Zuckerberg vs. Democracy
Plus: The Best of Times, the Worst of Times for Medicine in America
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YAЁL EISENSTAT:Zuckerberg vs. Democracy
MARK ZUCKERBERG ANNOUNCED A SPATE of changes in Meta’s approach to speech and moderation issues this week, part of his longstanding effort to dominate the information landscape while resisting responsibility for his company’s contributions to political violence, extremism, and other antidemocratic activities in the United States and around the world. Let’s talk about the most serious implications.
MONA CHAREN: Damn the Democrats’ Diffidence
ENOUGH CAPITULATION! DEMOCRATS and other MAGA opponents have responded to the election with acquiescence bordering on servility. Time to pull up our socks and remember what is at stake.
It’s important in a democracy that the losing side grapple with its defeat and learn the right lessons for next time. A certain amount of reflection and self-criticism is healthy, but we’ve blown past that point and are in danger of over-interpreting the 2024 results. Despite headlines proclaiming the GOP won in a “rout” or declaring that “This is the collapse of the Democratic Party,” November’s election was actually quite close. Donald Trump received 49.9 percent of the popular vote to Kamala Harris’s 48.4 percent, a difference of a point and a half. That’s a smaller margin than any winner since John F. Kennedy in 1960. The popular vote margin in 2000 was also razor-thin, but the candidate who received more votes that year was not the Electoral College winner. The margin in the Electoral College looked large—Trump won 312 to 226—but it would have gone the other way if just 100,000 voters in the swing states, or 0.06 percent of all voters, had swung the other way. Republicans took control of the Senate but their margin in the House was reduced.
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DAVID SHAYWITZ: The Best of Times, the Worst of Times for Medicine in America
WE ARE LIVING THROUGH a remarkable revolution in the life sciences, with more on the way as researchers begin to juice already exceptional progress with explosive advances from artificial intelligence.
Yet the actual experience of healthcare in America is often terrible—and seems to be getting worse.
GISELLE DONNELLY: One Cheer for Oligarchy
OLIGARCHY GETS A BAD RAP. Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy, Peter Thiel, and their ilk are perhaps more accurately styled as plutocrats, for they have few accomplishments other than their wealth to recommend them as civic or political leaders. Yale historian Timothy Snyder has also noted that our present-day “oligarchs” bear an increasing resemblance to the Russian oligarchs of the 1990s, who ransacked the post-Soviet state for its resources to enrich themselves, helping to spoil Russia’s golden chance at democracy along the way.
🚨OVERTIME🚨
BRUNSWICK, GEORGIA— Earlier today, I visited a neat space called “Makers” in Old Town Brunswick. I was taking a little tour of downtown and found this fun space to sit down and enjoy a nice cup of coffee and a chat with co-owner Beaver Brooks. Any place that sells t-shirts that say “I am A Lot” is my kind of place. And it supports a good cause: Haiti.
#OhioAgainstTheWorld: Go Buckeyes!
Speaking of Lots… “Big Lots”, the bankrupt Columbus, Ohio-based retailer that was headed to extinction, has been saved.
Matt Gaetz… is now hawking Ivermectin. Remember when, and this was within the last month, we were considering the guy as a potential Attorney General. Not serious people.
“Telling the truth matters…” Biden responds to Meta’s changes.
‘Welcome to The Lamb’ – Joining part-timers Tamworth as they prepare for the visit of Tottenham (Rob Tanner, The Athletic)
Rudy held in contempt… For the second time in less than a week. How much contempt is enough to get America’s Mayor some alone time behind bars? I guess he’s endeavoring to find out. (The Hill)
Polish general fired… after missing anti-tank mines were found in IKEA (Politico)
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