Bernie the Dupe
The Vermont socialist is China’s useful AI idiot.
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Today in Free Expression, columnist Louise Perry explains why “pet parents” are treating their dogs like children; Emma Camp reads Lena Dunham’s new memoir and wonders if the “Girls” creator will ever grow up; and Mary Julia Koch sees “The Devil Wears Prada 2” as a eulogy to the bygone glory of glossy magazines.
But first, once a fellow traveler, always a fellow traveler . . .
From Burlington to Beijing
—Jack Butler
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is worried about artificial intelligence. He wrote last month in the Journal—we publish a variety of viewpoints—that AI could “displace tens of millions of workers,” “threatens our privacy” and is “reshaping how we as human beings relate to one another.”
Mr. Sanders’s economic concerns are consistent with the consistently wrong antiprogress socialism that has arisen before almost every wave of ultimately beneficial technological transformation. AI is currently propping up our tariff-addled economy. But the noneconomic potential of AI to drive further atomization, increase distrust and drown everything—politics, art, relationships—in a sea of slop is something worth at least discussing.
None of these anxieties, however, are sufficient reason to trust the Chinese Communist Party. Yet that’s exactly what Mr. Sanders advocates. Recently he brought U.S. and Chinese AI experts to Capitol Hill to discuss the new technology. His rationale is that the “existential threat” it poses ought to get the two rival powers to lay down their arms and figure out how best to confront it. “We need to cooperate. We need dialogue,” he said.
Here’s some dialogue for you:
“Should we collaborate with China on AI?”
“No.”
Is that too blunt? Lacking nuance? Let the facts guide you. China’s government has put the most advanced technology it can create—or steal—to the task of brutally repressing inconvenient minorities and aggressively monitoring the rest. Beijing’s reckless scientific experimentation in all likelihood led to the release of a civilization-altering virus. The CCP’s aspiration is to dislodge the U.S. as the pre-eminent global power. It ought not be anyone’s idea of a reliable partner in navigating the brave new AI world.
What is Mr. Sanders thinking? It isn’t the first time he’s found solace in a communist country. But there’s more going on here than that. The supposed model for this “dialogue” is how the U.S. and the Soviet Union collaborated to limit nuclear weapons during the Cold War. That did happen, to some extent. But the Soviets frequently flouted agreements. Only credible American force ensured compliance.
Yet throughout the Cold War, the American left viewed the U.S. as the problem. The naive or deluded among them hoped that accepting the Soviet Union as a stable partner would bring about a more peaceful world.
Consider Henry Wallace. Mr. Wallace was ousted from his role as Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s vice president shortly before FDR’s death. The Soviets successfully fooled Wallace into thinking they were doing things right. Communists ran his 1948 presidential campaign. He opposed confrontation. Rather, he hoped that “under friendly peaceful competition the Russian world and the American world will gradually become more alike.”
That isn’t how the Cold War ended, thank God. And it isn’t how to decide the future of AI. Much remains uncertain about that future. Some of its possibilities may indeed be scary. But about the scariest one I can think of involves letting a totalitarian geopolitical adversary shape it.
Happy Trailers: There was a time before YouTube when movie trailers became so popular that TV channels played them. The point was to mimic that theater feeling you get when you’d rather watch the movie in the trailer than the one you’re about to see. Two trailers dropped Tuesday that worked that old magic. The Anthony Bourdain biopic “Tony” looks good. So does the Christopher Nolan epic “The Odyssey.” Some of us likely won’t buy tickets to see either one. But at least now we know what we’ll be missing. — Matthew Hennessey
RINO Round-Up: At the urging of President Trump, Republicans in Washington are putting the squeeze on Sen. John Fetterman (D., Pa.) to switch parties. If he does, he will instantly become the tallest Republican on Capitol Hill, and the most liberal. “I’d be a s— Republican,” he told Politico. Just what the GOP needs: a foul-mouthed maverick who drives like a reckless teenager. — M.H.
Free-Range Riding Hood: According to a survey from the Institute of Family Studies, American kids are barely allowed to go anywhere unsupervised. Almost half of 7-year-olds aren’t permitted to play in their own yards without an adult watching them, and 55% of 14-year-olds can’t go beyond their streets unsupervised. While it’s easy to complain that Gen Zers are coddled, the 2000s childhood looks like “The Goonies” compared with what 2020s kids are facing. Kindergarteners in 2006 roamed the neighborhood freely with other kids. That’s more freedom than 97% of contemporary 6-year-olds get. — Emma Camp
Shaving Grace: People are starting to accept that it’s bad for kids to use social media. Some countries have made policy based on this belief. The U.K. passed a bill requiring all porn websites and social media sites to check users’s ages. Policies designed by adults are almost always defeatable by tech-savvy children. Online safety organization Internet Matters says more than a third of the U.K.’s kids have found ways to circumvent the verification system—including by drawing mustaches on their faces. — J.B.
Every Dog Has His Daybed
Louise Perry
I like dogs who behave like dogs and cats who behave like cats. What I do not like is “fur babies.” Still less do I like the “pet parents” who hoist their animals into prams, slings and clothing as if they were infants.
In the era of low fertility, this “petification” has proved irresistible to humans in search of an outlet for frustrated maternal or paternal instincts. I wish we could return to a more old-fashioned attitude toward pet ownership.
Read Louise’s Column ⧁
Lena Dunham Is Still Adulting
Emma Camp
Most memoirs tend to have a theme of growth. “Famesick” is heartbreaking because Lena Dunham stays the same. It shouldn’t be surprising that she admits to such a prolonged state of adolescence: The author epitomizes the generation that invented the concept of “adulting.”
Read Emma’s Article ⧁
The Devil Reads Vogue
Mary Julia Koch
If you’re looking for nostalgia, humor and politics-free escapism, you’ll enjoy “The Devil Wears Prada 2.” The sequel also offers something more profound: a glance into how much the magazine world has lost its luster since the original film came out in 2006.
Read Mary Julia’s Article ⧁
About Free Expression
Free Expression is a daily newsletter on American life, politics and culture from the Opinion pages of The Wall Street Journal.
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Bernie is an old line commie that hates the US. He loved the Soviets and now he loves the ChiComs. He is a traitor not a dupe.
Senator Bernie Sanders is the king of the Luddites. His strange affection for the tribalism of socialism and communism should be disturbing to rational Americans. He’s not a dupe. He’s an accomplice of the CCP because he admires them and what they stand for in the world.