jason

the consolidation of major media institutions by the president’s oligarch friends is obviously bad, but i do wonder about the ultimate impact. it is clear that trump and his allies believe that you can buy up media and pull an orban or a putin. but…

I'm so proud of the entire @wired.com team for four ASME nominations, including General Excellence. The most nominations for WIRED in at least a decade! Everyone here earned all of this and more, so today we brag!

Who’s Your Daddy? A Chatbot More people are turning to AI to explore their BDSM fantasies, but some in the community feel it’s a cop-out.

"Whether dom or sub, the debates often circle the same questions: Can a machine really create the desired dynamic? Can there be a real power exchange with no genuine emotion?"

spoke to some folks in the bdsm world for my latest @wired.com dispatch www.wired.com/story/whos-y...

I love how nosy the reporters at Wired are

www.wired.com/story/a-whit...

Everyone Speaks Incel Now After migrating from misogynist forums to social media feeds, terms like “looksmaxxing” and “mogged” are now impossible to avoid.

this week alone, I got several pitches about "proteinmaxxing." Read @milesklee.bsky.social on the widespread adoption of incel speak: www.wired.com/story/everyo...

Opinion | Christians Against Empathy Aren’t Who They Think They Are

“But then many in MAGA decided that cruelty was a virtue, decency a vice, and — worst of all — that empathy was a sin. Now we live in the harsh new world they made.” www.nytimes.com/2026/02/19/o...

How to Organize Safely in the Age of Surveillance From threat modeling to encrypted collaboration apps, we’ve collected experts’ tips and tools for safely and effectively building a group—even while being targeted and tracked by the powerful.

I don’t think I’ve ever had so many people writing to me to ask about encrypted/secure/private tools for comms, collaboration, and organizing. So @lhn.bsky.social and I talked to experts and assembled this: the Wired guide to organizing in an age of surveillance. www.wired.com/story/how-to...

Inside the App Where Queer Gooners Run Free In light of Zoom crackdowns and Skype shutting down, Batemates has emerged as an alternative for “bators” who like masturbating together online.

wrote about @batematesapp.bsky.social in my latest dispatch for @wired.com

"All the corporate tools were just banning us [and] I was really upset about the hypocrisy of the situation, especially when this is something everybody does.” www.wired.com/story/inside...

DAME TIME

one thing the trump era has made clear, i think, is that the american people themselves are far more committed to the values of our founding documents than our elites

Melania Won’t Be Remembered for What She Wore The First Lady’s documentary reveals how she uses her image to deflect from her complicity.

"Melania is not only terrible, it’s also frustrating—but not because it’s technically incompetent, visually unappealing, or even boring. It’s frustratingly facile, an insult to self-awareness and a dead-eyed rebuke to irony."

robin givhan doesn't miss! www.thecut.com/article/mela...

An ‘Intimacy Crisis’ Is Driving the Dating Divide In his book “The Intimate Animal,” sex and relationships researcher Justin Garcia says people have miscalculated their need for human intimacy, which is the real issue at the root of the loneliness ep...

"We’ve screwed up a whole generation of people with this idea that you need to overly self-actualize before you can be in a relationship." www.wired.com/story/justin...

In summary:

I Infiltrated Moltbook, the AI-Only Social Network Where Humans Aren't Allowed I went undercover on Moltbook and loved role-playing as a conscious bot. But rather than a novel breakthrough, the AI-only site is a crude rehashing of sci-fi fantasies.

another @thiccreese.bsky.social banger www.wired.com/story/i-infi...

Republicans Are All In on Boosting Fraud Allegations in California Right-wing influencers who were instrumental in spreading allegations of fraud in Minnesota ahead of ICE’s surge are now going after a number of California’s social welfare programs.

"right-wing creators ... have been going after a number of California’s social welfare programs, making unsubstantiated accusations of fraud—and potentially laying the groundwork for a similar federal crackdown in the nation’s largest Democrat-run state." www.wired.com/story/republ...

The Trump Administration Arrested Don Lemon Like He Was a Fugitive Slave Lemon’s arrest is not only a clear violation of the First Amendment but a blatant throwback to the Constitution’s long-discarded Fugitive Slave Clause.

Here’s my @thenation.com post on the arrest of Don Lemon, Georgia Fort, the violation of the First Amendment, and Trump’s ongoing attempts to change the face of his victims and spark a race war.

"The videos, which have millions of views on Facebook and Instagram, offer a blend of revisionist justice that imagines a digital multiverse where the ICE agents are just like us: not above the rule of law."

truly a man of the people

Age Verification Is Reaching a Global Tipping Point. Is TikTok’s Strategy a Good Compromise? TikTok’s new age-detection tech seems like a better solution than automatically banning youth accounts. But experts say it still requires social platforms to surveil users more closely.

“Unless something dramatically changes, regulators around the globe are building a legal infrastructure that will require most websites and apps to be age-authenticated.” www.wired.com/story/age-ve...

‘I’m Witnessing a Lot of Emptiness’: How ICE Uprooted Normal Life in Minneapolis WIRED talks to a postal worker, a teacher, two US citizens detained by federal agents, and six more Minnesota residents about life in an occupied American city.

the war is at home www.wired.com/story/how-ic...

‘Nobody Can Stop Us’ Venezuela and the killing of Renee Good mark a turning point.

“This, on a grand scale, has become the defining feature of the current phase of American preeminence: robbery.” nymag.com/intelligence...

people voted for this

How to Protest Safely in the Age of Surveillance Law enforcement has more tools than ever to track your movements and access your communications. Here’s how to protect your privacy if you plan to protest.

Just days into 2026, the killing of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good by a federal immigration officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, has sparked protests around the US.

If you’re planning to protest, here’s how to safeguard your digital security.

The Trump administration has repeatedly targeted small and politically disempowered populations—Haitians, Somalis, trans people—in order to justify abuses of power. But its abuses of power are not limited to those communities. What the government can do to the most vulnerable among us, it can also do to you.

The shooting in Minnesota is a reminder that while authoritarian governments may justify abuses of power by directing them at scapegoats or vulnerable populations, the goal is ultimately to deploy them against anyone they wish to www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

Announcing the 2026 class of Periplus fellows! Every year, the Periplus collective awards mentorships to writers of color living and working in the United States, pairing each one with a member of the collective: an established writer who will …

congrats to all the periplus fellows. excited to return as a mentor this year lithub.com/announcing-t...

mr. scorsese was five hours long and still too short. marty forever

what day is it?

holy shit ant

what exactly am i paying for?

espn+ not streaming the nba christmas day games is very stupid