How to Keep Grifters from Stealing Your Soul

Who really invents the world we all live in? We do.   Read the post that inspired this episode: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/who-invents-the-world Subscribe to Andrea Pitzer's Degenerate Art newsletter to support Next Comes What: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe   This week, Next Comes What considers the shell game played by dictators and billionaires alike, as they seek to gain power over humanity. Andrea Pitzer explores the new twist in the story of millionaire-turned-lifestyle-guru Bryan Johnson, who's now trying to found a new religion based on optimizing and preserving the human body. She considers the case of Nayib Bukele in El Salvador, who's trying to prevent people from learning details of the secret deals he made with gang members to make him look like an effective leader. Andrea looks at Donald Trump's attempt to likewise appear omnipotent in ways he is not.   Then she turns to how AI is being pushed hard across the board in ways that make it difficult to avoid using. Each of the cases she reviews reveals powerful actors trying to make everyday people dependent or even helpless in the face of who really runs the world. But politicians ought to serve at the will of the people, and companies should provide technology that serves humanity instead of undermining it. The large mass of us, from ditch-diggers to artists, invent the world each day. We hold a power that we shouldn't surrender, despite those with bad motives trying their best to take it from us.