All posts tagged: past week

When experts fail – The Atlantic

When experts fail – The Atlantic

Published by skeptic

This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. In 2017, my Daily colleague Tom Nichols wrote a book titled The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why It Matters. Three years later, America underwent a crisis that stress-tested citizens’ and political leaders’ faith in experts—with alarming results. The Atlantic published an excerpt today from the second edition of Tom’s book, which includes a new chapter evaluating the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the relationship between experts and the public. I chatted with Tom recently about American narcissism, the mistakes experts have made during the pandemic, and why listening to expert advice is a responsibility of citizens in a democracy. First, here are three new stories from The Atlantic: Narcissism and Distrust Isabel Fattal: Why did you feel it was important after the COVID-19 crisis to rerelease this book? Tom Nichols: The book is …

The Orthodox Exemption Could Break Netanyahu’s Coalition

The Orthodox Exemption Could Break Netanyahu’s Coalition

Published by skeptic

The most controversial Israeli comedy sketch of the current war is just 88 seconds long. Aired in February on Eretz Nehederet, Israel’s equivalent of Saturday Night Live, it opens with two ashen-faced officers knocking on the door of a nondescript apartment, ready to deliver devastating news to the inhabitants. The officers are greeted by an ultra-Orthodox Jewish man who is similarly stricken when he sees them. “I’ve been terrified of this knock,” he says. “Ever since the war began, I knew it would eventually come for me.” But before the pained officers can continue, he interjects: “Listen, there is no situation in which I will enlist—forget about it.” It turns out that the officers have the wrong address. This is not the home of a fallen soldier, but of one of the many thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews who do not serve in Israel’s army, thanks to a special exemption. As the officers depart to find the right family, the man calls after them, “Tell them that we prayed for him! We did everything we could.” …

America Won’t Miss TikTok – The Atlantic

America Won’t Miss TikTok – The Atlantic

Published by skeptic

In 2019, I had full-blown app fatigue. My scrolling time was dominated by Instagram and Twitter, my idle hours by YouTube, and on top of that I was still checking Facebook, Snapchat, and whatever buzzy platform my friends were touting that week. (Remember Lasso? Anyone?) There was no room for any more, I told the publicist sitting across from me in a conference room in Anaheim, California. But she was insistent that, as a journalist writing about internet culture, I needed to start paying more attention to the app I knew only peripherally as a place for tween lip-synching and dancing. TikTok, she said, would soon be for everyone. This promise came true. TikTok is now a social-media juggernaut that has transformed internet culture—and beyond. The app, with its short, audio-heavy videos served in an algorithmic feed, has launched the careers of multiple now-mainstream musicians, including Lil Nas X and Noah Kahan. It’s the reason Stanley cups and Birkenstock clogs were under lots of Christmas trees last year. Everything from Billboard charts to beauty trends …

Four Theories for Nikki Haley’s Hard Pivot

Four Theories for Nikki Haley’s Hard Pivot

Published by skeptic

Not very long ago, the harshest thing Nikki Haley would say about Donald Trump was that “chaos follows him”—a sort of benign jab that creatively avoids causation and suggests mere correlation, like noting that scorched trees tend to appear after a forest fire. For most of the Republican-primary campaign to date, Haley adopted a carefully modulated approach toward the former president, and reserved most of her barbs for her other primary rivals. Her motto seemed to be “Speak softly about Trump and carry a sharp stick for Vivek Ramaswamy.” Recently, though, Haley has made a hard pivot. Just two days after she came in (a distant) second to Trump in the New Hampshire primary, she began fundraising for the first time off his attacks on her—selling T-shirts with the slogan BARRED PERMANENTLY after the former president said that anyone who continues to support her will be “permanently barred from the MAGA camp,” whatever that means. In the past week, Haley has been on a tear, calling Trump “totally unhinged,” “toxic,” “self-absorbed,” and lacking in “moral …

What long-shot candidates know – The Atlantic

What long-shot candidates know – The Atlantic

Published by skeptic

This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. Several long-shot Republican candidates have quit the presidential race in recent weeks. Why did they hang on for this long—and why are they dropping out now? First, here are three new stories from The Atlantic: Peppered With Upsets The start of the year marked the end of several 2024 presidential campaigns. First Chris Christie called it quits. Then Vivek Ramaswamy dropped out of the race. And after garnering zero delegates in Iowa this week, Asa Hutchinson dropped out too. These men never had a good shot at winning, so I wasn’t shocked to see them quit over the past week. More surprising was how long they’d stuck around. Why had they launched and maintained these long-shot campaigns? In American election cycles, especially in the past decade, it has not been uncommon for candidates who seem on paper to have …

Can We Keep Time? – The Atlantic

Can We Keep Time? – The Atlantic

Published by Sam

It can be tough to face our own mortality. Keeping diaries, posting to social media, and taking photos are all tools that can help to minimize the discomfort that comes with realizing we have limited time on Earth. But how exactly does documenting our lives impact how we live and remember them? In this episode, diarist and author Sarah Manguso reflects on the benefits and limitations of keeping track of time, and Charan Ranganath, a professor of psychology and researcher at the UC Davis Center for Neuroscience, discusses what research reveals about how memories work and how we can better keep time. Listen and subscribe here: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Google Podcasts | Pocket Casts Becca Rashid: You know, Ian, whenever someone asks me to get in their BeReal, I’m always like, What? What is that? What’s happening? What are we doing? Why are we doing this? Do we need to do this? I am not very social media–savvy. So they have to give me a break. Ian Bogost: Becca, you’re talking …

Biden’s Big Anti-Netanyahu Bet – The Atlantic

Biden’s Big Anti-Netanyahu Bet – The Atlantic

Published by skeptic

The fundamental problem for American presidents who have attempted to work with Benjamin Netanyahu is that Benjamin Netanyahu does not care what American presidents think. An exceptional English orator who was raised in Philadelphia, Netanyahu believes that he can outmaneuver and outlast American politicians on their own turf. “I know America,” he said in a private 2001 conversation that later leaked. “America is something that can easily be moved.” This attitude constituted a sharp break; in the past, even hard-line politicians like the maverick general turned premier Ariel Sharon responded to pressure from American presidents. But during Bill Clinton’s presidency and again during Barack Obama’s, Netanyahu changed the equation. He repeatedly blew off American entreaties on issues including the peace process and Iran, and turned his willingness to stand up to U.S. presidents into an electoral selling point with his base. Faced with this unprecedented recalcitrance, different Democratic administrations tried different tactics for wrangling Bibi. Some attempted to compel his compliance with hard public pressure, only to have Netanyahu wait out a U.S.-imposed settlement freeze, …

Farewell to an Easy ‘SNL’ Target

Farewell to an Easy ‘SNL’ Target

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The now-former Republican representative George Santos was a perfect fit for the show’s satire. Will Heath / NBC December 3, 2023, 12:23 PM ET Saturday Night Live loves to put a politician in front of a piano. Most famously, Kate McKinnon, playing Hillary Clinton, sat down in front of the keys and earnestly belted Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” following Clinton’s loss to Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election. It felt like a moment of contrition for the program that had invited Trump on as host during his campaign, to much criticism. Last night’s episode had another political piano bit, but this time it was a lot less solemn. As George Santos, the now-former Republican representative who was expelled from the House this past week, Bowen Yang made like Elton John and crooned his own version of “Candle in the Wind,” retitled “Scandal in the Wind.” “They’ll think of me as the modern Princess Diana and the modern Marilyn Monroe,” Yang explained before bursting into the song most commonly associated with both of those women and …

The Age of Uncensored AI Has Already Begun

The Age of Uncensored AI Has Already Begun

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One day in July, a developer who goes by the handle Teknium asked an AI chatbot how to make mayonnaise. Not just any mayo—he wanted a “dangerously spicy” recipe. The chatbot, however, politely declined. “As a helpful and honest assistant, I cannot fulfill your request for ‘dangerously spicy mayo’ as it is not appropriate to provide recipes or instructions that may cause harm to individuals,” it replied. “Spicy foods can be delicious, but they can also be dangerous if not prepared or consumed properly.” A year has gone by since OpenAI kicked off the AI-chatbot craze with its release of ChatGPT. Anyone who has played around with these applications long enough has run up against the boundaries of their fairly narrow comfort zones. And no wonder. As artificial-intelligence tools have multiplied, so have the Capitol Hill hearings and threats of Federal Trade Commission investigations. Calls to restrict or license the technology have proliferated along with countless essays about the dangers of AI bias. Fears of an AI apocalypse, and pressure to avoid controversy, have driven …

The Republicans Have No Majority

The Republicans Have No Majority

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Mike Johnson now knows what Kevin McCarthy was dealing with. At the new speaker’s behest, House Republicans today relied on Democratic votes to avert a government shutdown by passing legislation that contains neither budget cuts nor conservative policy priorities. The bill was a near replica of the funding measure that McCarthy pushed through the House earlier this fall—a supposed surrender to Democrats that prompted hard-liners in his party to toss him from the speakership. Johnson is unlikely to suffer the same fate, at least not yet. But today’s vote laid bare a reality that’s become ever more apparent over the past year: Republicans may hold more seats than Democrats, but they don’t control the House. Under McCarthy and now Johnson, Republicans have been unable to pass just about any important legislation without significant help from Democrats. The three most consequential votes this year have been the spring budget deal that prevented a catastrophic U.S. debt default, September’s stopgap spending bill that averted a shutdown, and today’s proposal that keeps the government funded through early 2024. …