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Hannah is a friend of mine and a successful career woman who lives in a major American city. She describes her job as an “influencer,” which I think undersells all that she does. Regardless, Hannah joins the podcast to talk about two things. First, we discuss what’s been going on with Biden. We really are in uncharted territory. I can’t hide my bias here: I bet a lot of money on him being the nominee, and have staked my reputation on a long term prediction that 2024 would be Trump versus Biden, which I made back when both were only at about 33%. It would be nice to say that I called the next four years of American politics regarding something that markets only gave an approximately 10% chance of happening.

Of course, logically I know that my forecasting ability doesn’t ultimately depend on whether a decrepit old man makes it to the finish line. I did in fact get the Trump cult right, and also the fact that Biden wouldn’t have a serious challenge in the primaries. Perhaps you can’t blame me for not seeing how badly he’d deteriorate just in time for an effort to force him off the ticket, but it’s one of those things that was of course priced in, even if I think that the odds of him dropping out have always been too high. Through this talk, we revisit my essay on the media being honest and good, and discuss some of the motivations of those who want to push the president out. See also this video I recently posted of Chris Matthews on what must be going on in Biden’s head.

The second half of the conversation covers the Lucas Gage drama. He’s an online antisemite who was recently swatted, had pizza and Chinese food sent to his house, allegedly by the Jews, and was then suspended from X. While I only occasionally dunk, Hannah has a real passion for learning about online buffoonery, and so she comes well equipped to discuss this hilarious and sad tale. She explains to me “wigger Twitter,” Gage’s interest in neuro-linguistic programming, his background as a white nationalist, and his eventual transformation into an anti-racist who still hates the Jews. We talk about what makes Gage such an incredibly goofy figure, including his embrace of therapy culture, and Hannah presents her theory that antisemites are now a kind of online establishment that those with trollish tendencies find it fun to mess with. We close with thoughts on online culture, and my hope that the lunatics might be segregated from the rest of society.

Note that the connection between us in this chat had some problems, so there are a few instances where we sort of talk over one another, though it doesn’t have a major impact on the quality of the conversation.