AI as tool, AI in war, AI and what it means to be human.
As someone who spends hours every day using AI tools with – dare I say – great efficacy, I’m very personally aware of how it magnifies my ability to produce. On a good day, I’m extraordinarily productive; on an off day, I can take care of myself, my children, my wife, and still meet a minimum threshold for production.
I still appreciated the break from the new normal though. 😂 Gave me a chance to breathe and catch up a bit in a world that’s moving too darn fast.
I use AI all day every day.
The leverage it gives me is astounding. The path from ideation to creation to implementation is shorter than it’s ever been in my life – and the ability to have parallel chains of tasks running on my desk while I take care of my daughters, manage my household, or just expand my consciousness, has opened my eyes to what a future of automation could materially mean for your average person.
AI is not perfect. It is not infallible. When it comes to operating a business, the combination of autonomy, impetuousness, overconfidence, and speed can be frustrating but the blast radius is ultimately limited to money.
When it comes to operating in a war, that combination is not just dangerous but possibly catastrophic, with a blast radius including human lives.
A decade ago Boston Dynamics and other companies started developing military-grade killer robots.
A couple of years ago our military started using AI in targeting and establishing kill lists.
A couple of days ago the first human soldiers were killed by military drones operated by autonomous AI.
AI can be problematic but it’s not the problem.
The problem is the people giving it the power to kill.
Working with AI every day really gives you an appreciation for the difference between thick and thin intelligence
It’s possible to be very fast, very informed, very articulate, but not very smart
Robots and humans alike
I use AI every day for important things. Sometimes I like to use it for silly things. Some of these really cracked me up.
Lincoln: Mr. Jefferson, I hear Virginia wit is very fine. Shall we test it?
Jefferson: Gladly, Mr. Lincoln. Though I warn you: I drafted a Declaration. I can draft insults.
Lincoln: Then I’ll begin. Yo papa was so formal, when he sneezed, he wrote a preamble first.
Jefferson: Admirable. Yo papa was so tall, he had to ask Congress for funding just to buy a hat.
Lincoln: Yo papa was so fond of classical learning, he named the family mule “Cicero” and still lost the argument.
Jefferson: Yo papa was so frontier, his idea of interior design was “more log.”
Lincoln: Yo papa was so aristocratic, he called muddy boots “an agrarian crisis.”
Jefferson: Yo papa was so plainspoken, when he read Latin, Latin apologized and became English.
Lincoln: Yo papa was so committed to liberty, he freed a chair from the table and called it philosophy.
Jefferson: Yo papa was so honest, he returned a borrowed insult because it had too much interest.
Lincoln: Yo papa was so fond of architecture, he designed a chicken coop with columns and called it “Monti-cluck-o.”
Jefferson: Yo papa was so rural, his campaign slogan was “Four score and seven chores ago.”
Lincoln: Yo papa was so Enlightened, he tried to reason with a thunderstorm and lost by lightning vote.
Jefferson: Yo papa was so melancholy, even his jokes wore black.
Lincoln: Now that one had some bark on it.
Jefferson: And yours had rails, sir.
Lincoln: Yo papa was so wordy, his grocery list began, “When in the course of human hunger…”
Jefferson: Yo papa was so lanky, when he stood up, the weather changed.
Lincoln: Yo papa was so attached to states’ rights, he gave each sock its own constitution.
Jefferson: Yo papa was so Union-minded, he tied his shoes and called it national reconciliation.
Lincoln: Mr. Jefferson, I concede: your wit has elegance.
Jefferson: And yours has aim.
Lincoln: Then let history record: neither papa was harmed.
Jefferson: Only lightly amended.
I use ChatGPT and Claude every day. Claude is better than ChatGPT – both are fascinating and powerful tools – but they both have serious, structural limitations.
In its current incarnation, AI is like a very fast but very dumb research assistant with a peculiar set of cognitive biases (of which it’s perfectly aware when pressed but to which it’s very blind in practice), highly questionable research habits, and an irrepressible inclination to make unsubstantiated (or hallucinated) claims without qualification.
I use AI every day and I’ve never had a conversation where I didn’t have to correct it, in some way, shape, or form.
I would never rely on AI for an irreversible decision. Certainly not before thoroughly interrogating its claims.
It’s therefore mind-boggling to me that our defense forces (not to mention the US armed forces) reportedly rely on AI – the same models available to the public, with augmented data and additional integrations – for creating target lists.
You don’t get more irreversible than that.
And they know AI is fallible – but as long as it speeds up the killing process and allows them to conduct rapid strikes at scale, they’re willing to accept the deaths of innocent people wrongly targeted by an algorithm.
Not to mention anyone caught in the crossfire.
In case you’re wondering, the number of wrongful deaths the strategists overseeing our defense forces were explicitly willing to accept was 3,700.
Out of a list of 37,000 targets (each reviewed for exactly 20 seconds by an actual human being) they knew that at least 3,700 of them were mistakenly identified as targets (the actual number was probably much higher) and were not actually connected to the enemy and they killed them anyway.
“Fog of war” doesn’t apply to that kind of cold calculus.
Imagine if 3,700 Israelis had died on October 7.
(Basically, take the pain and suffering left in the wake of that horrible day and double it.)
I’m still trying to wrap my head around this brutal and hypocritical approach to modern warfare. I’ll be honest, I’m not worried about actually super-intelligent AI – I’m worried about the politicians and generals who insist on blindly using the inherently limited and very fallible LLMs we have today in order to make organized mass killing more “efficient.”
“A society that has to coerce its population into compliance does not outcompete one whose people are choosing, daily, under fire, to stay and build.”
Sometimes AI says something smart.
This works in so many ways.
Doesn’t change the immediate calculus of this war but it’s good and important to keep in mind.
I guess I still got #TDS. After much back and forth with ChatGPT, eliminating Eurocentric biases, ensuring it was operating from an updated knowledge base, and requesting elaboration on points raised, I found this to be a helpful taxonomy and summary of the uniquely American variant of fascism. There’s no hope for me, friends. It seems my TDS is a lifelong case.
—
PART 1 — A Full Taxonomy of MAGA’s Fascist Features and Its Distinctively American Variants
1. Palingenetic Myth (National Rebirth)
Fascist Feature: A narrative of national decay + promised restoration to mythic greatness.
MAGA Expression (general):
– “Make America Great Again” as a rebirth promise.
– Claims that the nation has been “taken,” “corrupted,” or “infected” by traitors.
American Variant:
– The imagined peak is the racialized mid-20th-century order (1950s), with white Christian patriarchal dominance.
– The idea of a “sacred Constitution” needing to be restored to its “true” form—fascism expressed through constitutional fetishism rather than constitutional destruction.
2. Ethno-Religious Peoplehood (“The Real Americans”)
Fascist Feature: The nation is defined as a purified in-group opposed to internal enemies.
MAGA Expression (general):
– Migrants = “invaders.”
– Liberals = “vermin,” “poison,” “traitors.”
– Muslims = security threats.
– Minorities = portrayed as illegitimate beneficiaries of “rigged” democracy.
American Variant:
– White Christian nationalism as the core: to be American is to be white, Christian, culturally conservative.
– Historical racial scripts (Jim Crow, “real America” mythology) embedded in the movement’s identity.
– Evangelical eschatology mapped onto national politics.
3. Leader Cult (Caesarism)
Fascist Feature: One charismatic leader embodies the will of the nation.
MAGA Expression (general):
– Trump positioned as the singular savior.
– Personal loyalty valued over institutions or laws.
American Variant:
– Leader worship expressed through celebrity culture, reality TV aesthetics, and “prosperity gospel” theologies.
– A uniquely American “CEO-leader” archetype blending authoritarianism with business mythology.
4. Anti-Pluralism and Destruction of Democratic Constraints
Fascist Feature: Courts, media, opposition parties seen as illegitimate obstacles.
MAGA Expression (general):
– Attacks on courts, civil service, “deep state,” and independent agencies.
– Efforts to criminalize political opposition.
American Variant:
– Use of federalism to punish blue states.
– Jurisdiction stripping and weaponized administrative purges rather than formal abolition of courts.
– Elections still held but structurally rigged (gerrymandering, voter suppression, election board controls).
5. Normalization of Political Violence
Fascist Feature: Violence (or threat of violence) is treated as legitimate political action.
MAGA Expression (general):
– Praise for attackers.
– Encouragement of mob intimidation.
– Threats against opponents and protesters.
American Variant:
– Violence outsourced to decentralized militias, sheriffs, extremist individuals, and stochastic actors—mirroring American traditions of vigilantism (slave patrols, KKK, lynch mobs), not European party militias.
– Second Amendment mythology as ideological justification.
6. Epistemic Warfare (Reality Control)
Fascist Feature: Propaganda replaces shared truth.
MAGA Expression (general):
– “Big Lie” about elections.
– Delegitimizing science, journalism, academia.
American Variant:
– Use of digital media ecosystems (Fox, OANN, Telegram, etc.).
– Pastoral authority fused with political authority (pastors as political influencers).
– Conspiracy culture (QAnon, apocalyptic evangelism) functioning as a decentralized propaganda engine.
7. Institutional Capture and Long-Term State Transformation
Fascist Feature: Capture of cultural, legal, and administrative institutions in service of the movement.
MAGA Expression (general):
– Turning agencies into tools of personal loyalty.
– Politicized judges.
– Purges of disloyal bureaucrats.
American Variant:
– Use of presidential appointment powers + Senate confirmations to build an ideologically aligned judiciary.
– Christian-nationalist reconstruction of education, museums, and curriculum—using public funding battles instead of a “Ministry of Culture.”
– Expansion of emergency powers using preexisting U.S. statutes (PATRIOT Act logic, Insurrection Act, etc.).
8. Economic Order: Authoritarian Neoliberalism, Not Classical Corporatism
Fascist Feature: Fusion of state and business elites for national projects (in Europe = corporatism).
MAGA Expression (general):
– Favor-trading with aligned corporations.
– Attacks on disloyal firms.
– Protectionism and tariffs.
American Variant:
– No formal corporatist syndicates (Italian style).
Instead: regulatory capture + billionaire alliances + selective state coercion.
– Economic nationalism within a neoliberal framework (unique to U.S. political economy).
9. Sacralization of the State and Nation
Fascist Feature: Politics becomes a quasi-religious project.
MAGA Expression (general):
– Movement symbols, rituals, and mythic narratives.
– Leader as messianic figure.
American Variant:
Fusion with evangelical Christianity.
– The leader portrayed as God’s instrument.
– American exceptionalism repurposed as a nationalist theology.
—
PART 2 — Genealogy of American Fascism (Colonial Period → Jim Crow → MAGA)
This traces the organic roots—showing MAGA not as an anomaly but the latest mutation of a deep American lineage.
1. Settler Colonialism and Early Racial Hierarchy (1600s–1800s)
Foundational features:
– Hierarchy between “civilized” settlers and racialized out-groups.
– State-sanctioned paramilitary violence (Indian Wars, militias, slave patrols).
– A mythology of divine mission (“City on a Hill”).
Fascist DNA:
Ethno-religious nationhood + violence as civic duty + mythic destiny.
2. Slavery and the Slave Patrol State (1700s–1865)
– Legal racial caste system.
– Surveillance, policing, and terror built into everyday governance.
– Plantations as proto-totalitarian micro-states.
Fascist DNA:
A racialized police state embedded directly into the structure of “democracy.”
3. Post-Reconstruction “Redemption” (1877–1910s)
After Reconstruction:
– Violent overthrow of multiracial democracy in the South.
– Massive voter suppression.
– Lynching as political/social control.
– “Solid South” = one-party authoritarian system.
Fascist DNA:
Herrenvolk democracy: democracy for the in-group, authoritarianism for the rest.
4. Jim Crow (1890s–1960s)
– Segregation = legal apartheid.
– State-backed racial terror (KKK, sheriffs, police).
– Education, courts, infrastructure explicitly racialized.
Fascist DNA:
Institutionalized ethno-national hierarchy + political violence + state/religious justification.
5. Cold War Anti-Communism (1940s–1960s)
– National Security State expands dramatically.
– Loyalty oaths, surveillance, suppression of dissent.
– McCarthyism models ideological purges in liberal-democratic form.
Fascist DNA:
Ideological purification and state-driven persecution of perceived enemies.
6. Southern Strategy & Christian Nationalism (1968–2000s)
– Fusion of white identity politics with conservative religion.
– Demonization of civil rights, feminism, and multiculturalism.
– Pastors as political mobilizers.
– Replacement-level fears (“white decline,” “losing our country”).
Fascist DNA:
Race + religion + nationalism + apocalyptic moral panic.
7. Post-9/11 Security Structures (2001–2010s)
– Expansion of executive authority.
– Normalization of emergency powers.
– Militarization of police.
– Islam as civilizational enemy.
Fascist DNA:
Permanent emergency logic; domestic militarized control; suspension norms.
8. MAGA (2015–present)
MAGA is not an alien ideology:
It is the crystallization of all these lineages into a single mass-movement form, amplified by digital media and personality cult.
It unites:
– Settler-colonial hierarchy
– Jim Crow racial politics
– Cold War anti-dissident repression
– Evangelical political theology
– Neoliberal oligarchy
– Post-9/11 emergency powers
– A charismatic leader’s personal image
into a coherent American fascism, distinct from but structurally analogous to 20th-century European version
Allahu Akbar. But also:
“A strong atheistic explanation has to work without invoking chosenness, providence, metaphysics, or teleology, while still accounting for the extraordinary empirical fact-pattern: a tiny, dispersed, repeatedly targeted ethnocultural group not only survives but regenerates political autonomy, cultural creativity, and demographic continuity over multiple millennia.
The best explanation in secular scholarship combines four interacting forces:
1. Covenantal Ethno-Textual Identity (Self-Reinforcing Structure)
From a secular standpoint, the “covenant” is not metaphysical but a uniquely durable cultural technology.
Key features:
– A portable constitution: Torah + halakha function like a constitution that does not depend on land or state structure.
– A text-centered identity: Identity is encoded in textual mastery, not political territory.
– A distributed, ritualized pedagogy: Every household is a micro-school; literacy is a norm.
Why this matters:
Most ancient peoples tied identity to local cults, temples, territorial kingship. Once displaced, they disappeared. Judaism reengineered identity into portable, duplicable, home-scaled institutions.
This is a sociological survival innovation, not a miracle.
2. Decentralized Communal Networks (Horizontal Resilience)
Jewish communities operated as non-state micro-polities: qehilloth, batté din, charitable systems, standardized rituals, and normative law.
Characteristics:
– Leaderless-by-design robustness: No single authority’s destruction could collapse the system.
– Rapid institutional reconstruction in diaspora: A minyan + a scroll = immediate restoration of structure.
– Highly networked long-distance trade and correspondence: This strengthened international solidarity and resource pooling.
Think of it as a resilient “fractal” system: every fragment regenerates the whole.
No divine design needed—just a uniquely adaptive communal architecture producing long-term continuity.
3. Strong Boundary Maintenance Paired with Permeability
From an atheist perspective, Jewish survival requires maintaining identity yet also allowing controlled integration.
Judaism manages this through:
– Clear endogamy norms → slows assimilation.
– Clear ritual boundaries → makes identity legible and persistent.
– Naturalization allowed but regulated → refreshes the population without dissolving coherence.
– High retention under persecution → increases internal solidarity.
Most groups collapse because either:
– identity becomes too loose (assimilates), or
– identity becomes too rigid (cannot replenish members).
Judaism found a rare equilibrium: cohesive but permeable.
4. Cultural Hyper-Adaptability Under Extreme Pressure
Historically measurable traits:
– Literacy rates far above surrounding populations.
– Economic niche flexibility (trade, finance, crafts, scholarship, administration).
– Mastery of local languages + maintenance of Hebrew/Judeo-languages.
– Continuous reinterpretation of law and tradition.
– Intellectual productivity disproportionate to population size.
None of these require divine intervention. They reflect long-term cultural selection pressures: groups that adapted survived; those that didn’t vanished.
Judaism is one of the rare cultures that evolved adaptive plasticity as a core identity trait.
The Emergence of the Jewish State
A secular analysis sees the Jewish state as emerging from:
– Zionist political ideology (a modern nationalism).
– European nationalism and decolonization patterns.
– Hebrew revival as a cultural modernist project.
– Global geopolitical shifts post-WWII.
– Exceptional diasporic resource networks supporting state-building.
The state of Israel, from this view, is not a miracle but the convergence of:
– a people that maintained identity & literacy for millennia
– modern nationalism and colonial retreat
– mass-mobilizing trauma
– global political opportunity windows
– extraordinary diaspora capital (intellectual, financial, relational)
The simplest atheistic explanation at the highest level:
Judaism as a cultural system was repeatedly tested by extreme pressures; the only communities that survived were those with traits that made survival possible. Those traits—literacy, law, communal solidarity, adaptability—compounded over time.
In other words, Judaism is a culturally selected system optimized for long-term endurance.
This does not reduce Jews to biology—it describes memetic, institutional, and cultural selection, not genetic superiority or mystical destiny.
A strong atheistic explanation combines:
1. Portable textual identity and law
2. Decentralized, regenerative communal structures
3. Cohesive-but-permeable boundaries
4. High cultural adaptability to hostile environments
5. Modern political opportunity windows
6. Cultural selection over millennia
None of these require supernatural claims. Yet together, they explain why Judaism—unlike most ancient civilizations—remains alive, coherent, creative, and politically reconstituted.”
Barukh Hashem, who has planted eternal life in our midst and gave us the Torah as a gift of love. Those who embraced and lived the Torah and its culture as a way of life, survived – if not them (genocide, after all), then their descendants. Those who didn’t, remain only as chapters and footnotes in history books.
עם ישראל חי
Those of us who use AI daily are not worried about it taking over anything soon. 😂
We’re worried about the people who have already taken over using AI. 😬
This tech is DUMB. Like, it may be the best tech ever invented, but it’s still DUMB.
And people make life or death, hire or fire, fund or cut decisions based on AI output.
After I called out Grok for relying on “X sentiment” of Mamdani critics and anti-Mamdani propaganda, and asked for a “facts and figures” based approach to answering the question “Based on all known statistics and trends, is antisemitic vandalism, harassment, and violence – justified as anti-Zionism – likely to increase, decrease, or stay the same if Mamdani is elected? Why?” – this is what it came up with:
“**Likely to **stay the same****.
### Baseline: NYC Antisemitic Incidents at Record Levels
| Year | ADL Total Incidents | NYPD Anti-Jewish Hate Crimes | % of All Hate Crimes | Notes |
|——|———————|——————————|———————-|——-|
| 2023 | ~850 (pre-Oct 7 low; post-surge) | 324 | ~50% | Pre-Oct 7 baseline. |
| **2024** | **976** (record high) | **344-345** | **53-54%** | **+6%** from 2023; **>5/day avg**. Vandalism/harassment ~70%; assaults rising.
| **2025 (thru Oct)** | **Hundreds more** (“brazen/intensified”) | July: **14** (monthly low) | **>50%** | Plateau/slight drop in some months **under current policing**; **~60% tied to anti-Zionist protests** (e.g., “Free Palestine” graffiti, “Zionist” assaults).
**NYPD Clearance**: **37%** arrests (128/344 in 2024)—deters via enforcement.
### Mamdani’s Quantifiable Policies
– **+800% funding** hate-crime prevention: **$3M → $26M** annually (community programs, not just police).
– **No defund**: Apologized for 2020 rhetoric; now **backs NYPD**, seeks collaboration.
– **Explicit anti-antisemitism**: Pledges to “tackle” it via funding. Maintains **37%+ clearance** possible.
### Proxy Data: Chicago (Progressive Mayor Brandon Johnson, DSA-Aligned)
| Year | Trend (Illinois/Chicago) |
|——|————————–|
| 2023 | Baseline |
| **2024** | **+59%** antisemitic incidents |
| **2025** | **Continued rise** (flyers, assaults) |
**No drop** despite similar left leadership/pro-Palestine stance.
### Why **Stay the Same** (Not Decrease/Increase)?
– **Decrease unlikely**: Post-Oct 7 surge **+1400%** nationally; **no city** with progressive/anti-Zionist leaders saw reversal (e.g., Chicago **+**). Programs unproven vs. **37% arrests** (deterrent).
– **Increase unlikely**: **$23M new funding** + NYPD support **matches** Adams’ efforts (new office, arrests). Recent **monthly lows** show feasibility.
– **Status quo drivers**: **Anti-Zionist protests** (60% incidents)—persistent regardless of mayor.
**Data Verdict**: **Plateau at ~900-1000/year**. Extra $26M **stabilizes**; monitor 2026 NYPD/ADL for confirmation.”