It’s another EmMajority Report Thursday! Emma is BACK from vacation! She speaks with Samantha J. Simon, Assistant Professor in the School of Sociology and School of Government and Public Policy at the University of Arizona, to discuss her recent book Before The Badge: How Academy Training Shapes Police Violence. Then, she speaks with Ed Zitron, writer of the Where’s Your Ed At newsletter on SubStack, to discuss the state of the Internet and digital media. First, Emma runs through updates on the IDF striking a UN aid distribution center, Israel’s continuing bloodlust, Biden and Schumer on Israel, the U.S TikTok ban, the FBI’s Biden informant, primary elections, the sale of US Steel, Bernie’s 32-hour work week, the death of Nex Benedict, Florida’s settlement over their homophobic education policy, and mass displacement in the Eastern Congo, before parsing through the Biden Administration’s role in pushing forward the new TikTok ban legislation, and the admitted role October 7th played in garnering bipartisan agreement. Professor Samantha Simon then joins, diving right into her ethnographic work exploring the role of police training as a socializing and discriminating force, first tackling the “Bad Apples” myth, and the organizational focus on instilling in their officers a specific worldview that emphasizes threats, danger, and the use of violence. After walking through the particular examples she saw in her research, and how the mentality of police works to recontextualize the dangers they face, she and Emma parse through how training works to weed out officers that resemble the mold of a victim or perpetrator, rather than a “hero.” Wrapping up, Samantha and Emma explore the particularly adversarial role police departments have with media and activists, and the general suspicion they have of “out” groups. Ed Zitron and Emma then dive into the devolution of Social Media under Big Tech’s unsustainable philosophy of endless growth, and the self-reinforcing loop of algorithms shaping the very content that is pumped into them by creators, also looking to the topic of generative AI, and the similar problem that is presented there by the curation of data and media by dubious standards pushed by capitalists and their algorithms. After briefly touching on Elon Musk’s ongoing attempt to profit off of his destruction of Twitter and the evolution of the “Hapsburg AI,” Zitron wraps up by walking through his take on Congress’ TikTok bill, sponsored by an out-of-touch gerontocracy and greedy capitalists, and why the Apple Vision Pro is a perfect example of the rot economy.

And in the Fun Half: Emma is joined by Matt Binder and Brandon Sutton as they discuss the unsurprising revelations about Aaron Rodgers in the wake of his naming as a potential VP pick for RFK, Jamie from Maine discusses growing pro-Palestine culture in the area, and the three hosts dive into recent statements from the Israeli government supporting the murder of a 12 year old Palestinian in East Jerusalem over playing with fireworks. Jalen from Canton expands on the problem with the TikTok question, a generative AI executive gets squeamish over training data, and Elon Musk cancels Dom Lemon’s show over unfair questioning of Musk and Lemon’s connections to his Jewish former employer. Tim Pool analyzes exactly why he’s so sad, inside and out, plus, your calls and IMs!

Check out Samantha’s book here: https://nyupress.org/9781479813278/before-the-badge/

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