WSJ: “Brain rot is a vibe: a feeling brought on by hours of scrolling through low-value social media content and a lighthearted, semi-ironic attitude toward screen addiction. “It’s a language for those who are chronically online,” said Jackie Ni…For Gen Z and Gen Alpha, consuming low-value social media content isn’t a chronic condition—it’s a way of forming a shared language…The phrase brain rot can stoke concern and panic about young people and their screen time. But social media users say it implies a certain degree of self-awareness—knowing that you have consumed so much online content that you can understand even the most niche references and jokes. There’s even a word for that: Teens and young adults often proclaim their brains as “cooked” after spending hours consuming memes online.”
Shekhar Gupta: “For those who might say it is risky to speak up given how powerful the establishment is, remember A D Shroff took on Nehru even on his central argument. Capitalism, Nehru said, was bad for democracy and political freedoms; Shroff said it was his kind of socialism that came loaded with that venom, and that economic and political freedoms must go hand in hand. India’s economic reform has lost steam, is sliding backwards in some areas, and an institution like the Forum of Free Enterprise is missing just when it’s most needed — to protect our hard-won economic freedoms in 1991.”
Arnold Kling: “The phrase “liberalism failed because it came to power” is wrong, because it turns an ideology into a person. Here is a better statement: Liberalism is a philosophy that aligns with the view that as individuals our understanding is limited and our beliefs are biased; a process of competition and contention works better than absolute power…Liberalism includes competitive markets, adversarial legal proceedings, and scientific dispute, as well as political competition. It means what North, Weingast, and Wallis call an open-access order, meaning that no one is excluded from creating a large enterprise or political organization. The problem is that when you have political power, you are likely to lose the perspective that competition and contention are a good thing. You come up with all sorts of excuses to enforce a monoculture. Once in a position of power, an erstwhile liberal is tempted to become an epistemic autocrat.”
An excerpt from Main Street Millionaire: “Did you know that Main Street Millionaires own half of all job-generating businesses in the United States? That’s nearly three million companies providing jobs for thirty-two million people and making $6.5 trillion in annual revenue. If you enjoy a nice paycheck right now, it is highly likely you can thank a Main Street Millionaire for that. But there is a dark side to being a Main Street Millionaire: they’re getting too old for this sh*t. Talk to any boomer business owner over the age of sixty-five, buy them a beer or six, and they will admit that they want to exit their business . . . but have no idea how. Throughout history, the answer was to hand the business over to the kids. Ah, the times they are a-changin’. These days, only about 30 percent of businesses transition from one family generation to the next. The kids don’t want Dad’s plumbing business. They want to dance on TikTok, even if plumbing makes millions. Here’s the craziest part: most of these MSMs will end up permanently shutting down their businesses. When they retire, they won’t hand off or even sell their cash-printing machines. Instead, they will simply turn off the lights and put the CLOSED sign up one last time. Game over.”
