Centrally Unplanned

“Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.”

“Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.”

“United, there is little we cannot do… Divided, there is little we can do.”

“If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich

Now contra Tyler Cowen, I don't think these quotes sound anything like AI - parallels, contrasts, and reversals are endemic to all speech after all. But we won't dwell on that - no longer allowed by law - and instead I will say that it did get me thinking about why these phrases don't seem like AI speak. What makes the "It's not X, it's Y" trope such a leading indicator, given that so many contrast structures aren't?

The above quotes aren't "AI-like" to me because they are doing very different things, both stylistically and substantively. On the content, they are "calls to action", instructions on what to do or what can be done. AI is almost never doing that - it is a helper, explaining things to you, and sometimes fluffling you up. The "tropes" all come from that dynamic. "You are not just making a point—you are changing the entire conversation". In this way they are bland and add little value; you already knew the point your were making, and knowing the point is "changing the conversation" elucidates little. Meanwhile JFK's quotes above actually contain the substantive point. You can't remove them from the speeches without changing the meaning.

And the style is much more straightforward - "AI speak" doesn't do wordplay! These are not "Not X, but Y", these are "Not X, but f(X)". The cleverness of the quotes come from the fact that you can invert "what your country can do for you" into "what you can do for your country" and the contrast makes sense. That isn't always true! It is not good rhetoric for most sentences, actually - the skill comes in finding the right inversion. AI speak doesn't do that because it doesn't really care.

The Mad King play does gives us some fun facts to play with - spoilers ahead! I definitely like Aerys being much more "aware" of everything going on around him, straight-up throwing Rhaegar's conspiracies to dethrone him in his face and daring him to do it as a power play move. One of the biggest gaps in the story of Robert's Rebellion as it appears in the books is that it is a bit mysterious why Aerys wasn't overthrown sooner. He was clearly unfit for rule and dangerous to everyone around him. Certainly, it could just be a handwaived backstory detail, it isn't that important after all. Aerys & Rhaegar having very direct drama around said conspiracy though, where Rhaegar just balks at killing his father, is a very logical explanation of how the whole thing essentially dragged its heels until it was too late. Aerys giving a young Robert a "model" shipwreck of his own parent's death is incredible, that reaches Emperor Palpatine levels of being evil for the sake of the game.

I also like Lyanna being, essentially, a total mystic getting in over her head with her obsession with prophecy and visions. She is one of the least fleshed out characters in canon, and her having something of her own agenda about the whole thing is the right way to do her story. As a bonus, it lets her serve as something of a foil for Rhaegar, a guy wanting to live in the world of dreams but forced to live in the world of politics. She is in a way who he wishes he could be.

Elia serves as the other side of that coin of course, and her being fully aware and actively engaged in the conspiracy and prophecies is, to me, one of the least "spoiler" parts of the new info. She had to be that way, the characterization and actions of the Martells & Rhaegar just don't make sense otherwise. The extent can be debated, I bet the play is hamming it up vis a vis canon - but the direction is clearly correct. And her having her own paramour is probably the best way to make the nature of their marriage clear, and why she would be chill about Lyanna (conceptually).

That paramour being Ashara Dayne is hilarious; if you weren't there you have no idea how much ink has been spilled on fandom theorizing about her character and mysterious suicide, and that was not a popular take. I like this addition, because the previous explanations of "the death of Brandon" etc, all seemed a bit flighty (she did not know him that well in the end) - but losing her entire de facto family once Elia and her children are killed, on top of all the rest, really locks in her despair. Ashara's tragedy is a story I always felt the pathos of, and I think it deserves depth like this.

The one area where I have some big disagreement is Rheagar essentially trying to "sit out the war" at the Tower of Joy, and having to be convinced to return to the conflict? This doesn't make sense. If his side loses the war, he will be hunted down like a dog and murdered! He simply has to know that. I have only read summaries of the play to be clear, maybe there is more to this part of the story - but I think this won't really be canon. Rhaegar is naive but not to this extent.

Also Rhaegar actually beating Robert and then having his killing blow be interrupted by a fucking Dragon Dream is fanfic levels of stupid, absolutely no way that happened lmao. They did that so they could put some incredible dragon puppet dances on stage. No hate at all, for a play that is a great reason. But it didn't happen.

There is a long string of debates about "who is to blame" for the desultory electoral straits of the Democrats right now. Obviously the list is long, but a lot of it orbits Biden. And it is rightly fair to note how often Biden was defacto a member of the left faction. His domestic agenda was authentically more left than center; Bernie Sanders was the very last person off the Biden Train during the 2024 collapse for a reason. I get how center-left folk find it frustrating to be, essentially, "blamed" for a defeat where they didn't feel like one of their own was at the helm.

But the moderates were at the helm - Biden was a mod! That is how he ran his campaign, that is how he managed his entire career. That is why he was elected. And when you elect someone president, they kinda get to set the tone for what your faction is. Biden could have governed differently! It was absolutely within his power. He didn't, and so "what Biden did" is for a lot of people what "Establishment Dems" stand for, as he was their guy. Voters are definitely dumb about a lot of stuff, and this entire edifice of "blame game" is honestly stupid, but this is just how politics works.

In 2020, The Mods got their wish, and they fucked it up. It is additionally frustrating that the fuck-up was "unpopular, mentally-declining old guy clings to power and blows up his own party's electoral chances because he was a prideful idiot and treated his VP choice as a factional giveaway prize". That doesn't seem related to any of the things that should matter for your factional rep, like tax policy or legislative agendas. But such is life, right? Voters want change, and so it isn't surprising that in a lot of the elections right now - not even just in primaries, you even see it in general polls - people want The Other Team to get a chance. And that Other Team feels very motivated to get that chance - they never thought Biden was one of their own, after all.