Why Populism Is Really On The Rise And How To Stop It. Disinformation Legions. Diana Wiener. Retired World Leaders as Detectives. Plus more! #216
Grüezi! I’m Adrian Monck – welcome!
–––
1️⃣ How To End Populism
Fix public services. It’s that simple.
Right-wing populist politicians and parties are on the rise in many democratic countries. They often claim to represent “ordinary people” against corrupt insiders.
A new study says it’s something more straightforward.
What’s driving populism? How well governments provide basic public services like health, education, and infrastructure.
Public services are one of the main ways people directly experience and judge their government.
When people feel their government isn’t providing good enough public services, they become more likely to support populist politicians who criticise the current system and provide ready scapegoats in “corrupt elites” or “migrants.”
In many countries, it’s getting harder to maintain high-quality public services due to slow economic growth and aging populations.
⏭ Also, financial globalisation did increase inequality, says a study.
–––
2️⃣ Mark Zuckerberg’s Wakeboard Manifesto
Beer-swillin’, tux-wearin’, wave-ridin’, flag-wavin’...
Mark Zuckerberg’s July 4th wakeboarding post isn’t simply a tech CEO celebrating for America’s national holiday.
The image gains deeper significance when viewed through the lens of an internal email exchange between former Meta board member Peter Thiel and Meta founder, chairman and CEO Zuckerberg.
Their back and forth (shared online) reveals a calculated shift in Facebook’s strategy, aimed at courting millennials while reshaping societal institutions.
Here are some takeaways:
Generational Conflict’s Coming: Thiel envisions a battle between boomers and millennial for collapsing institutions. A sort of nerd Ragnarök.
Patriotism is Performative: Drape AI innovation in the American flag while gnawing away at the systems it claims to uphold.
Millennial Messiah: Thiel says Zuckerberg is “a Baby Boomer construct of how a well-behaved Millennial is supposed to act” and pushes him to turn that image around...
The emails are a glimpse into how a conservative like Thiel influences the public image of an ostensibly apolitical Zuckerberg.
⏭ Meta’s focus away from Boomers.
–––
3️⃣ The New Fake Warriors Fighting The #Disinformation Wars
Russia has legions of made up online personas. Their target? You.
In the 19C, Russian novelist Nikolai Gogol wrote Dead Souls, a dark satire about a scam involving fake people.
Fast forward to the 21C and Russia’s no longer producing dark satires but it is manufacturing fake people through a system called Meliorator.
It’s AI-enhanced software that creates fake social media personas – called, yes ‘souls’ – that look real.
How does it work? The Verge explains:
“Each bot’s … ‘soul’ based on an archetype or persona. They were given biographical information, political ideologies, and a location… one account purported to be a Bitcoin enthusiast and free speech absolutist from Minneapolis who was opposed to the New World Order. A ‘thoughts’ tab allowed the operator to control the bots’ online behaviour based.”
(For fans of dark satire, there is a certain irony in a fake “thought-controlled” free speech abolutist.)
Security agencies want social media companies to tighten up their verification systems.
⏭ How to protect yourself online and speak up? Screen-shots.
–––
4️⃣ Tanks For The Memory
Germany gears up to rebuild its arms industry.
The FT reports that German companies are overcoming their long-held taboo on supplying their country’s arms manufacturers.
“Germany was facing the reverse situation of Europe immediately after the cold war, when companies faced the need to convert military production operations to civilian manufacturing, said Christian Mölling at the German Council of Foreign Relations.”
Why the taboo? For that you will have to turn to historian Adam Tooze’s epic account of the Nazi war economy, Wages of Destruction. It has a whole chapter titled “Partners: The Regime and German Business.”
Tooze begins:
“What Hitler and his government did promise was an end to parliamentary democracy and the destruction of the German left and for this most of German big business was willing to make a substantial down-payment.”
History is always instructive.
⏭ German arms exports are on track to hit a record high.
–––
5️⃣ Diana Wiener
A legend in my life, and in the lives of many others.
George Eliot wrote of a character in Middlemarch:
“The growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.”
Diana Wiener is not that hidden character.
There are people who burst into your life with an energy and vitality that seems to crumble the conventions with which we crush our lives. They supersaturate the quotidian colours of existence.
I hope everyone knows extraordinary people like that. For me – and for many others – that’s Diana Wiener.
She is a Brooklyn Wife of Bath, but infinitely richer, funnier, and fuller than Chaucer’s fictional creation.
She walked hospital wards, led successful businesses, and was the first woman elected to her town council. Di ran for mayor, but as a wise observer noted “that town was not ready for a big mouthed, Jewish, young FEMALE mayor.” She also mothered a clan.
In retirement, she taught scuba diving – I was a pupil.
During COVID, whilst caring for her husband in an assisted living block, she started a newspaper. The New York Times reported it. Ten years ago she wrote a memoir about what it was like to have an abortion in 1959 – for BuzzFeed.
But what I treasure are her countless stories – hilarious, unrepeatable, deeply inappropriate – told with a warmth, wit and wisdom that redeems and reaffirms everything that’s wonderful about being human.
Her weekly messages always made me think about what I write in the newsletter. Di reminded me not to be such a gloomy Brit.
What can this amazing force of nature tell us about dying?
“It sucks.”
It sucks to say goodbye too. Her health is failing, not her spirit. Send her your best.
⏭ There’s a final reflection on mortality from Simon Boas, here.
–––
6️⃣ Farewell to Combustion Engines?
Petrol heads vs. Battery bores.
“It will be incredibly expensive for the world to completely stamp out, or do without internal combustion engines (ICEs)...”
Yasser Mufti, EVP, Saudi Aramco, speaking to the FT.
“We no longer need to model for when cell prices drop far enough to decarbonise road transport. That day is here.”
Colin McKerracher, BloombergNEF, writing at Bloomberg.
My view?
When oil producers have to start investing to keep alive the technology their product is supposed to fuel, I raise an eyebrow...
But the EV revolution puts China in the driving seat and tariffs on cars might hold back the tidal wave of battery-powered change.
⏭ China already makes as many batteries as the entire world wants.
–––
7️⃣ What Do World Leaders Do In Retirement?
Obviously they turn to solving murder mysteries...
Retired German leader as Angela Merkel as a detective? Now European viewers can watch her – fictional – comedy crime busting on TV.
⏭ The book series that inspired the shows are by German writer David Safier.
–––
If you enjoy this newsletter – please recommend it!
Best,
Adrian
You capture the magic of Diana beautifully.