California governor: Generative AI will fix homelessness — based on a 2023 sales pitch
California governor: Generative AI will fix homelessness — based on a 2023 sales pitch
In possibly the stupidest sentence we’ve seen in the past week, California Governor Gavin Newsom has declared that he “seeks to harness the power of GenAI to address homelessness” and “…
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My trajectory of learning about this Newsom fellow was amazing.
- First heard of him existing when some Very Serious People were floating him as a replacement for Biden like two months ago
- Infer from that that he's progressive maybe?
- Like right after that a big story how he forcefully cleared homeless encampments like a fucking cartoon villain
- So he's actually a weird little conservative in disguise?
- Now this fucking nonsense.
How do you keep producing people like this, America?
Yeah... He's very much a corpo neolib. He's actively sabotaged attempts to hold PG&E accountable for killing people and render the earned corporate death sentence. He's also vehemently against any wealth tax and keeps pulling the pied-piper strategy during elections to limit the influence of left-of-center politicians.
Is he better than the guys whose campaigns he aids? Yes. Is he a dumpster fire of a politician who is unable and unwilling to take on major issues and address root causes of problems facing his constituents? Also yes.
So why on earth was anyone calling him a good candidate to replace Biden? Sounds like one of the worst people you'd want in charge of anything, much less a country?
I think it is a combination of:
- Governor of major state.
- Has nice hair. Real generic politician look.
- Polls showing "generic democrat" beating Trump.
- Not super old.
- Have I mentioned the hair?
It's the same symptoms among the pundits that convinced them that Ron DeSantis had a chance against Trump.
Ya really think his hair is nice?
I've felt that it falls into that Generative AI/Thomas Kinkade uncanny valley zone because it looks kind of glazed -- as if embedded in a thin layer of ice -- while also inhabiting a strange dimension of omnipresent ambient lighting.
Please note: I am not in any way implying that Gavin Newsom isn't real.
because the US sociopolitical system, just like many other of its social systems, is disastrously sick and dysfunctional
Gavin was Pelosi's pick to replace Biden, they're both backed by the same regional California billionaires from SF to Sac. Harris is from Cali as well but her big backers are in LA.
My head canon is Biden chose Harris as a parting FU to Pelosi.
I think a lot of those seriously floating him were neolibs thinking that he'd make their stock prices go up.
It may help to know about Californian neoliberalism. Newsom is running on a faulty ontology; the world is built out of different building blocks for him than for us. We often contrast it with the more dominant flavor of neoliberalism on the other coast:
"Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft." ~ Mary Schmich, Wear Sunscreen
According to my former left-libertarian roommate: also the scumbag scion of a political dynasty I think? I didn’t look into it because I had no reason to doubt
Seems he resembles RFK Jr. more than a Democrat.
At least RFKJ has brainworms he can blame.
unironically one of the most glorious developments in modern insanity
Newsom is absolutely A Type Of Guy
- First heard of him existing when some Very Serious People were floating him as a replacement for Biden like two months ago