Welcome back, valued Tech Bubble Consumers. I hope you’re recovering well from a Thanksgiving feast! This is a feature for paid consumers, where I go through some of what I’ve been reading or watching or listening to. If you enjoy my writing and would like to support me so I can keep doing it, then consider subscribing for $7 a month (that’s how much a foul-tasting beer and shot combo will run you) or $70 a year (how much your favorite bowl of slop at Sweetgreen costs).

What’s happened since #9

Zohran Mamdani has won and given us a wonderful three-piece combo (beat Cuomo in the primary, beat Cuomo in the general despite the Adams endorsement, and charmed a good deal of the party—and seemingly Trump?)

I libbed out that night and morning, talked to NYT about libbing out while recovering from it, and in the weeks sense have gotten more and more of a sense of the coming agenda—which we will talk about today.

Also: Me, Jathan Sadowski, Brian Merchant, and Paris Marx were all in town for a Neo-Luddite conference earlier this month featuring a good chunk of our comrades, some curious interlocutors, and a younger generation of Luddites (the Luddite Club). It was wonderful and was followed up by a Luddite Tribunal at Starr Bar the next night—our second one there. Thanks to all who came out, the bar was packed and we had a long line of volunteers offering up pieces of technology to be put on trial and either acquitted or sentenced to death (getting sledge hammered to pieces). I’ll be trying to throw more Luddite tribunals more frequently so it’s not just once a year, the people yearn for kangaroo court justice.

Some of the things we destroyed (after discussing the political economy backstopping their production/distribution, as well as their net impact on society): Ray-Ban Meta glasses, a printer, an Alexa, an iPad, a children’s toy that simulated a smartphone, and an Xbox 360 (many people spoke up in defense of the console but the jury called for its blood).

Also: I’ll be giving a talk at Yale University with Molly Crabapple titled Resisting AI’s Impact on the Creative Industry on December 4. If you want either of us (or both) to come to your school/workplace/organization to corrupt the youth via a talk about Luddism, shoot me a message and let’s chat!

This week, the recommendations include, but are not limited to:

Mamdani’s budget, bond markets, tech policy, venture capital’s perpetual value machine, concrete elements of the AI bubble, the limits of AI bubble discourse, Epstein as a pedophile warlord, Pynchon’s Luddism, China envy, and more.

Let’s begin!...