Who controls the narrative?

Are you watching the Democratic Convention? I’m certainly not. Once upon a time, in the three network world, the conventions happened and they wiped out TV, they were all that was on the tube. Then came the cable era, and you didn’t have to watch if you didn’t want to. And now in the flat screen era…the networks are sideshows, cable news is a biased slugfest and we have options not only on streaming TV, but the entire internet, the whole world has been connected, and we can interact with each other. But being heard? That’s a whole ‘nother animal.

Distribution is king. Never let anybody tell you otherwise. It’s very simple…if you create something, however great, and you can’t get it into the marketplace, if people can’t be made aware of it and be exposed to it…your tree fell in the forest and no one heard it. But in 2020, distribution has been flattened, we all have access, now what?

The key used to be to rig the game. But the public is too experienced now, it’s been burned too many times. So, if you try to manipulate consciousness, if you try to manipulate virality, people realize this and bite back, you’re worse off than if you never attempted to hoodwink them to begin with.

And then there is the low-level art and commerce that is made only for virality, i.e. TikTok and the Kardashians. Would the Kardashians be having all that plastic surgery, would they be playing to the camera if there were no camera? Of course not! What you’ve got is caste of hardly educated bodies speaking to those as empty as themselves, don’t mistake these people for influencers, they’re marketers pure and simple, they can sell products, but they don’t affect minds whatsoever, they’re not influencing anybody to think, to examine the precepts, to question whether their beliefs are accurate.

Now we’ve got this sea of madness, and on top of it a construct we’re told makes sense, that delivers order, when nothing could be further from the truth. Sure, we’ve got two political tribes, but the truth is America, the entire world, has been broken into a zillion jigsaw puzzle pieces, and no one is even attempting to put them together, if anything they’re denying this fracturing.

So, you can be sitting at home wondering if you’re the only one who believes this way. You feel like a party of one. And, if you express your opinions, if you go against groupspeak, you’re shouted down, you’re messing with the system. Meanwhile, that’s the goal of the right, to get us questioning our ideas and our influences to the point we second guess ourselves and give up.

I’ve been following Umair Haque on Twitter for years. I don’t want to follow the big news organizations, I don’t want my feed cluttered, if I want to know what they think, I’ll just go to their sites. You see on Twitter, I’m looking for ideas, analysis, people who can put it all together, who’ve been spending their entire lives in the niche and have analyzed it and are now speaking about it. Of course, there’s the trope that Twitter is just a slice of the public and it does not matter, but the truth is Twitter is a hotbed of intellectualism. If you’re selling, Twitter is the wrong place to be. If you want to connect with the brain dead, go elsewhere. But if you want to argue about the concepts, Twitter is the place, and there you can affect the thoughts of others, and Twitter followers can find out they’re not alone. Oh, they may not be alone on Facebook, where oldsters share stories of their children and their lifestyles, but you’ll feel inadequate looking at photos on Instagram, believing you’re a loser who has been left behind, but on Twitter…money is irrelevant, it’s about who you are, what you think, and if you find someone who is saying what you believe, EUREKA!, you’re now a party of two.

So I was scrolling through my Twitter feed this evening and Umair Haque was live-tweeting the convention. I didn’t even know that was still a thing. But contrary to the media lovefest, Haque was criticizing the bloviators, pointing out how they were missing the point. Haque said we do not need testimony as to the character of Joe Biden, we all know he’s decent. But who was speaking to economic conditions, who was evidencing a plan, who was convincing the young ‘uns to come out and support this ticket? Oh, Haque had positive words for Bernie Sanders, but the only reason he was allowed to speak was to give the imprimatur of wokeness to Biden, to signal his followers to vote for Joe. But the truth is Bernie’s agenda has been thrown overboard, what we now have is consultants playing it up the middle, safe, it’s all about beating Trump, is this a good strategy?

So last night Jason Hirschhorn sent me a link. This is not a regular occurrence. Especially on a Sunday night. Obviously, it was important. Do you have sources whose links you’ll click? The truth is we all do, and they’re very few, most of what is sent/forwarded is ignored, because readers have been burned too many times, and most people are incapable of writing, especially so-called authorities like college professors. And when I clicked through I found this article by Umair Haque entitled:

“Americans Don’t Get How to Fight Authoritarianism – And Time’s Running Out – Americans Are Out of Their Depth. Trump is Already Stealing the Election and Getting Away With It.”

What hooked me were these lines:

“The Democrats have – prepare to stifle a giggle, or maybe spit out your coffee…THREATENED TO HOLD HEARINGS.

Oh no, I’m sure the authoritarians are quaking in their boots. Hearings! Wow!”

Wow, indeed. I felt alone all weekend. Pelosi was reconvening Congress for hearings about the USPS? When did that ever result in progress, when did that ever make a difference. Bill Barr just testified, no change. Even Mueller before him. So, everybody will feel good that they did something and…nothing will change.

So, what does Haque propose?

MASS PROTESTS! Like Belarus. In front of the White House. Insisting Trump RESIGN!

Are you paying attention to Belarus? Change is fomenting. But it’s better to protest BEFORE the election.

So now I’m hooked. You know how exciting it is to find someone on your own page? YOU WANT MORE!

So I click to last week’s article:

“Can Kamala Harris and Joe Biden Defeat Trump? – Some Boring and Annoying Thoughts About Kamala, Joe, and Donald”

And I’m positively stunned. For a week now, we’ve been subjected to endless press coronating Kamala Harris, how the choice of her to be V.P. was positively genius. BUT NOT UMAIR HAQUE!

Umair drills down, dispassionately. Does Kamala add to the ticket. WILL KAMALA BRING OUT THE YOUTH VOTE?

Yes, the youth not reading “The New York Times,” the youth not watching this convention, the youth who are riding in the back seat if they’re in the car at all, the youth aligned with Bernie who didn’t bother to vote for him in the primaries! Yes, that’s what this election depends on, getting out the vote. Not so much your friends who talk politics, but the downtrodden who believe they’re screwed and the government isn’t doing anything for them…what are the Democrats promising them, who is speaking to them, can Kamala do this?

I’ll let you read the analysis.

But now, like Jason Hirshhorn, I’m forwarding Haque’s articles. I’m a personal marketer, I want to expose his ideas to others, I’m texting even though it’s two in the morning, if my recipients didn’t turn off the ringer, they deserve to be woken up!

And then, before he live tweets the convention, Haque writes again.

If you’re a fan, what you’re dying for is more content, you eat it up. Creators should play to their hard core, it’s the only way to blow up, when you appeal to the faceless masses your message falls flat, but if you seed your fans…they just might spread the word.

So, today’s article is entitled:

“Yes, Trump Really is Stealing the Election. And It’s Almost Too Late. The Cycle of American Idiocy That’s Letting Trump Steal the Election – in Broad Daylight”

Yes, Haque does employ this tone. He doesn’t care who he offends, it’s all about the MESSAGE! Everybody’s so busy pussyfooting, afraid of stepping on toes, that their watered-down message has no impact.

So, Haque’s main point is Americans don’t understand authoritarianism, fascism…BECAUSE THEY’VE NEVER EXPERIENCED IT! But, there are untold people on this planet who have, like Haque himself…HOW COME THEY WON’T LISTEN TO THEM!

Haque skewers left wing sacred cows. Like Boy Wonder Chris Hayes. Hayes tells you what you want to hear, makes you feel good, but it makes no difference, because the truth is Hayes is uninformed, he knows nothing about authoritarianism, AND THAT’S WHAT THIS ELECTION IS ALL ABOUT!

This screed is a marketing message. I don’t even care if you agree with me or Umair. I’m talking about how you get your message heard, how it spreads in 2020.

It all comes down to content. You’ve got to create endlessly, improve your chops, to the point where you may touch someone who will do the marketing work for you.

Yet today anybody who wants to rise above starts with marketing, they think that’s the key, when the truth is your only option today, the only way you can make it is via your content.

This is scary, people don’t want to hear it, they’d rather complain that they’re overlooked, broke, not part of the system that would blow them up if they could just get a slot… WRONG!

On the other hand, your message will spread very slowly, no matter how great you are. It’s not like Umair Haque started yesterday, or even in this election cycle, he’s been doing this for YEARS! But now the time is right, now his voice is needed, now his message resonates, now I’m spreading the word.

Forget those young ‘uns… If I get one more song from the child of a reader I’ll puke. They’re TEN, THEY’VE GOT NOTHING TO SAY! We’re so caught up in fame and money that the message has been lost in the process. Maybe you sing well, maybe you can even play…BUT WHAT IS THE MESSAGE!

All day long artists complain they’re not getting paid, it’s everybody’s fault but their own. But the truth is their message is not resonating. Do you expect a brand of potato chips people don’t buy to stay on the shelf? If you’ve got no hard core fans, if the word is not spreading on your work, the problem is YOU! You’ve got to work harder, hone your message, maybe even pivot. But people don’t want to hear that, they’d rather rage at the system…BUT THERE IS NO SYSTEM! That’s been completely broken in the last decade. There are tools you can employ to help you create, to distribute, but that’s about all you’ve got.

America is too somnambulant, too caught up in its exceptionalism to realize it can happen here. It’s not only Covid-19, the rest of the world is scratching its head, how can we be so ignorant as Trump consolidates power right under our noses and steals the next election.

Oh, I know…Trump will win and you’ll cry in your beer. Why not get started now?

The truth is it comes down to message and expression. You can knock on all the doors you want, people won’t vote unless your message is convincing. We’ve got so much useless work in America today…people think if they’re busy it makes a difference, when it does not.

Work smart.

But first know what you’re working for.

Every individual has power. But they’re squandering it, oftentimes in defeat. Concentrate on what’s in front of you, not some distant nirvana that doesn’t even exist. Theoretically you can reach everybody, but the truth is you’re lucky if you can reach anybody. Skill, message, passion…simple concepts, but too often ignored by creators today. But they’re necessary to success, there’s no easy way to the top anymore.

Harry Styles

Is he the biggest rock star in the world today?

YES!

Wait a second, how could this happen? Aren’t boy bands supposed to be a flash in the pan, purveying mindless drivel for prepubescent girls who promptly abandon their crush when they go through puberty, only to show up decades later for the reunion show?

Welcome to music in 2020. Where we’re completely divorced from what came before, the pre-internet era, and there’s no cohesive scene, despite the labels and the media telling us there is.

Today it’s all about longevity. Not the first week numbers, but whether you can last, whether you can sustain, and the irony is so many of the touted number ones don’t. Oh, you’ll see it in their bios, on their Wikipedia pages, it’s almost as worthless as a Grammy, anybody can debut at number one, but can they stay there?

Harry Styles does not have the best voice, not even in One Direction, but he knows the rule of rock and roll, that conception is more important than execution, that the talent is in the idea, not the raw skills, otherwise music would be dominated by the melisma monsters of “The Voice.”

They’ve even got the 808 in country now. If you were frozen in the seventies and defrosted today, you’d believe that melody was a lost art, that the beat was everything, and that a canned sound from the eighties is the only way to gain success, but Harry Styles proves this is patently untrue. I’m not saying that “Watermelon Sugar” has the lyrical complexity and underlying gravitas of anything on Bob Dylan’s “Rough and Rowdy Ways,” but it is a hell of a lot more listenable, it puts you in that late summer mood, where you lament the passing of those days in the sun, but you’ve still got the fumes of the feeling, which you want to maintain.

Harry Styles has been on a musical hejira, trying to find his identity, who he wants to be. Rather than just replicating what is on the chart, he pursued his own cobbled-together vision, a combination of SoCal seventies along with a modern pop sensibility, to the point where he’s making the most palatable music on the scene.

This should not be. We should all be listening to Jason Isbell, we should be hanging on every word of Drake and the Weeknd, not that they are not big in their own verticals, but Harry Styles seems to have transcended genre, he’s king of all the charts, everything but rock, because the wankers who control that format don’t want to admit this good-looking young ‘un beat the regulars at their own game.

In a world where you’re supposed to emerge fully-formed, Harry Styles has developed. Isn’t this the way it used to be, isn’t that why Warner Brothers stuck with you for five albums, because they believed you’d grow and find your groove? Styles’s solo debut, the eponymous “Harry Styles,” got all the publicity, but it’s the second LP, “Fine Line” which has burned its way into the public consciousness. And at this point, “Watermelon Sugar” is the fourth hit single from the LP. Anyone can come up with one hit, but to deliver four is nearly unheard of, and in the modern world these four hits have all hit the chart in less than a year, unlike the seventies and eighties when labels took two and a half years to dribble the hits out, if they could make the album last that long.

But it’s all image, right? Girls just want to look at and fantasize about Harry?

Wrong.

The official “Watermelon Sugar” video has 87+ million views on YouTube. And, then there’s another lyric version that has 52+ million views. Yet, the song has has 565+ million streams on Spotify, never mind competing services. So, all this crap about YouTube ripping off creators…it appears all active listeners are on dedicated music streaming services, and the fact that Harry is a hunk is irrelevant.

Repeatability. That’s the essence of a hit. Something you hear once and want to hear again. And the more you listen to it, the more you get into it, you’re entranced, that’s “Watermelon Sugar,” and it’s not even the best track on “Fine Line”…”Adore You,” which has 520+ million streams on Spotify, holds that title.

“Fine Line” is “Silk Degrees,” made by a more likable artist who has already had more sustained success than Boz Scaggs.

“Fine Line” is a Fleetwood Mac album, obviously hanging with Stevie Nicks has rubbed off on Harry.

It took years for people to acknowledge how great Michael Jackson’s
“Off the Wall” was. He was supposed to be a mindless boy band singer, but that album ultimately penetrated the culture, from blacks to whites, to the point where when “Thriller” was released, it dominated the culture, albeit helped by videos on MTV.

Every week there are new releases. You don’t know what to pay attention to. Maybe the work of old favorites, but after that? Furthermore, it takes so much effort to get into music, but it takes no effort to get into “Fine Line,” you get into it immediately.

The boomers, who are nearly irrelevant, who don’t count despite them telling us they do ad infinitum, would be positively stunned by “Fine Line.” Come on, just play it at a dinner party, everybody will immediately ask…”What is that”

Youngsters know Harry. But his lack of dominance has to do with the culture as opposed to his work. We live in a Tower of Babel society. It’s nearly impossible to take the temperature of not only the musical scene, not only the political scene, but any scene. So, something hiding in plain sight can be positively gigantic and you don’t know, you can’t feel it. But when you listen to “Fine Line” you do.

You may think I’m overstating the case. But the truth is Harry Styles is the little engine that could. Someone who everybody is aware of who has been dismissed out of the box, because the story is not sexy, despite his attractiveness he does not dominate TMZ, it’s not about the antics, but the music. No one is shooting him. He’s not making it by being featured on others’ music, nor importing rappers on his tracks to make them hits.

I’m not saying Harry’s team, both in the studio and at the label, don’t deserve credit for his success, but you need someone to guide you, to lead the team. It’s not like Harry worked with the producer du jour and employed their sound to dominate the chart, he did it his way, albeit with help, but almost no one can do it alone.

So, Harry Styles is this big. He may not be running for president, he may not be in the news every damn day, but he’s a part of 2020 culture. And if you don’t know, if you didn’t get the memo, you have now!

How far can you push people before they react?

It’s astounding to me how the minority rules, how the news reports, and nothing happens. This is what we studied in school. Nazi Germany, yes, Nazi Germany, and totalitarian regimes. Hell, it’s happening in Belarus as I write this, people are mad as hell and they’re not going to take it anymore.

Well, they said this in Hong Kong and then Xi cracked down. And despite some naysaying by western countries, he’s getting away with it. But the last time I checked the United States was a democracy, not a dictatorship.

I have no faith in the Democrats. Certainly not in Biden or Kamala, because they’re playing within the system and the system is broken. Come on, Trump breaks the law, admits his behavior in Ukraine and he’s impeached and…not convicted. Trump is on the side of the economy as opposed to the people and… The Donald always gets away with it. The Democrats say their hands are tied. But the public’s are not.

We are waiting for a trigger event. Just like the killing of George Floyd with Black Lives Matter. Maybe we’ll have to wait for the election, but it could happen before that. That’s the history of the world, discontent is festering and then a seemingly irrelevant event starts a conflagration.

This is not about Trump defenders. This is not about Fox News. The truth is, every single poll says there are more Democrats than Republicans. According to the Center for the Digital Future, Anderson Cooper is the most trusted source on cable for COVID-19 information. He gets 47%, Laura Ingraham gets 10%. Sean Hannity gets 17%. Tucker Carlson gets 17%. Meanwhile, Chris Cuomo gets 39% and Rachel Maddow gets 35%. In other words, the public knows the score, despite the bloviators on the right.

And people are scared. 26% of the public will not leave the house whatsoever before there is a vaccine. 45% won’t take a trip on a plane or a train. 42% won’t go to a movie or play. 33% won’t use a ride hailing service. Yes, if you follow the business news, Uber and Lyft have reported their numbers and investors are panicked and…come on, this is not a business story, this is a COVID-19 STORY!

In other words, most Americans are winning but they’re losing. After decades of false equivalences, after years of working the refs:

How Pro-Trump Forces Work the Refs in Silicon Valley

it looks like the right has more support than it does. So, you feel alone, but you’re not. What will it take to get you to take action?

You can vote. But that hasn’t worked for you in eons. Oh sure, the Democrats are better than the Republicans, but even the vaunted Obama didn’t speak to issues of income inequality. There’s no hope. Obama promised it, didn’t deliver it, and the only people believing in Biden and Harris have something to lose, when the truth is most people do not. When you’ve got nothing, you’ve got nothing to lose.

And now we have the post office situation. Just like with Ukraine, Trump admits its. He’s hobbling the post office in order to hobble the mail-in vote, even though he just registered for an absentee ballot.

The average citizen knows the score. Now the news is getting down to their level. Vice broke the story of the removal of sorting machines:

“The Post Office Is Deactivating Mail Sorting Machines Ahead of the Election”

And now TMZ is on about the removal of mailboxes in Manhattan today:

USPS Mailboxes Removed In NYC… As Trump’s War Rages On”

And they’re removing mailboxes in Oregon and Montana too. Hell, Senator Jon Tester wants answers:

Sen. Tester Presses USPS Following Reports of Removed Mailboxes

will he get them?

Government denials, government explanations, do not matter. Because Trump and his cronies have lost all credibility. Even if there are legitimate excuses, they won’t be accepted.

But, it’s now come down from the media giants to the hoi polloi. Their fire is being stoked.

As for the media giants…they’ve been no help in this crisis. They just report, that’s all they see as their role. Meanwhile, nothing happens. We’re supposed to believe in the election, which already seems unfair, never mind Trump putting his hand on the scale and admitting he’s unsure whether he’ll accept the results.

This is all hiding in plain sight. Trump says what he’s going to do and then he does it. How long do you expect this to continue?

So, there’s a disconnect between the press and the public, between the government and the public, between the police and the public. You can’t rely on institutions to solve your problems. You pay your taxes, but the corporations get relief, not you. Meanwhile, you’re about to be kicked out of your apartment. You’ve got no money in the bank, and after years of being told it’s your fault, you know nothing could be further from the truth.

It’s not like the U.S. is in uncharted waters, it’s not like this has never happened before, it just hasn’t happened in the U.S. We’ve been told forever that we’re better, that we’re superior, that it can’t happen here, meanwhile it is. Trump’s niece can write a book, insider Bolton too, and it makes no difference. If you’re expecting change, you’ve got another think coming.

Don’t shoot the messenger. I’m just saying the level of discontent in America is gigantic. And the pot is about to boil over. Trump is pushing it to the limit, taking away our freedoms, and he’s getting away with it. Those who believe in the rule of law are doing nothing, but those whom the rule of law is supposed to protect are fed up.

Come on. It took three and a half years of Trump until the killing of George Floyd caused international protests. Yes, not only here in the U.S., but around the world. And protests were even in rural areas. The level of discontent is just that high. This is not the sixties, this is the sixties on steroids!

So everything is calm, and then one day…POOF!

Hitler had defenders. The authoritarian always has defenders. But too often the majority is somnambulant. People awake too late. But in the information age, where everybody knows what is going on, where the president even tells us, things are different.

Come on, you read the news and you wince. You tell your spouse. Maybe a friend. And then it’s business as usual. Yesterday’s headline is replaced by today’s. But there is attrition. There does come a point when one more piece of straw, however light, breaks the camel’s back.

But let’s just say we have the election, that people don’t rise up before that. Well, no matter who wins in November there will be riots in the street. Never forget, the right has all the guns.

The bills are coming due. For the lack of diligence for decades. We were all hit in the face when we learned there was no preparation for the coronavirus. And instead of rebuilding infrastructure, Trump is tearing it down. Meanwhile, governors are afraid of him, and reopened their states way too early, even Newsom in California, he lacked the cojones to do the right thing. And now Covid is even rampant in the hinterlands.

Yes, a storm is brewing. I’m not being an alarmist. One event, which looks little on the surface, is gonna set our whole country on fire, just you wait.

The only person with universal mindshare is Donald Trump. However, as he tweets incessantly and lets Covid-19 run rampant some have tuned him out. But just as he’s sliding, he makes news with his statements re the Postal Service.

If you’re not making news, you’re not top of mind, you might as well not exist. It’s not “What have you done for me lately?,” it’s more like “What did you do for me this morning?”

Everybody has a voice. That does not mean every voice will be heard.

The internet makes people feel powerful.

The pre-internet powerful are not as powerful as they think. Twenty-plus years of the internet have resulted in the hoi polloi believing the stars, those in the news, are no different from them. Everybody’s reachable online. Hold your head too high and you’ll be brought right down.

People want to participate. This is the failure of Quibi. Passivity is for old folks, or for long form when you’re worn out.

Physical sports just don’t mean as much to the younger generation as they do to the older generation. Physical sports require physical skills, you’re limited by biology and they’re slow whereas online sports are very fast and anybody can triumph if they put in enough practice time. This is a sea change, it’s not only about baseball. Other than the NBA, which is intertwined with the culture, every other sport is at risk.

You make up your own truth.

People are either suspicious or gullible, you decide which tribe you’re a member of, either you believe nothing or everything.

It’s a software world. Hardware is fungible. Apple is the equivalent of Louis Vuitton, expensive, aspirational products for the elite and the wannabes. Everybody else, the masses, is satisfied with their PC and Android.

Privacy is not as big a deal as decision-makers believe it is, but it is rising in importance in the consciousness of the younger generation, which has been used to coughing up all its info all the time, and in a world where there’s a camera on every street corner and cookies follow you around the internet is there really any privacy left?

Masses may believe untruths. Whether it be QAnon or the ability to rekindle manufacturing in America.

There’s much more dissension and unrest on the street than institutions realize. Never forget, the internet has transformed almost every entity other than the government, which is light years behind. People cannot understand how there is gridlock in Washington when updates are downloading to their smartphones seemingly daily.

Everyone believes they’re entitled to a family even though oftentimes economics prevent them from supporting that family.

If you stick your head out it will be chopped off, whether you’re right or wrong, it doesn’t matter.

Is run by TV and social media. TV wins because it’s about story and there’s so much money that creators have multiple opportunities, but if you believe everybody will sign up for every service, you’re dreaming. Bundling is in your future. Not the cable of yore, but something more akin to Amazon Prime or the new Apple subscription bundle.

The only people unconcerned with opportunity are those who have it. While the wealthy and connected are fighting over the loaf, the rest of the country is fighting over crumbs, and when you go to bed hungry you’re unhappy.

The younger generation is concerned about climate change, all the things the boomers have put on the back burner. They’re already sacrificing, economically, unlike the boomers they’re willing to sacrifice for the good of the country, for the good of all.

No one has faith in anybody but themselves.

People pay the fees, on tickets, on hotel rooms, but disaffection is brewing.

Everybody hates the airlines.

It’s about the money. Anybody who prices one cent cheaper than someone else wins.

Comparison shopping rules. Every store is right next to another online. It’s all about price and trust.

Little will be different when Covid-19 recedes. We learned this after 9/11, the only thing that changed was it was harder to get on an airplane and into an office building. People will congregate, people will shake hands, and a limited number of movie theatres will open for event films.

Direct to video will be supplanted by direct to streaming service, whether it be Netflix or Disney or… VOD releases, where you have to pay for one film, just don’t feel enough like an event.

The only thing we have in common is our language. And our bodily needs. There is no cohesiveness, the internet blew it apart. Old school players think we live in a vertical world but the truth is it’s horizontal.

You express your identity via brands, they’re more trustworthy than people, certainly politicians, oftentimes entertainers.

Even though the country has shrunk, people have less of an idea what is happening other than where they live. Travel is expensive and the Great American Road Trip went the way of the Great American Novel. Now, you fly.

Luddites control mainstream media. They’re anti-computers, anti-screen time, they’re living in future shock and they believe technology is bad, meanwhile the younger generation ignores them. The generation gap is as wide as it was in the sixties.

Technology…you either get it or you don’t. Either you can troubleshoot a problem or you can’t. Either you know how to work the remote or you don’t. This is a huge dividing line, more than internet access itself in underserved communities. D.C. can’t be concerned with hackers because the elected don’t understand technology.

Nothing is secure, everything can be broken. But this does not mean you should not employ security tools. The harder it is to hack, the less interested the hackers are.

Celebrity gossip has been debased, it’s entertainment for the lower classes, the educated truly don’t care what minor celebrities they’re mostly unaware of are doing.

If you’re rich you show it. No one can hold back.

Social media stars are fungible. We need them, we just don’t need any specific one.

Virality is hard to achieve and can only go so far.

Is divided between those who will sacrifice for the future and those who won’t. Those who graduate from college and those who don’t. If you’re not willing to forgo momentary pleasures, your future is forever hobbled.