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Paul Waldman @paulwaldman.bsky.social · 10h

This is the most inevitable thing in the history of inevitable things.

What, you thought they WEREN'T going to do AI porn? C'mon. It's a multi-trillion-dollar business opportunity just sitting there for the taking.

Just wait until Facebook rolls out "Metaverse After Dark"

Matt Burgess (WIRED) @mattburgess1.bsky.social · 13h

Oh good, ChatGPT is getting "erotica for verified adults" later this year

We made ChatGPT pretty restrictive to make sure we were being careful with mental health issues. We realize this made it less useful/enjoyable to many users who had no mental health problems, but given the seriousness of the issue we wanted to get this right.

Now that we have been able to mitigate the serious mental health issues and have new tools, we are going to be able to safely relax the restrictions in most cases.

In a few weeks, we plan to put out a new version of ChatGPT that allows people to have a personality that behaves more like what people liked about 4o (we hope it will be better!). If you want your ChatGPT to respond in a very human-like way, or use a ton of emoji, or act like a friend, ChatGPT should do it (but only if you want it, not because we are usage-maxxing).

In December, as we roll out age-gating more fully and as part of our “treat adult users like adults” principle, we will allow even more, like erotica for verified adults.

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Paul Waldman @paulwaldman.bsky.social · 11h

How were they radicalized? Oh wait, we know exactly how.

www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

‘I love Hitler’: Leaked messages expose Young Republicans’ racist chat

Thousands of private messages reveal young GOP leaders joking about gas chambers, slavery and rape.

www.politico.com

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Paul Waldman @paulwaldman.bsky.social · 13h

"At Peg's Diner, which sits in the shadow of the decommissioned Deep Hole Mine, the patrons agree on three things. First, Peg makes a mean cherry pie. Second, Donald Trump is the best president America ever had. And third, anyone who'd protest Trump is a commie Antifa terrorist."

Will Bunch @willbunch.bsky.social · 18h

This from the great @sulliview.bsky.social on the media's anemic (or non-) coverage of the massive No Kings movement is such a great point

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Reposted by Paul Waldman

David Roberts @volts.wtf · 14h

I've said this before, but one of the more striking things about the current generation of righties is that they really show no sign of understanding that there's a world *beyond* their screens, beyond owning & being owned on social media. A real world, with real people & real problems.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 14h

Eric Trump: "We're saving Christianity. We've saving God. We've saving the family unit. We're saving this nation. I mean, DEI is out of the window, Benny. You no longer have Colin Kaepernick kneeling for the national anthem. You no longer have Budweiser going woke as hell. All of this is dead."

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Reposted by Paul Waldman

Sanho Tree @sanho.bsky.social · 17h

Frank was Antifa.

Raider @iwillnotbesilenced.bsky.social · 18h

Frank Sinatra on what it means to be an American in 1945

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Reposted by Paul Waldman

Goldy @goldy.horsesass.org · 1d

In 2020 we published in TIME about the $50 trillion upward redistribution of income since 1975. The editors told us it was one of their most widely read online pieces ever, and begged us for more. Four years later we pitched an update ($79 trillion)—they weren't interested.
time.com/5888024/50-t...

TIME headline: The Top 1% of Americans Have Taken $50 Trillion From the Bottom 90%—And That's Made the U.S. Less Secure.

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Paul Waldman @paulwaldman.bsky.social · 1d

Time magazine is owned by Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, who just came out as a Trump supporter and said it would be great if he sent the National Guard to invade San Francisco

Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · 1d

Just in case the dramatically low Leni Riefenstahl-style angle was too subtle, they used a word from her most famous movie

Time magazine cover featuring a photo of Trump from a dramatically low angle

HIS
TRIUMPH
by ERIC CORTELLESSA
THE LEADER ISRAEL NEEDED
by EHUD BARAK
HOW GAZA HEALS

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Paul Waldman @paulwaldman.bsky.social · 1d

No, the protesters aren’t being paid. Believe it or not, lots of people are genuinely upset about authoritarianism!

paulwaldman.substack.com/p/ahead-of-n...

Ahead of No Kings Protest, Trump and GOP Try to Delegitimize All Dissent

There is no such thing as genuine progressive public opinion, and therefore mass and mobilized opposition to Trump doesn't count.

paulwaldman.substack.com

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Paul Waldman @paulwaldman.bsky.social · 1d

These two things are true at the same time:

1. Republicans don't care about health care

2. They may still try to destroy Obamacare once and for all

Remember, they've got a reconciliation bill next year, with no filibuster.

My latest at Public Notice: www.publicnotice.co/p/republican...

Republicans are completely full of it on healthcare

And it becomes more obvious every time they talk about it.

www.publicnotice.co

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Paul Waldman @paulwaldman.bsky.social · 2d

Commenting on the appearance of prominent women is generally bad, but what's with the Trump Look glowup with the wavy hair and makeup? All that's missing is the plumped lips.

Also they're using the shadow docket so they can give Trump anything he wants then retract it all for the next Dem president

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 2d

Amy Coney Barrett defends heavy use of the shadow docket: "If we wrote a long opinion, it might give the impression that we have finally resolved the issue, and in none of these cases have we finally resolved the issue."

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Reposted by Paul Waldman

Justin Elliott @justinelliott.bsky.social · 2d

Here is our full story that Vance is dismissing, with primary source documents showing Trump cabinet members with multiple primary-residence mortgages

www.propublica.org/article/trum...

www.documentcloud.org/documents/26...

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Reposted by Paul Waldman

Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 5d

Regrettably relevant research today

Disguised Repression: Targeting Opponents with Nonpolitical Crimes to Undermine Dissent
www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

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Paul Waldman @paulwaldman.bsky.social · 4d

Also we have precisely ONE verified recent case of a politician paying actors to attend a political event. You'll never guess who it was.

www.snopes.com/fact-check/t...

Did Trump Campaign Offer Actors $50 to Cheer His Announcement?

The Trump campaign denied knowing a contractor hired a casting agency for the candidate's 2015 campaign-announcement rally.

www.snopes.com

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Paul Waldman @paulwaldman.bsky.social · 4d

It's a two-fer, you get your antisemitic conspiracy theory AND the insistence that there is no such thing as sincere progressive opinion, it couldn't possibly be that people are genuinely pissed off so they must have been paid to protest.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 4d

Sen. Roger Marshall: "October 18 is when the protest gets here. This will be a Soros paid-for protest for his professional protesters. The agitators show up. We'll have to get the National Guard out. Hopefully it will be peaceful. I doubt it."

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Reposted by Paul Waldman

Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 4d

These guys have gotten incredibly rich by fleecing the government with subpar tech that was designed for rentseeking rather than performance. A smart Dem agenda item would be to build internal tech capacity. The fact that it would punish these guys is just a silver lining.

Mike Masnick @mmasnick.bsky.social · 4d

Being a billionaire must really fuck with your mind. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/u...

Marc Benioff Says Trump Should Send Guard Troops to San Francisco

www.nytimes.com

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Paul Waldman @paulwaldman.bsky.social · 4d

Elon Musk continues to impress

arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...

Boring Company cited for almost 800 environmental violations in Las Vegas

Violations include digging without permits and dumping wastewater into storm drains.

arstechnica.com

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Paul Waldman @paulwaldman.bsky.social · 4d

As I wrote today, it's not cool to be with the Empire; it's cool to be with the Rebellion. Especially when the Empire's approval ratings are slipping:

paulwaldman.substack.com/p/why-trump-...

That's not the entirety of why Tucker Carlson is doing this, but it's definitely part of the story.

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Reposted by Paul Waldman

MSNBC @msnbc.com · 4d

OPINION by @paulwaldman.bsky.social:

“Because this imagined antifa is a phantom, the term becomes infinitely flexible.”

READ MORE:
www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...

Trump's war on 'antifa' is both buffoonish and sinister

As easy as it is to mock the president and his staff, they are attempting something quite serious.

www.msnbc.com

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Paul Waldman @paulwaldman.bsky.social · 4d

Trump’s support among young people has collapsed, and even the podcasters he cultivated in 2024 are fed up with him. Here’s why it happened.

paulwaldman.substack.com/p/why-trump-...

Why Trump Lost the Podcast Bros

It's cool to support the Rebellion. It's not cool to support the Empire.

paulwaldman.substack.com

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Paul Waldman @paulwaldman.bsky.social · 4d

I think Trump is going to do a Michigan Man of the Year and just invent a fictitious peace prize he won.

"I won the Norbiggle Peace Prize, not a lot of people know that. The Norbiggle, people are saying it's even more prestigious than the Nobel, which nobody wants anymore."

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Paul Waldman @paulwaldman.bsky.social · 4d

Hey what happened to the sandwich throwing guy, does he have his own podcast yet?

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Paul Waldman @paulwaldman.bsky.social · 4d

Watching this I kept thinking "Toonces CAN drive, just not very well."

This thing can fold laundry and pick up after you, just not very well.

Have humanoid robots come a long way? Sure. But there's a loooong way to go.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eu5m...

Introducing Figure 03

YouTube video by Figure

www.youtube.com

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Paul Waldman @paulwaldman.bsky.social · 4d

Were you a big fan of the War on Drugs and the War on Terror? Welcome to the War on Antifa.

My latest at MSNBC:

www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...

Trump's war on 'antifa' is both buffoonish and sinister

As easy as it is to mock the president and his staff, they are attempting something quite serious.

www.msnbc.com

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Reposted by Paul Waldman

Costa Samaras @costasamaras.com · 5d

Picture how big the Hoover Dam is. An absolute unit. The Hoover Dam has a power capacity of 2 gigawatts (GW).

The solar farm that the Admin just cancelled could have produces 6.2 GW of power. That's more than 3 Hoover Dams.

jael holzman @jael.bsky.social · 5d

SCOOP: The Bureau of Land Management says the largest solar project in Nevada — the Esmeralda 7 mega-farm — has been canceled

The news was quietly dropped via a sudden website update with no public word from any of the companies involved or a statement from the agency

@heatmap.news

Esmeralda 7 Solar Project Has Been Canceled, BLM Says

It would have delivered a gargantuan 6.2 gigawatts of power.

heatmap.news

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Paul Waldman @paulwaldman.bsky.social · 4d

You're never going to believe this, but the Trump administration's claim that assaults on ICE officers have gone up 1,000% turns out to be bullshit

www.npr.org/2025/10/10/n...

White House claims "more than 1,000%" rise in assaults on ICE agents, data says otherwise

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers claim assaults on their officers are up sharply since June. There's no public evidence that number is true.

www.npr.org

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