TechTakes

New piece from Brian Merchant, focusing on Musk's double-tapping of 18F. In lieu of going deep into the article, here's my personal sidenote:

I've touched on this before, but I fully expect that the coming years will deal a massive blow to tech's public image, expecting them to be viewed as "incompetent fools at best and unrepentant fascists at worst" - and with the wanton carnage DOGE is causing (and indirectly crediting to AI), I expect Musk's governmental antics will deal plenty of damage on its own.

18F's demise in particular will probably also deal a blow on its own - 18F was "a diverse team staffed by people of color and LGBTQ workers, and publicly pushed for humane and inclusive policies", as Merchant put it, and its demise will likely be seen as another sign of tech revealing its nature as a Nazi bar.

occasionally mentioned here Jan Marsalek implicated in surveillance (sometimes comically bad) and planned murder of journalists who crossed him https://theins.press/en/inv/279034 https://www.euronews.com/2025/03/07/uk-court-convicts-three-bulgarians-of-spying-for-russia

It's going down wrote an article on Doge, Trump and the NRx.

we live in hell https://www.newsguardrealitycheck.com/p/a-well-funded-moscow-based-global

(this is compounded by how some segment of heavy ai boosters/users - former cryptobros, but not only them - were already immersed in this particular bubble)

google stepping up their quest to disorganize the world’s information

since the name popped up elsewhere: what's the feel on venkatesh rao?

(I often see the name in 🚩 places, but dunno if that's because the areas or because the person)