The Collective

The Collective

Just in case you needed more proof that the internet is dead and has been for a while ... I'm old enough to remember the initial push to get everyone online. The tech gurus promised us that once the web connected everybody, every idea would get a fair hearing in…
December 21, 202120 Comments
This Just In

The Internet Is Still Dead

And it's getting deader by the day, if the deterioration of YouTube I've witnessed in the past six months is any indication. How has my YT experience changed, you ask? Yesterday I received the following email: The occasion of that nuisance letter was the test stream I ran yesterday. Wanting…
December 7, 202112 Comments
TV

Cozy TV

Conservatives rightly take a lot of flak for endlessly whining about the culture war while persistently failing to fight on the cultural level. At best, the Death Cult's notional opponents fund movies no one but National Review subscribers will see or launch alt tech platforms that are either garbage, fed…
October 13, 20219 Comments
Typewriter Monkey

A Million Digital Monkeys

Hollywood gets short shrift around here, and it's easy to see why when they not only insist on accelerating ever farther out of touch, but reveling in it. Actress Geena Davis's latest role is getting artificial intelligence bots to monitor movie scripts to make sure Hollywood remains politically correct. The…
October 11, 202125 Comments
Before the Internet

Before the Internet

The pervasive sense of having been mugged by reality is a defining feature of Generation Y. As the last generation with personal memories of the pre-9/11 world, Ys have entered middle age with deep existential confusion over their role in society. Was "gorge on snack food, Nintendo, and Saturday morning…
October 8, 202141 Comments
Institutional Confidence

Institutional Confidence

As confidence in American institutions drops, support for secession rises. This shift is not exclusive to conservatives. Even liberals, who voted for a higher minimum wage, student debt forgiveness, and a clean withdrawal from Afghanistan, are disillusioned with our rulers. But dissidents aren't immune to cognitive dissonance. Members of Gen…
September 10, 20215 Comments
weatherman

Don’t Need a Weatherman

...to tell you which way the shitstorm's blowing. Over the weekend, the accelerating decline of online culture experienced a fleeting reversal with the return of Mister Metokur. If you're not familiar with the digital gadfly also known as the Internet Aristocrat, the Weatherman, Daddy, or simply Jim, he started as…
August 30, 202112 Comments
OnlyFans Dead

Winning the War on Porn

The generational shift against porn I noted a while back may have started bearing fruit sooner than expected. In a surprising announcement, the social media application OnlyFans said that they would no longer permit “sexually explicit content” on their site starting Oct. 1. The shocking news comes after the media…
August 23, 202126 Comments
Dead Internet

Dead Internet

"All the fun accounts are gone." "This site used to be fun." "Their search engine is broken." If you've made any of the above complaints, you are justified, and it's not just you. The Internet is dead. The Dead Internet Theory is a loose term used to describe a range…
August 13, 202111 Comments
Chinese Rooms

Chinese Rooms

Timely blast from the past: A Twitter user dispels the illusions of machine learning and artificial intelligence.   Here's the news report on the mystery. It turns out a YouTuber illegally uploaded clips from a fifteen-year-old Japanese TV show that featured "Over Your Shoulder" by Dinosaur Jr. Japanese viewers started…
February 25, 202127 Comments