The Silicon Valley canon and malformed publics: Podcast with Max Read and John Ganz

Bringing this all together, the technologies through which we see the public shape how we understand it, making it more likely that we end up in the one situation rather than the other. As you have surely guessed by now, I believe Twitter/X, Facebook, and other social media services are just such technologies for shaping publics. Many of the problems that we are going to face over the next many years will stem from publics that have been deranged and distorted by social media in ways that lower the odds that democracy will be a problem solving system, and increase the likelihood that it will be a problem creating one.

Listen at Read Max.

Other Writing:

Essay

Canada Needs to Start Preparing for Trump – and Getting Other Allies Involved – with Abraham Newman

If Donald Trump wins the presidential elections in November, even Canadians could be blocked from their bank accounts. In our recent book… Henry Farrell and Abraham Newman, “Canada Needs to Start Preparing for Trump – and Getting Other Allies Involved,” Toronto Globe and Mail, March 2, 2024. Access the full article here.
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Essay

Revolutionary Possibility (on China Mieville’s October)

October, China Miéville’s new book, describes the October Revolution as a moment of possibility. In its closing pages, Miéville explains why he wrote the book, despite the revolution’s aftermath: Those who count themselves on the side of the revolution must engage with these failures and crimes. To do otherwise is to fall into apologia, special ...
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