Friday: Three Morning Takes

This week, tech outlet The Verge found itself on the verge of getting firebombed by an Anduril drone after publishing an article about the defense tech giant’s new American-made laptop. The piece was riddled with distortions, including the lie that founder Palmer Luckey has a “history of fueling right wing troll farms” (a baseless rumor from 2016). Its author, journalist Antonio Di Benedetto, surmised that Anduril’s laptop would not count as “American-made” because it has just three American-made parts, despite Luckey explicitly saying otherwise (I was on the same press call). Luckey called him out on X; “Sup baby,” The Verge’s editor-in-chief replied, super professionally, before announcing a correction. The thing is, Luckey said on the call he was expecting “skeptical press” but invited blob journos anyway. “Your average crazy schizo poster on 4chan” has an easier time telling the truth than most “experts,” he said. After this week, add “award-winning legacy tech journos” to that list.

Earlier this week, Google’s “AI Mode” struggled to name the winner of the 2020 U.S. presidential election, previously dubbed “stolen” by Donald Trump. (Gemini answered correctly, and the error wasn’t siloed to 2020’s election.) According to hordes of cretinous online poasters, this wasn’t some arcane technical bug (that Google promptly identified and fixed, btw), but direct “political intervention” and Google “sucking up to Trump” because “we finally have fascism.” Notable online troglodyte “evan loves worf” said, “the right loves to call all media left wing but the reality is this.” Did we forget the right was censored for years by tech? Google CEO Sundar Pichai fired an engineer in 2017 for “advancing harmful gender stereotypes.” In 2024, Alphabet employees donated 40x more money to Harris than to Trump. Gemini was racially diversifying images of Nazi soldiers. But sure, Pichai is secretly making Google’s AI boost election conspiracies. The left’s self-victimization gymnastics are nothing if not impressive!

Yesterday, The New York Times reported that a 2016 investigation into Ilhan Omar’s second marriage, conducted during the Obama administration, found “some evidence” the marriage was fraudulent. While not shocking to those of us who’ve long suspected Omar married her brother (#familygoals), it is surprising to find this in the Times. For years, legacy media refused to actually, you know, investigate suspicions surrounding Omar’s marriage — and in 2019, NYT published a “fact check” essentially taking Omar’s denial at face value. What’s changed? Do they suspect the FBI’s pre-dawn raid of Omar’s home will bear fruit… and thus can no longer pretend the story is some baseless right-wing fever dream? Sadly, the investigative resources of the NYT have been commandeered by professional Ivy League obfuscators rather than Fox-News-loving, disgruntled Gen-X dads. If those patriots were in charge years ago, Ilhan Omar would’ve been deported back to Somalia faster than you can say “bananas and rice.”

Jonas Du

Two Columbia Students Argued Jane Doe May Have Exercised ‘Sexual Freedom.’ The Campus Revolted.

two columbia juniors published an op-ed arguing jane doe’s sexual encounter may have been consensual... and were told by classmates to “kill themselves.” the op-ed challenged the prevailing narrative on campus — that cornell’s jane doe was brutally gangraped — saying this belief actually infantilizes women. in response, fellow staffers at the student newspaper called for it to shut down, and a ‘free speech club’ canceled an event with the paper’s editor-in-chief. jonas delivers a firsthand account from the op-ed’s authors

Neeraja Deshpande

Former MIT Scientist Wins $6M in Landmark Case Against False Sexual Assault Accusations

former mit scientist david sabatini was once on track to win the nobel prize. then in 2020, his ex-girlfriend accused him of r*pe, calling sabatini the ‘weinstein of science’ as his lab was later vilified for perpetuating a “bro culture.” as a result, sabatini was stripped of all his funding, lost his job, and went bankrupt. but now, the scientist has just won a landmark $6 million lawsuit in the face of these false allegations. neeraja deshpande interviewed sabatini about the verdict

Jonas Du

Anduril Unveils American-Made Laptop

anduril and qualcomm have announced a new laptop that will eventually be 100% made in america: a “first step” toward creating a market for u.s.-manufactured components and total technological self-sufficiency. palmer luckey says building computers in america should be a matter of “national pride,” and you know what WE say? “hell yeah, brother.” check out jonas’s report on “bluechip” — a bold initiative to build the first american-made computer in 20 years