Sora, Sneakerhead Trump, Elon's Doppelgänger, Russia Narratives

The People's News for the People's Coin 2/14-2/20

CryptoDogDivine

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It's ALL Risky

Feb 21, 2024

Hey everyone,

This news digest covers the following stories from the past week:

1. OpenAI’s new text-to-video model Sora

2. Trump’s “Never Surrender” sneakers

3. Elon Musk’s voice doppelgänger Adrian Dittmann

4. The explosion of stories around Russia

Don’t miss videos, memes, and news bites at the end!

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Sora

Last Thursday, OpenAI released Sora.

Sora is a text-to-video model that can translate verbal prompts into minute-long video scenes including complex camera motion and multiple characters.

Within hours, 𝕏 was flooded with examples of Sora-generated videos. The videos are nearly indistinguishable from real footage.

It's one thing to know, theoretically, that text-to-video can exist, but it's a totally different thing to see it in action.

Last week, in the span of a few hours, the world crossed that chasm.

Given how fast AI is progressing, it can't be long before text-to-movie or text-to-TV series becomes available for everyone.

The arrival of text-to-video poses several questions.

First, given that military technology is often decades ahead of civilian tech, how do we know text-to-video hasn’t already been in use for years?

If state-level actors were to weaponize generative AI to drive narratives on social media, how would we know?

The proliferation of AI video will force media consumers to develop a new rubric for evaluating the authenticity of online content.

Where viral images once prompted the question, “is it photoshopped?”, everyone will quickly have to learn to exercise a new level of discernment by asking, “how do I know this isn’t AI?”

In the future, blockchain could play a major role in verifying the authenticity of images by tracking their provenance and chain of custody on a transparent digital ledger.

Finally, it’s worth asking how AI stands to alter humanity’s perception of itself.

Humanity is used to seeing itself as most advanced intelligence on Earth. But our ideas about ourselves will inevitably change when we interact with a digital supermen that is, in many ways, far more capable than we are, able to build whole immersive worlds in seconds with the input of a few keystrokes.

As did the discoveries of Galileo (we are not the center of the universe), Darwin (we are partly monkeys), and Freud (we are motivated by opaque psychological drives), AI re-contextualizes humanity’s place in the cosmos. For the first time that we know, we not the smartest thing in the universe.

Once everyone has access to roughly equal level of digital super-intelligence, AI could lead us to re-think what it is that makes a person valuable.

Being smart might not mean so much anymore—AI is already displacing white-collar jobs—clearing space to put more importance on qualities like morality clarity or spiritual presence.

What do you think: are you impressed with Sora? How do you think text-to-video will change the world?

Sneakerhead Trump

Over the weekend, Donald Trump launched his own limited edition “Never Surrender” sneakers at Sneaker Con in Philadelphia.

The high-top sneakers became an instantly viral meme item and sold out in minutes.

Originally priced at $399, the shoes have been observed reselling for thousands on eBay.

As is the case with anything involving Trump, the shoes instantly became part of a political meme war.

Entrepreneur Roman Sharf was accused by the media as being a Russian oligarch for spending $9000 on the shoes.

Sharf, an American citizen from Ukraine, released a viral video defending his purchase.

The uproar over the shoes also stole some of the meme momentum Joe Biden had built with his laser-eyed post during the Super Bowl..

Increasingly, the 2024 election is shaping up to be a memetic cultural battle fought over the Internet.

If that turns out to be the case, it explains how Trump is making inroads with young and minority voters.

Trump has the strongest meme game of any politician ever, and it’s not even close.

The iconic red MAGA hat is the best example of his ability to create an instantly recognizable brand, conveying volumes of meaning with a simple symbol.

He repeated the feat again last year: no meme captured the online zeitgeist of 2023 quite like the Trump mugshot.

Since leaving office, Trump has doubled down on his strategy of leveraging the Internet to reach niche online communities.

In just the last year, he’s released two NTF collections, becoming a regular at UFC events, and now put out his own sneakers.

What do you think: will Trump sneakers become a collector’s item? Or are they a grift?

Dittmann: Elon’s Doppelgänger

Monday night, in a truly surreal online happening, Elon participated in a Spaces event with his voice doppelgänger Adrian Dittmann.

Dittmann has been steadily growing presence on 𝕏 over the last year, but exploded in the past few weeks.

Not only is his voice a dead ringer for Elon’s but the two share similar views on AI and technology

Earlier this month, Dittmann participated in a wild segment on Alex Jones’s InfoWars, during which Jones said he felt he was “in the Twilight Zone” because he believed Dittmann was really Elon.

As Dittmann’s account has grown, theories have spread about his true identity. One idea is that he is an AI-version of Elon.

Dittmann has denied this claim, insisting he is “just an enthusiastic techno-optimist who happens to be on the spectrum and sounds like the richest man on the planet.”

In another recent post, he wrote, “I'm a memetic response to a simulation in need of entertainment through disruption.”

Monday night, Dittmann shared the online stage with Elon.

Elon broke into laughter before saying, “There’s eight billion people on Earth so odds are there’s someone who sounds like you somewhere, and you are that person. Honestly, I don’t believe you’re not me.”

During the event, even Elon’s mom Maye Musk struggled to tell the two apart.

What do you think: Who is Adrian Dittmann? Are his similarities with Elon just a coincidence or something deeper?

Russia, Russia, Russia

In the two weeks since Vladimir Putin sat down with Tucker, the topic of Russia has grown progressively larger on 𝕏.

Narratives about Russia has split off in several different directions at once, but always seems to return to the same core issue: war. One side wants to send more money to Ukraine to fight Russia, the other side wants to use those resources to improve life in the US.

This week, the Russia story swelled to epic proportions, with intersecting plotlines to rival a Tolstoy novel.

The first thread to emanate from the interview was a debate about whether Tucker was a Russian asset.

Pro-war legacy media hammered the narrative that he’s a Russian propagandist doing the secret bidding of Vladimir Putin, echoing past claims about Trump.

For his part, Tucker leaned in to the topic Russian propaganda.

In a series of short videos calculated to inflame his antagonists, Tucker challenged American leaders to explain why Russian train stations, grocery stores, and fast food restaurants are nicer than those in the United States (he also was recorded praising infrastructure in Dubai).

While Tucker didn’t make any speculations about why American infrastructure is crumbling, the implicit message of his videos was clear: the US sends its tax dollars abroad instead of fixing things at home.

Barely had the dust settled on the grocery-store debate when another Russia-related crisis reared its head.

Last Wednesday, House Intel Committee Chair Mike Turner warned Russia had made a breakthrough in space technology that posed a national security threat to the US. Turner called on the Biden administation to declassify all information related to the threat.

The story evolved into widely reported claims that Russia planned to put nuclear weapons in space.

The next day, multiple sources reported the scandal was created to gin up support for the Senate’s proposed $61B Ukraine funding bill.

The Russian-space-nukes story doesn’t appear to be going away so easily.

Earlier this week, Putin told Russian media, "We don't want to put nukes in space. We don't have anything like this. They [the West] know that we don't, but still they are making a fuss about it."

Yesterday, Bloomberg reported the US was still warning allies that Russia planned to deploy nuclear weapons in space this year.

A third Russia-related plot line was the death of jailed Russian dissident Alexei Navalny on Friday.

Speaking to the media, Biden praised Navalny: “he was brave, he was principled, he was dedicated to building a Russia where the rule of law existed…this tragedy reminds us of the stakes of this moment. We have to provide the funding so Ukraine can defend itself.”

Western media took a similar angle, depicting Navalny as an anti-corruption campaigner.

Generally, pro-Navalny statements were made in tandem with calls to send more money to Ukraine.

On 𝕏, skeptics pointed to several glaring holes in the Navalny-as-hero narrative:

There is no logical reason for Putin to kill Navalny now, who routinely polled in single digits (around 2%), rather than simply keeping him locked up, especially at a moment when public support for Ukraine is faltering in the West
Navalny’s Democratic Alternative party was funded by the CIA; Navalny himself was likely Western intelligence asset to undermine Russian nationalism
Navalny had a history of organizing and attending Nazi marches, called Muslims cockroaches, and argued for stripping Chechens of Russian citizenship
Navalny’s death was timed, coincidentally or not, to allow his wife to give a well publicized speech at a conference she happened to be attending in Munich
Several accounts pointed out that Western media’s outrage over Navalny’s death was nowhere in evidence during the recent death of American journalist Gonzalo Lira, who died in a Ukrainian prison for making YouTube videos critical of Zelensky
The same outlets and politicians crying foul over Navalny’s death are calling for the Biden Administration to jail its primary political opponent (Donald Trump)

Tucker, when asked, called Navalny’s death “horrifying”, and said, “The whole thing is barbaric and awful. No decent person would defend it."

A fourth Russia-related narrative thread was the resurrection of the 2016-2020 Russiagate accusations and counter-accusations.

Timely new reporting by independent journalists Michael Shellenberger and Matt Taibbi claimed the existence of a CIA binder detailing a scheme to connect Trump to Russia in order to launch a surveillance operation on his campaign.

Another report from Shellenberger claimed that the CIA manipulated intelligence to make it seem Russia preferred Trump as President, when in fact Russia preferred Hillary Clinton because she was “manageable and reflect[ed] continuity.”

The same day, a document circulated on 𝕏 appearing to show coordination between the Obama White House and British spy agency GCHQ to surveil the Trump transition team.

Obama has previously addressed the accusations that his administration spied on Trump, calling them “absurd.” Mainstream media has taken a similar line by insisting Trump’s claims were lies.

Putin seemed to seize on the moment last week when he said he preferred Biden in the White House rather than Trump, telling a reporter, “He’s a more experienced and predictable person, and a politician of the old school.”

The rhetorical battle over Russian influence in American politics continued into this week when Nancy Pelosi told MSNBC that Putin is blackmailing Trump with compromising financial information.

Pelosi then claimed that Putin is holding the blackmail over Trump so that Trump will allow Russia to invade Eastern Europe.

Last night, New York Congressman Dan Goldman pushed the conspiracy further, telling CNN that “the House Republican majority is being used by Russia to interfere in the 2024 election on behalf of Donald Trump.”

Elon has weighed in sparingly on the Russia/Trump situation, allowing the narratives to unwind of their own accord.

On Monday, he again called for a ceasefire and for the US to engage Russia in peace talks.

The fifth and final thread involving Russia was Julian Assange’s extradition trial this week.

It was Assange’s WikiLeaks that released the DNC’s incriminating emails to the public which showed the party rigging its primary elections against Bernie Sanders.

The DNC has claimed without proof that Russians hacked its servers and released the emails to get Trump elected.

WikiLeaks has published several other damaging revelations about the US empire, including video of American helicopter gunning down civilians in Baghdad and an illegal CIA spying program.

In 2021, several outlets report that the CIA planned to kidnap and/or assassinate Assange.

Assange is currently being held in Belmarsh Prison in the UK.

If he is extradited to the US, he will face charges of violating the US Espionage Act and a potential 175-year prison sentence.

On 𝕏, Assange is widely regarded as a genuine hero of democracy and free speech. Support for his cause spans the political spectrum.

Over the weekend, Australia's parliament passed a motion calling the US and UK to allow Assange to return to Australia.

Despite the dark material published by WikiLeaks, Assange has become known for his simple and optimistic message: regular people don’t like war.

Every war executed from the last 50 years has gained public consent through media lies.

If sunlight can be brought to bear on the inner workings of the security state and its media lackeys, a more hopeful future waits around the corner for humanity.

That includes untangling the various threads in the story of the US and Russia over the last decade, and whether either country’s actions justifies risking another World War.

What do you think: Why didn’t Donald Trump pardon Julian Assange? Should Joe Biden pardon him?

Dogey Treats: News Bites

Elon’s Companies

SpaceX moved its incorporation from Delaware to Texas.

Elon was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize by a Norwegian Member of Parliament for defending free speech and donating StarLink to Ukraine.

SpaceX won a license to provide Starlink to Israel and parts of Gaza. Elon wrote, “It is our hope to help both the people of Israel and, with all due care, innocent civilians in Gaza. This approval by Israel is greatly appreciated. In such a terrible situation, we should strive for conspicuous acts of kindness whenever possible.”

Elon wrote, “Amazing that some people still think the news is real.” How 𝕏 changed media landscape.

𝕏 is reportedly in talks with Midjourney AI text-to-image about a partnership.

Elon sparred with Steven King.

US Politics

Biden Security Advisor Jake Sullivan was asked by a reporter if warrants should be required to surveil US citizens, He responded, "We do not believe that that serves the national security interests of the United States." Sullivan was involved in planting a Slate story connecting Trump to Russia in 2016.

A New York judge ordered Trump to pay $335M in a civil fraud trial for allegedly overvaluing his properties.

Crypto lawyer John Deaton is challenging Elizabeth Warren for a Massachusetts Senate seat.

Biden said a new package of sanctions against Russia will be announced on Friday. Vladimir Putin said Russia has a “sacred duty” to help the people of Gaza. Putin said the backlash Tucker received over his interview was sad, but also faulted Tucker for a lack of piercing questions. David Sacks published a long-form essay about Ukraine called “A War of Lies” detailing the various deceptions used to create public support in America. Elon said Putin made a mistake not releasing a WSJ journalist when Tucker asked.

Professor Jeffrey Sachs detailed how the CIA destabilizes the world through regime change operations across the world. Video emerged from 2014 about US picking the new Ukrainian government after helping overthrow the Yanokovich government. Tucker said Boris Johnson asked for one million dollars to be interviewed about his role in scuttling peace talks between Russia and Ukraine.

RFK won a preliminary injunction against the White House to stop it from censoring social media.

The DOJ arrested an FBI informant named Alexander Smirnov who said Joe and Hunter Biden were involved in a $10m bribery scheme with Burisma. The DOJ accused Smirnov of peddling Russian disinformation.

A PEW poll found 80% of Americans hold negative views about the government’s handling of illegal immigration. Elon highlighted a video of neocon Bill Kristol arguing white working class Americans should be replaced by immigrants.

A Monmouth University poll found “Just under 1 in 5 Americans believe the singer Taylor Swift is part of a covert effort to help President Joe Biden win the 2024 election.” Travis Kelce was awarded green tax credits by the Biden Administration to produce a movie as part of the inflation reduction act.

Alex Soros is reportedly dating Hillary Clinton’s aid and Anthony Weiner’s ex Huma Abedin. The Soros investment empire purchased a stake in the US’s second-largest radio conglomerate, controlling over 200 radio stations.

Geopolitics

The UK and Japan fell into recession.

Iran claimed ownership of Antarctica.

Brazilian President Lula da Silva said Israel was committing genocide against Palestinian women and children. The US vetoed another UN ceasefire resolution.

Nigeria joined other countries in dropping the dollar for oil trade.

Misc

Was WWII an ET proxy war fought by humans?

CDC Lyme disease data showed a record number of cases in 2023.

Ye’s album Vultures was removed from Apple Music after reaching the #1 spot.

Candace Owens published viral videos about Taylor Swift and Israel.

A report found that 35% of US women aged 25-44 do not have children.

Elon renewed criticism of OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman for financial practices

Memes of the Week

Elon’s Memes

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