What if you woke up tomorrow and completely lost access to your bank account, credit cards, PayPal, and Venmo, all because of something you posted online? 

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In this episode of Free Speech Friday, Rainey Reitman, advisor at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and author of the new book "Transaction Denied" joins me to dive deep into the terrifying reality of financial censorship and how major banks and payment processors are quietly becoming the ultimate gatekeepers of internet speech. 

Reitman reveals how a handful of massive financial institutions are bypassing the First Amendment to act as privatized censors, deciding what journalism you can support, what political nonprofits you can donate to, and what ideas are considered "misinformation." From the early financial blockade of WikiLeaks to recent debanking scandals involving independent journalists and nonpartisan advocacy groups, this hidden digital infrastructure controls your life more than you realize. 

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This channel has ZERO sponsors, and speaking out on financial censorship isn't advertiser-friendly. If you get value from this show, support my work so I can keep making these videos!

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👉 Pick up a copy of Rainey Reitman's "Transaction Denied" here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/804543/transaction-denied-by-rainey-reitman/ 

*(Note: Half of all book proceeds go directly to the Freedom of the Press Foundation)*

We discuss: 

The Nightmare of Financial Censorship

How Payment Processors Got So Much Power

The Rise of E-Commerce & Speech Dependency

PayPal, WikiLeaks, and Chelsea Manning

Censorship by Proxy: How the Government Pressures Banks

The Visa Lawsuit That Could Ruin the Internet

Have you noticed your social media feeds suddenly flooding with terrifying content about AI existential risk?

From TikTok clips warning about "AI psychosis" to viral YouTube shorts claiming chatbots are pushing people to the brink, the anti-AI movement has taken over the internet... But what if these "anti-AI" influencers aren't actually what they seem?

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In this week's episode of Power User, Washington Post journalist Natasha Tiku join me to pull back the curtain on the massive, billionaire-funded "anti-AI" astroturf campaign.

We track the money and expose how the exact same millionaires and billionaires building the world's largest AI companies (like OpenAI and Anthropic) are quietly paying influencers thousands of dollars to promote AI doomsday scenarios.

We dive deep into the 25-year history of the AI safety movement, from Eliezer Yudkowski’s rationalist blogs and Harry Potter fan fiction to Effective Altruism and the "paperclip maximizer" theory. We talk about how Silicon Valley elites are co-opting VERY genuine public anxieties about jobs and real-world harms related to AI technology in order to push their own pro-AI, anti-regulatory agendas.

We also talk about how to spot the hidden corporate pipelines, dark money nonprofits, and staged research papers designed to control the narrative around AI. If you're seeing AI doomer videos all over your feed, please watch this one!

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Nitasha's WaPo story on all this: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2026/04/18/ai-doom-influencers-safety/

Elon Musk has evolved far beyond a billionaire CEO. 

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According to political theorists Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff, Musk has created an entirely new ideology called “Muskism” — a system where technology companies merge with state power, AI shapes politics, and billionaires become more powerful than governments.

In this episode of Free Speech Friday, I sit down with Quinn Slobodian, co-author of the new book Muskism, to break down how Elon Musk’s worldview went from Silicon Valley optimism to tech authoritarianism. We discuss Tesla, SpaceX, Starlink, Neuralink, AI censorship, OpenAI, Grok, surveillance, DOGE, data centers, Silicon Valley’s shift toward defense tech, and why Musk’s influence now reaches into every part of society.

We also unpack:

• Elon Musk’s political transformation

• The rise of Muskism

• AI paranoia and “woke AI”

• Why Silicon Valley is embracing militarization

• Musk’s obsession with reproduction and population decline

• How SpaceX and Starlink could reshape global power

• The future of AI and surveillance capitalism

• Why tech billionaires are becoming impossible to escape

What happens if AI becomes smarter than humans at most jobs?

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Researchers, economists, and top AI executives are increasingly warning about the rise of a “permanent underclass”,  a future where millions of workers lose not just their jobs, but their economic value altogether. In this episode of Power User, I sit down with writer Jasmine Sun to unpack the terrifying idea that artificial intelligence could permanently reshape class, wealth, labor, and power in America.

We discuss OpenAI, Anthropic, AGI, automation, white collar layoffs, Silicon Valley ideology, AI job displacement, universal basic income, data center protests, populism, and whether society is prepared for what’s coming next.

Could AI destroy upward mobility? Will automation create mass unemployment? Are tech companies being honest about the future they’re building?

We cover:

The permanent underclass theory explained

Who is actually pushing this idea

OpenAI's shifting stance on job displacement

Leading the Future and AI lobbying

Why AI is different from past tech hype

Policy failures and democratic backlash

What China is doing differently

What workers should actually do now

#AI #Tech #Technology #ArtificialIntelligence #FutureOfWork #AGI #OpenAI #Anthropic #SiliconValley #TechNews #JobAutomation #AIJobs #TechIndustry  

What’s really driving the growing backlash against AI and Silicon Valley?

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From burning data centers to celebrating an attack on Sam Altman’s house, the anti‑tech backlash has escalated. In this episode of Free Speech Friday, I sit down with journalist and author Brian Merchant to unpack the rise of anti AI sentiment, the growing anger toward Big Tech, and why public hostility toward companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google keeps escalating.

We discuss:

• Why the AI backlash exploded so quickly

• The connection between AI fear and distrust in capitalism

• Why people are protesting data centers

• The rise of anti tech politics

• AI doomers and effective altruism

• Sam Altman and Silicon Valley PR failures

• Whether AI companies created their own crisis

• How automation fears are shaping public opinion

• Why people feel powerless against Big Tech

• The future of AI regulation and resistance

Brian Merchant is the author of Blood in the Machine, a book about the original Luddites and the history of anti technology movements.

If you’re interested in AI, ChatGPT, Silicon Valley, automation, tech criticism, labor politics, or the future of the internet, we break down the cultural and political forces shaping the AI era.

Subscribe for more interviews and deep dives on AI, internet culture, media, tech, and politics.

Ben Shapiro’s Media Empire Is Collapsing

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For the last decade, Ben Shapiro and The Daily Wire dominated the digital landscape. From Facebook to chart-topping podcasts, they seemed untouchable. But in 2025, the data tells a different story. With a 90% drop in YouTube views, massive layoffs, and the high-profile exit of CEO Jeremy Boreing, the "Conservative Disney" empire is crashing and burning.

The Bulwark's Will Sommer joins me on this week's episode of Power User to dive deep into the rise and fall of Ben Shapiro. We break down the explosive internal feud with Candace Owens, the catastrophic failure of his Hollywood ambitions, how a changing Facebook algorithm killed their traffic overnight, and what his fall reveals about the future of conservative media. 

We cover:

• The Daily Wire layoffs and financial struggles.

• Why Ben Shapiro is losing his audience to creators like Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson.

• The failure of "Anti-Woke" entertainment and the "Conservative Hollywood" dream.

• How the death of Charlie Kirk created a massive fracture in the MAGA movement.

• Why Ben Shapiro is irrelevant to Gen Z and Gen Alpha.

What if everything you've been told about technological progress is a lie?

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AI is changing society faster than ever, but resistance to technology is not new. For this week's Free Speech Friday I spoke with academic Thomas Dekeyser, author of Techno Negative, about the history of anti-technology movements, from the Luddites smashing machines in the Industrial Revolution to anarchist groups bombing computer companies in the 1980s.

We discuss AI, labor automation, surveillance, moral panic, Silicon Valley ideology, tech CEOs, machine breaking, environmental destruction, and why backlash against technology keeps returning throughout history. We also explore whether technological progress actually benefits ordinary people, or mainly serves corporations and power. Sometimes it's not what you think!

Topics include:

• Why anti-AI movements are growing

• Big Tech and labor exploitation

• AI moral panic and conspiracy theories

• Environmental costs of AI

• Surveillance and control

• The politics of technological progress

• Why people resist new technology

• Silicon Valley and deregulation

The Lie Created To Strip Your Rights Online

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In March, a CNN investigation into a "Global Academy" of 62 million men allegedly drugging and assaulting women broke the internet. But the most viral story of the year was built on a foundation of misleading statistics and bad journalism. 

Journalist Kat Tenbarge joins me to debunk the "62 Million Men" narrative. We dig into how this story was used to manufacture consent for dangerous new censorship laws and who is actually behind the movement to repeal Section 230.

In this video, we cover:

• Why the "62 million" figure is a misleading traffic stat, not a count of criminals.

• The connection between CNN’s reporting and far-right Christian nationalist groups like Exodus Cry.

• How the "Global Academy" branding was manufactured from a single interview quote.

• The real-world harm of FOSTA-SESTA and why new "safety" bills like KOSA actually endanger victims.

• How mainstream media organizations lobby against free speech to protect their own business interests.

Don't let emotional propaganda dictate tech policy. We look at the systemic failures of the legal system and why villainizing platforms instead of perpetrators is a losing battle for women's rights. If you’ve seen the “62 million men” claim, you need to watch this. 

Should AI be protected by free speech laws?

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In this episode of Free Speech Friday, I sit down with Corbin K. Barthold, Internet Policy Counsel at Tech Freedom, to discuss one of the most controversial legal papers of the year: "Why the First Amendment Protects Artificial Intelligence."

While many are calling for strict AI regulation to prevent "AI psychosis" or the spread of misinformation, Corbin argues that AI outputs are a protected form of expression. If we allow the government to dictate what an LLM can and cannot say, are we inadvertently giving them the power to control our access to information?

In this video, we cover:

Why AI content qualifies as First Amendment protected speech.

The theories the government uses to justify censorship.

Analysis of recent tragic cases involving Character AI.

Why New York’s S7263 law might be "rank protectionism" for doctors and lawyers.

The progressive case for why we should actually want free and open AI.

#siliconvalley #tech #technology #internet #ai #artificialintelligence

There’s a hidden social hierarchy on the internet

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Is your Instagram "low class"? While we like to think of the internet as a universal playground, a new digital class war is emerging. From the way you use filters to the number of emojis in your bio, your digital habits are increasingly signaling your socioeconomic status to the world.

In this episode of Power User, I sit down with etymologist and cultural commentator Adam Aleksic to decode the hidden semiotics of "Low Class Instagram." 

We explore why billionaires keep their accounts private with 200 followers, why the "photo dump" has become a sophisticated narrative tool for elites, and how algorithms are siloing us into class-based bubbles.

We break down:

• The "Puppy Filter" Trap: Why technical illiteracy is the new class signifier.

• Billionaire Behavior: Why the ultimate luxury is being completely offline.

• Digital White Flight: Why elite users are fleeing Facebook and Instagram for "curated" spaces like Bluesky vs Substack.

• AI & Class: How your choice of LLM (Claude vs. ChatGPT) and even your font choice (Serif vs. Sans Serif) reveals your status.

• The Death of Anonymity: Why the "surveillance state" makes it harder for lower-class users to experiment with their identities.