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As you know, a recurring theme or question in this newsletter has been the question of the so-called "vibe shift": whether Trump's election heralds not just a political change but a cultural one, and a backlash against wokeness from the large segment (minority? silent majority?) of cultural elites who privately dissented from the Woke Gospel on one or more issues, or just disliked its hectoring censorship.
Well, here's a very strong argument for the proposition that the vibe has, indeed, shifted: Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, just published a bombshell video announcing a bunch of new policies around content moderation on Meta properties like Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.
Besides the announcements (on which more below), the video really bears watching in full, because it is truly an announcement by Zuckerberg of, well, a vibe shift. Firstly, Zuckerberg is not afraid of using the word "censorship," which is itself significant. He notes that this censorship was "pushed more and more" by "governments and legacy media." He says that "the recent elections feel like a cultural tipping point," and this topic of a culture shift which Meta must follow is one to which he refers several times. He says Meta's approach of relying on fact-checkers was a mistake, noting that "fact-checkers have been politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they have created." It's impossible to imagine a CEO of a big tech/social media company using this language before Trump's reelection, and before Musk's acquisition of Twitter/X.
Of course, people will note that this announcement is self-interested. There's a new power in Washington, and Zuckerberg wants to get on its good side. And this is obviously true. But this only underscores the point about a vibe shift: the vibe truly shifts not when people are convinced, since only a minority of people act out of their sincere deeply-held beliefs, but when people find in their interest to have a sudden change of mind.
On to the actual announcements. While noting that illegal and truly harmful content must be suppressed, Zuckerberg announced that algorithms on Facebook and Meta will be retrained to only flag the worst violations, and for lesser violations no action will be taken until it is reported. Fact-checkers will be replaced by a "Community Notes" system analoguous to X. Restrictions on political content, singling out "topics like immigration and gender" will be lifted. Rules around content moderation will be simplified. The Trust And Safety and Content Moderation teams will be (this is the funniest part) moved from California to Texas. Finally, and interestingly, Zuckerberg announced his and Meta's intention to work "with President Trump" to promote free speech around the world, noting that governments in places like Europe and Latin America, following the lead of the US government under Biden, have gone even further in implementing censorship policies, which he denounced.
This is, on its own, a very significant set of policy changes. But, again, even more significant is the vibe shift that it both heralds and strengthens. Now it's not just X who is standing alone in standing for free speech. It's a trend. The pressure on social media platforms to follow suit will increase. The pressure on legacy media and other cultural elite institutions to stop trying to censor or agitate or "cancel" dissenting voices will increase. The pressure to get rid of elements inside the Federal government who pushed for a global censorship regime will increase.
Policy News You Need To Know
#AI #TheEconomyStupid — Joe Weisenthal's excellent Bloomberg newsletter notes the AI boom is already having a macroeconomic impact. He notes that stock market performance has been majorly driven by the enthusiasm about AI. He then cites a stunning statistic: all of the investment spending that went into new AI data centers and related equipment added up to 6% of US GDP in the third quarter of 2024. "That number is likely to rise further in the coming quarters. If so, we could surpass the share of GDP that the tech-industrial-telecom boom of the late 1990s reached at its peak," he writes.
#Reconciliation — AEI's Yuval Levin, who is always worth paying attention to, is in National Review endorsing the one-bill approach favored by Speaker Johnson.
#AmericanManufacturing — Telling story from WSJ, which matches up with so much of what we've heard reporting on this issue, on a bicycle manufacturer in the US which keeps trying to source parts from the US, but can't, having instead to rely on Chinese-made parts.
#Energy #Nuclear — Energy is one of the top items in the new Administration's agenda in the first part of the year. Which is why we appreciated this WSJ op-ed from Christopher Koopman and Eli Dourado arguing that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission does not have the legal authority to regulate new, small modular nuclear reactors, arguing instead that states should be able to have their own regulatory frameworks. We aren't qualified to comment on the law, but we certainly agree with the policy. Nuclear has been absurdly over-regulated in the US, and the new generation of nuclear reactors poses significantly fewer risks. Let a hundred flowers bloom and let states be laboratories.
#Chyna — The Chinese government runs illegal secret police stations all over the world, including in the United States. This is a real thing, as demonstrated by a new DOJ conviction in New York.
#Environment #NEPA — The idea that government authorities will stop perfectly legitimate economic activity to rescue "the spotted owl" or some other obscure endangered species is one of the most tired clichés in the public debate. But it's a cliché for a reason, namely: it does happen. But wait, it gets worse: according to bombshell new reporting in the New York Times (congratulations to them), environmental scientists have been inventing new "conservation species" or arbitrarily designating a species of animal as one that has a particular conservation need, to be able to use NEPA to sue to stop projects. Yes, it's as insane as it sounds. But it's real.
#FinReg — "CFPB issues rules to remove medical debt from consumer credit reports," the Washington Post reports.
#Process #Budget — R Street's Jerry Theodorou has an interesting piece in Insurance Journal on how the new Senate Budget Committee could improve its process.
#Homelessness — Interesting new polling from the Cicero Institute on Americans' views on homelessness, showing strong bipartisan alignment (contrary to what the NGO blob that currently runs the Democratic Party may have you think). For example: 78% of Democrats and 69% of Republicans want the homeless off the street and in shelters; 69% of Democrats and 57% of Republicans want drug free zones near shelters; and 71% of Democrats and 70% of Republicans want treatment, work, or sobriety requirements for access to housing programs. Sounds like a good bipartisan agenda!
#Immigration — A migrant caravan is heading to the US from Mexico to try to get to the US before President Trump's inauguration, the New York Post reports.
Chart of the Day
We thought this was fascinating: the biomass of livestock is larger than that of wild mammals. In other words, if humans stopped eating meat, it would lead to the greatest animal mass extinction event since the extinction of the dinosaurs. Tell that to your vegetarian friends. (Via Jonatan Pallesen)
