The week following Charlie Kirk’s death has seen an abrupt change in the state of discourse on Twitter/X. As expected, The Right is much more energized and united. But notably, accounts and topics unrelated to national politics have been pushed to the periphery, such as AI. It’s as if that entire part of Twitter, which until a week ago was constantly in ‘mentions’ or ‘suggestions’, has been excised from discourse. It shows how during political crisis or turmoil, the intellectual-class, which thrives during peace or stability, becomes less relevant. People being filmed executed on the subway or at campuses makes AI-risk seem quaint.
Intellectuals tend to deal with abstractions or long-term problems–like AI risk, educational policy, or global warming. Politics is more focused on immediate, concrete threats like crime, war, or immigration. It harkens back to the pre-9/11 day. Recall back in 2000 the big debate was if Social Security should be partially privatized and replaced by 401k contributions, which was a fairly technical matter. The 9/11 attacks ended that in a hurry, as the immediacy of terrorism took precedence over the long-term sustainability of Social Security.