SMITCHing

  In 1984, Apple Computer Co. introduced the MacIntoch with a video concept that ran only once as a paid advertisement during the Superbowl. The commercial was directed by Ridley Scott, who created an inspired short film, claiming that the MacIntoch personal computer held the promise to democratize power, keeping an autocratic entity from manipulating the masses. It was brilliant. It was also brilliantly wrong. In the 2020 documentary, the Social Dilemna , filmmaker Jeff Orlowski, rips the mask from big tech, showing how the Silicon Valley of1984 ushered in a revolution that virtually guaranteed our world would become exactly like the one depicted in Orwell's 1984. Using a mixture of dramatic performance and interviews with some of tech's social media pioneers, Orlowski shows how the sophisticated machine learning of major social media platforms is expressly designed to manipulate us, turning people into a product. The goal is to get us to spend as much time as possible on our...

A friend of mine gave a public message and got some feedback from a listener. She emailed him and wrote that she would not apologize for being white and middle class. My friend is a pastor and he'd taken racial inequality to task as part of a recent series of messages. His remarks made sense. A lot of people were, and still are, talking about racism, especially people in his church. None of that is strange. Public speakers like pastors reference current events all the time. Listeners often express opinions about what they've heard. However, what's odd about the woman's email is that there was nothing in the messages that would have called her out specifically, requiring an apology. So, why did she refuse to apologize? She obviously felt challenged. When one says things like, "Racism is wrong. Systemic racism is a thing. It's not enough to say that you're not a racist. You need to be anti-racist." None of those statements are explicitly aimed at white p...