Spent a lot of time recently working with AI

Not actually intelligent so much as consensus generating tools that sound really smart

“Training” them helps, but defeats the purpose as it’ll just reinforce your biases

Beware the consensus of experts…that’s AI in a nutshell I don’t hate AI

It’s brilliant insofar as it can automate monotonous intellectual activity we have to constantly reinvent like writing letters, proposals, contracts or doing basic problem solving

But it’s not intelligent

It mimics intelligence as thinking is trial and error

If you read anything today it should be this developing story as what I'm about to share with you is real and should scare the bleep out of you...please bear with me

On Sunday, Romania was stunned by the results of the first round of it Presidential elections (whereby the top two candidates will move on to a runoff in a second round)

The winner with 23% of the vote is a largely unknown independent candidate named Calin Georgescu

Who is he? That's a question everybody in Romania is asking themselves at the moment...and are quite shocked at what they're finding out

Afterall, Georgescu's campaign had no budget and in late October was polling under 3%. How did he accomplish this? More on this in a second...

I had never heard of him so I listened to one of this interviews online. I can best describe what I saw as an intelligent, charismatic, well-spoken, christian-nationalist with a populist message about returning dignity and prosperity to Romania

So my first impression was: okay, I understand how that can be appealing to voters. This is in line with trends in many western democracies

That is until I dug a little deeper and looked into Georgescu's history...I was shocked

Georgescu is essentially an adept of Aleksandr Dugin (Dughin)'s philosophy which champions a Eurasian-led (Russian) resistance against Western liberalism/democracy, promoting traditional values and global multipolarity...which is a fancy way of describing a Russian-specific form of neofascism developed by Russia's hard right (even right of Putin)...but again, none of this was communicated during the campaign as he went largely under the radar and reporters ignored him

Here are some of Georgescu's views:
- Ukraine is an invented state
- Vladimir Putin is a man who loves his country
- Romania's anti-missile shield is a "diplomatic shame"
- The Legionnaires (WW2 era fascists that participated in the holocaust) are heroes of Romania

So why should you be concerned, beyond the obvious fact that this guy promotes an far-right anti-western ideology?

This should not have been possible in Romania

First, Romanian suffered for 45 years under the most oppressive communist regime in Eastern Europe which required a bloody revolution to topple. Romanians are no fans of Russia and have been overwhelmingly pro-EU, pro-NATO and pro-western. These results are shocking for Romanians

Second is how Georgescu managed this meteoric rise in only one month: social media, but specifically TikTok

Exit polls complete the picture of this phenomenon by showing the demographic that voted for him:
-31% of young people aged 18-24 voted for Calin Georgescu, in contrast to only 8% of voters over 65 who chose him
-Younger voters up to 44 years old were more mobilized to vote for Călin Georgescu than those over 45
-Men and women did not differ in voting intention;
-20% of people with primary education or no education, and 23% with just secondary education voted for Călin Georgescu
-His electorate consists of many low-propensity voters

In other words, it's largely a young and uneducated segment of the population that gets it information from social media and is too young to remember the communist history of living under Soviet oppression during the cold war

This is the clearest case yet of the dangers of social media, as the growing authoritarian threats of China, Russia and Iran are broadcasting their influence directly into the living rooms of western audiences...especially less informed youth

This is an extreme case study for what has been taking place in the west for the past 15 years

First it was radical progressive neomarxism that started taking root online in the early-2010s and we now have an entire generation of millennials that were indoctrinated into an extremist leftist ideology. Now we're just starting to see the reverse taking place as a small but very loud far right movement starts to take hold online

It's just far easier to see this phenom in Romania as it is country that is highly religious, does not have migrant problems or issues with muslim minorities. In other words, this isn't a backlash or rejecting of the type of woke progressive policies that have come to dominate and polarize the US and Western Europe. Romania is also a very pro-western country overall

And this isn't an issue about the left or right as we traditionally understand it. It is one of a coordinated attack on western liberal democracies aimed at promoting chaos and polarization. This is free speech and open societies being weaponized against freedom in the west

This story is so bizarre that western media does not even know how to report on it yet

I hope you take note of this story and think of it as you consider the crazy polarization that has taken hold in the West.

Social media is a uniquely powerful tool of propaganda and is hacking our brains with effects (not just on politics) that will have devastating consequences for future generations

And the fact that there are authoritarian states like Russia and China that are weaponizing it against our societies, particularly our youth, should scare the bleep out of you For example, Romania media today:

"Why we didn't see Călin Georgescu. The hypothesis of Russian interference is valid, but not sufficient."

We were definitively informed that Carbon dating left no doubt that rising atmospheric CO2 was man-made

I had accepted this as a scientific fact

If this paper is accurate, then anthropogenic climate change ceases to be an issue for serious people to debate

https://twitter.com/JunkScience/status/1656473882071556101

There are counters to this paper which is why I couch my tweet in “if this paper is accurate”

My point: there was no debate…and now there is

Keep in mind: per unit volume, seawater holds nearly 150 times more CO2 than air

🧵 Netflix Adaptation Memes

I get a kick out of these so enjoy!

Share other memes and I’ll add to the thread - Bookmark this for more

A long time ago I looked at the stock market and realized that stocks weren’t worth the dividends they paid out

And then I realized money was essentially worthless...we already live in an MMT world

So I decided to invest my money in tangible assets, knowing full well that I… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… Some pictures from last year

This is stupid populism

Doesn’t matter why they’re protesting…right?

They’re like the Dutch farmers? Wrong

Protesting to retire at 62 (instead of 64) is not the same as protesting to save your farm in the face of climate tyranny

Twitter has an intellectual honesty problem

https://twitter.com/petersweden7/status/1639013729428815875

I’m actually a farmer in the EU and agriculture is under attack due to woke bureaucrats

These are causes worth supporting

And then there are twitter influencers looking for likes and follows

Protesting for early retirement is not a righteous cause

Do better @PeterSweden7

Listen to @piersmorgan’s admitting the mistakes he made regarding Covid lockdowns/vaccines

He was pretty self-righteous/sanctimonious and aggressively judgemental about those who disagreed with “teh science”

Listen then vote you reaction

Poll below in next tweet👇

https://twitter.com/triggerpod/status/1638450144516481024

What is your reaction to hearing him admit he was wrong?

🧵Thread: Trump Indictment 🧵

(sorry didn't speak earlier on @MarioNawfal show)

What's going on here is simple

Democrats need Trump to remain politically relevant to have a chance at winning in 2024

And they know that when they attack Trump, Republicans unify around him

1 The calculation is really simple to understand

Everybody already has an opinion on Trump

There aren't any undecided voters to win over or moderates/independents to be flipped

In a matchup between Trump and Biden the key dynamic is the turnout of a specific type of voter

2

This is one of those resonant tweets: I’m done playing nice with the Woke Right

Imagine telling a Reagan Republican to bend the knee to Putin

Pfff…Good luck with that

First off, you’re wrong…you don’t understand geopolitics…and btw, I’m for trying to negotiate a peace…but… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… If you’re confused by this tweet, bookmark it and revist in a year

Maybe it’ll age well, maybe not

I’ll admit if I was wrong

The mindless devotion to extreme political cults on Twitter is a grave threat to critical thinking and genuine discourse

Blind adherence to any ideology is an affront to the pursuit of truth and reason The danger of seeing the world as either black or white is the temptation to ignore the infinite shades of grey that lie in between

This simplistic thinking leads to the demonization of those who hold different views, hindering dialogue and progress

Embrace nuance, reject… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

Good riddance!

Hey @GregAbbott_TX, remember when the top UT-Austin administration got caught directly funding Kendi/DiAngelo based critical race theory for 4 year olds:
mindingthecampus.org/2021/11/17/gok… Even Fox News picked it up, and Lieutenant Governor @danpatrick called out the university.

foxnews.com/politics/ut-au…

I posted and deleted this story (difft source) earlier because my followers are wicked smart😉

Immediately got called out by three different people

Just google “steel buoy”…it’s that simple

Do a better job journos!

https://twitter.com/mollyjongfast/status/1628498779383947268

Another

https://twitter.com/ianbremmer/status/1628428652835643394

Thread: The anti-Ivermectin position strikes me as being somewhat contrarian and driven by partisanship over logic

I wouldn't argue that Ivm is proven to work, but I don't think you can definitively say it doesn't work...there are studies, including RCTs, that say it does

1

https://twitter.com/thereal_truther/status/1627842230613581824

Many probably know this site...it's run by retired commercial research scientists with resumes of published works in reputable journals like Nature

You don't need to agree with their meta analysis, but you can't deny that some studies say that it works

2
c19ivm.org

Just listened to @mtaibbi on @joerogan…great episode

They predict independent journalists overtake MSM with platforms like substack

Problem I see: they’re still beholden to their audience (clicks, subs, etc)…reasonable/nuanced content…meh

Majority want stuff they agree with The issue is incentive structure

Now that the media is not trusted, people gravitate towards those that give them what they want in terms of content

Not necessarily those that give a full and honest picture of the news

Not sure it’s a better system…

Case in point:

🧵Thread: Don’t Sleep on them Institutions🚨

A fundamental myth of American conservatism has been that there are long-surviving institutions that support our society and which warrant respect/deference from everyone

Well that bubble has certainly been popped😉

1 Conservatives now are reacting with anger and disgust as more and more institutions have been captured by the far left

What's resulted is these institutions being twisted to promote their novel and extreme view of what society should be

Their views:

2

https://twitter.com/gummibear737/status/1279530310313619457?s=20

Nothing to see here, just a mostly peaceful Chinese balloon
I get a kick out of this stuff because it’s all just so stupid

🧵The Twitter algo prioritizes content to people that have interacted with you recently

So, engagement drops off a ton after you take time away from Twitter

You can build back engagement over time by tweeting a lot

But you still remain dark to large parts of your followers

1 I think they do this to mimic the Tik Tok system which weights heavily for how much you have interacted with a particular account

The problem is that this will cause some older accounts you'd followed to fall by the wayside if you pass on their content for a period of time

2

Thread: Excess Deaths

I got no issue with reasonable vaccine skepticism...I've fought for there to be more scientific debate

Excess deaths are real, significant and troubling

The vaccine should be investigated as a potential cause

But the answers we all want are not simple

1

https://twitter.com/RetsefL/status/1619945525670981632

I've looked at the data and the only thing I am certain of is that nobody actually knows what is going on...

I also want to prepare you for the fact that you may never get an answer that is sufficiently satisfactory for you

There are many reasons for this that I'll get into

2

A few thoughts about Covid-19 variants🧵

All respiratory viruses generate variants cause that’s how these viruses survive

Yet we rarely hear about these new variants beyond the occasional “bad flu” season

There’s nothing special about Covid variants

1
abcnews.go.com/Health/siounds… There are over 200 human respiratory viruses and they all generate new variants each year

The problem is when a virus takes a quantum leap and generates a variant that is so different that our immune systems aren’t ready to defend against it

That’s when you have a pandemic

2

As someone that speaks Romanian and has local contacts, I will do my best and report on this

It’s well known in Romania that he made his money on “chat rooms”, but we’ll see what that means and what other details emerge

https://twitter.com/bnonews/status/1608578309981442051

One thing I can say is that DIICOT, the Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism, was essentially trained and maintains close ties with the FBI

As a country in Eastern Europe, this is mostly a good thing for Romania

But it does raise questions in this case