👏👏👏

🖋️🌹 « Je suis un homme ancien, qui a lu les classiques, qui a récolté les raisins dans la vigne, qui a contemplé le lever ou la chute du soleil sur les champs. (...) Je ne sais donc pas quoi en faire d'un monde créé, par la violence, par la nécessité de la production et de la consommation. Je déteste tout de lui : la précipitation, le bruit, la vulgarité, l'arrivée. (...) Je suis un homme qui préfère perdre plutôt que de gagner par des manières déloyales et impitoyables. Et la beauté, j'ai l'effronterie de défendre cette culpabilité, de la considérer comme une vertu. » Pier Paolo Pasolini 📷 © Elio Cool Pier Paolo Pasolini, Assise, Italie, 1963.

@peterboghossian Ressentiment much? Pathetic

epstein files discourse "HE IS IN THE EPSTEIN FILES" me: oh, what is he doing in there? "WOW YOU DON'T CARE THAT HE R*PED KIDS?" what? omg did it say that? "READ THE FILES BOOT LICKER" can you show me the part where it says he r*ped kids, just point that out please there's a lot here "WOWWWWWW OKAY BRO I GUESS YOU LOVE WAR"

@ghostofchristo1 Secular gnosticism

Syrian archaeologist Khaled Al Asaad who devoted his life to the excavation and restoration of Palmyra, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. He was beheaded by ISIS after refusing to disclose the location of ancient artifacts, despite a month of torture. He died a hero of heritage protection.

on his deathbed, Carl Schmitt was terrorized by a hallucinatory demonic entity he called Kra

What if we aren’t a nation in decline, but in fact far more powerful than we dare to imagine? What if the images of weakness, insane conspiracy theories and recycled political failures of the past century that we are being fed from both the left and the right represent the last-ditch efforts of our enemies to divide and control us, because they know that otherwise they’ve lost the handle? What if we could build a better future together over the next five years — using the unique strengths of our own culture, combined with new technologies that give us unrivaled power to deter our enemies, cure diseases, eat healthier food, and live freer, better and more interesting lives? Imagine what would happen if Americans focused on our strengths, and our enormous capacity for progress, instead of on personal selfishness, political hatreds and ideological insanity? It starts with respecting the rights and freedoms that make this country the most powerful engine of human progress that the world has ever seen. Or we can choose to be divided and miserable.

Misère de ceux (LFI, Albanese, certains diplomates…) à qui le massacre par les mollahs de dizaines de milliers d’Iraniens n’a pas arraché un mot de compassion et qui, maintenant, se lamentent de “l’escalade” et du “droit international bafoué”.

I have always admired the resourcefulness of slum dwellers who build makeshift but sturdy homes out of random scraps of lumber, metal, and astroturf. Oops, my bad: This is an apartment house in Munich and a finalist for the 2026 German Architecture Museum Prize.

Perfect back-to-back.

Presenting Werner Herzogs perpetually disgusted fixation on the baseness, lack of harmony, senselessness, and collective murder-suicide frenzy of nature as a kind of hyper individualist hero’s journey statist propaganda piece is truly something only America can achieve

Homeland Security @DHSgov

4 months ago

Americans have always known “why”

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"woah dude did you hear what clavicular said to tristan tate?" no. i didnt. i heard an ancient wind gently caress the reeds that lined a teeming creek. i watched and wept as a great chorus of frogs and owls and crickets and sprites raised up their voices to the glory of God