To everyone so eager to cancel someone for a tattoo they got at age 22, a drunk text, a selfie they took in the middle of a mental health crisis:
Show us your laptop.
Show us your iCloud.
Open your entire digital life to your worst enemy. No context. No filter. No explanation.
You won’t.
You won’t because you know what I know. Any one of us, frozen at our worst moment, photographed in our lowest hour, looks like a monster. Looks like a stranger. Looks like someone who deserves to be cast out.
That is not who we are.
My mom and baby sister were killed in a car accident when I was just a kid. Cancer took my brother Beau, my best friend and my rock. I battled alcoholism. I battled addiction. I chose the coward’s way out more times than I can count.
For years I believed the defining chapters of my life were written by tragedy, loss, and shame.
I no longer believe that.
Pain can shape us. Loss can humble us. Failures can leave scars that never fully fade. But none of them have the authority to define us.
And it sure as hell ain’t the critic that counts.
That authority belongs to us alone-the person in the arena.
Every setback presents a choice. Play the victim, or cut the bullshit and take ownership for who we become next.
Life does not determine our character. It reveals it.
Again and again we are asked the same question. When shit happens, what next?
We are not defined by what happened to us. We are not defined by the worst photo, the worst text, the worst tattoo, the worst night. We are defined by the person we choose to become. And by the courage to choose that person, every single day.
So before you reach for the gavel - show us your laptop.
You won’t.
The whole world saw mine. And I am still here. Still becoming. Still choosing. Still standing.
That is the only definition that matters.
I don’t really think it’s about me Karoline. I think it’s about the idea that we all have fallen down and that we all wish we could be a little kinder to each other. And we all hope for a little grace and understanding when we get honest with ourselves and the world. And we all have that friend or brother or parent or son that has fucked up but fought to get back on their feet. Or that may be you. Or it may be the one that lost the battle and we are mourning them every day- and asking why couldn’t he fight for himself. Whatever it is- it’s not about me. It’s about all of us. So I genuinely ask you to forget about me- and reach out to someone you love who is struggling and tell them you’ll fight alongside them if they will fight for themselves.
Things most Americans agree on:
Groceries cost too much.
Tariffs suck and make no sense.
Congress and Presidents shouldn’t trade stocks.
The debt is a mess.
The border should be secure, but legal immigration is good.
Endless wars are stupid, especially ones that nobody wants and have never been explained.
Americans are exhausted.
AI is like my new best friend that also might be trying to take my job, my ability to think for myself, and my humanity in the process. Yo like I love you, but WTF, but I still love you.
Diversity is actually awesome! The opposite is boring AF.
Canadians are super fucking cool.
Mexicans are chill.
Putin isn’t a good guy looking out for America’s best interest. Rocky IV and Miracle are great movies.
Good neighbors are a blessing.
Freedom of religion and coexistence without having to blow each other up is probably a good idea.
We all question, are we alone in the universe?
We all fuck up along the way.
Epstein didn’t hang himself.
The Trumps and Epstein were best friends for decades. It’s like Bert trying to tell us Ernie was just an acquaintance in the same social scene on Sesame Street back in the day.
The Cowboys suck. Go Birds!
Things we’re told to fight about:
Me.
Laptop.
Vaccines.
Transgenders in sports.
Pronouns.
That’s the joke.
Trump is used to being the unchallenged madman in the room
he thrives on seemingly incoherent escalation to shock his enemies until they relent, fearing what he might do next
so he is completely unprepared for when his enemy is willing to play madman just as hard as he does, and further doesn't fear death and personal suffering the same way he does
To every kid with a learning disability: don’t let anyone — not even the President of the United States — bully you.
Dyslexia isn’t a weakness.
It’s your strength.
Trump going from Venezuela to Iran is basically like me trading.
Venezuela? Perfect setup, worked but I sized too small.
Next trade? I am euphoric, I go 10x size on a shitty setup: Iran. It goes wrong. But I am trapped, keep adding size and blame the market for being wrong.
Dario Amodei just gave his first interview since the Pentagon blacklisted his company. The toll is visible on his face.
He was asked one question. What would you say to the President right now?
He didn’t hesitate.
Amodei: “We are patriotic Americans. Everything we have done has been for the sake of this country.”
Anthropic built their models to defend America. They were the first AI lab cleared for classified military systems. They wanted to help the warfighter.
But the Pentagon demanded unrestricted access to fully autonomous weapons and mass surveillance of American citizens.
Amodei drew the line.
The government responded with emergency Cold War powers. A supply chain designation normally reserved for foreign adversaries. A six-month federal phaseout ordered from Truth Social.
Amodei: “When we were threatened with supply chain designation and Defense Production Act, which are unprecedented intrusions into the private economy, we exercised our classic First Amendment rights to speak up and disagree with the government.”
The administration framed Anthropic’s refusal as anti-American.
Amodei’s response dismantled that framing in one sentence.
Amodei: “Disagreeing with the government is the most American thing in the world.”
Here is the deeper paradox nobody in Washington wants to say out loud.
We are in a geopolitical race against autocratic adversaries who use AI for mass surveillance of their own citizens and autonomous weapons with no human oversight.
The Pentagon demanded that Anthropic build those exact capabilities for America.
Amodei: “The red lines we have drawn, we drew because we believe that crossing those red lines is contrary to American values.”
You cannot defeat authoritarianism by adopting its methods.
You cannot defend the open society by forcing private companies to build its antithesis under threat of wartime emergency powers.
Anthropic held the line. Got blacklisted for it. And came out the other side saying the same thing they said going in.
That is what it actually looks like to mean it.
Today’s military strikes on Iran — carried out by the United States and Israel — mark a catastrophic escalation in an illegal war of aggression. Bombing cities. Killing civilians. Opening a new theater of war. Americans do not want this. They do not want another war in pursuit of regime change. They want relief from the affordability crisis. They want peace.
I am focused on making sure that every New Yorker is safe. I have been in contact with our Police Commissioner and emergency management officials. We are taking proactive steps, including increasing coordination across agencies and enhancing patrols of sensitive locations out of an abundance of caution.
Additionally, I want to speak directly to Iranian New Yorkers: you are part of the fabric of this city — you are our neighbors, small business owners, students, artists, workers, and community leaders. You will be safe here.
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Mark Ruffalo on Trump:
“The world's not better with this guy, this madman in office who just told the world that there is no international law concerning him. He has no morality. He's a rapist. He's a pedophile. We have to get out and stop it.”
So basically, Washington D.C. residents should have received a sex offender notification when Trump moved back in to be President of the United States.
I would offer that Alex Pretti putting his body—with his hands up—between a woman and the BP agent who had just violently shoved her into the snow, offer stark competing visions of manhood. Pretti, a nurse caring for veterans, who took a face full of pepper spray to shield that woman, is a much better masculine ideal that the masked coward shoving the woman and executing a man on his knees. MAGA may venerate the latter, but most people in a healthy society want the former.