Sowell’s warning about societyIn a video circulating on social media, economist and historian Thomas Sowell delivers a stark warning about the direction of society. He says there is a “very serious chance” that society is “doomed” because institutions and individuals pursuing their own interests can damage the larger interests of the country. Sowell’s concern is not presented as a prediction based on a chart or a poll. It is an argument about what happens when institutions stop serving the public and begin rewarding division, pressure, and narrow agendas.Why Charlie Kirk is central to his argumentSowell uses the assassination of Charlie Kirk as an example of the breakdown he fears. He says Kirk went around speaking with people and trying to convince them of his ideas. In Sowell’s view, calling Kirk a fascist turns the word on its head. “Fascists shoot people,” Sowell says, contrasting political persuasion with violence. He argues that the person who killed Kirk while believing Kirk was a fascist was behaving in a way that fit the label far more closely. His point is that political language becomes dangerous when people use serious words without understanding what they mean.His criticism of higher educationThe clip also includes Sowell’s…

Harris Takes on the Algorithm During a recent podcast appearance, former Vice President Kamala Harris tried to explain artificial intelligence and social media algorithms. Harris, the Democratic Party’s 2024 presidential nominee, said it was time to “psyche it out a bit.” She argued that algorithms were trying to “dumb people down” by assuming people had no interest beyond what they had already seen. The host agreed that the algorithm was the issue. The basic complaint was that recommendation systems can limit curiosity by showing people more of what they already viewed. That is a serious issue to raise, but Harris’s explanation soon moved from policy language to a flower shop. Even the algorithm might have wondered where this was going. The Yellow Flower Metaphor Harris said an algorithm might see a person looking at a yellow flower and decide that person is interested only in yellow flowers. That would overlook the possibility of interest in a pink flower, she said, as if the brain could not handle both. The metaphor appears intended to show how a platform can treat one click as a permanent preference. It was not immediately clear what else Harris wanted the audience to take from it,…