Politics is a hypothetical construct.

It’s not tangible. empirical, or anything else but a narrative.

Yet people bake politics in their identity and then going to increasing extremes to hold on to someone else’s beliefs.

Politics is like religion: it is a form of cognitive outsourcing. You let other people decide what is and isn’t acceptable. Political beliefs does not make you superior, sophisticated or right.

I clearly remember one woman who fancied herself as a Liberal. She honestly thought being on time was a sign of being a Conservative. One day, she came early by accident, and then commented to me how much better it felt to be early than have to rush and be late. I said, it is also a sign of respecting other people’s time. People who come on time are not just more organized, but mindful. She then said that being on time was something right-winged people did. I told her that people on all sides of the political spectrum have kept me waiting over the years, and I usually solve it by leaving. I don’t care about your politics: I don’t stand around and wait for anybody. Being late is not a political stand. The end.

We are seeing that kind of pathological politicizing with AI and it is, to be generous, stupid. The left have decided to be doomers and the right, boosters.

So I found this New York Times article interesting.

AI has saved the US economy from bigger ruin, but had Donald Trump been a competent president, other industries would not have suffered.

AI fears are not a “hoax.” They are a sign of AI illiteracy and that the US has no AI literacy programs for all ages in place in 2026 says just how backwards the US has become in a few short years. AI is not a search engine or social media where you don’t need training to figure out what it can do or how to use it. Tablets were made for computer illiterate people to be able to use a computer. Apps populated tablets and smart phones so that anyone could use them, and people mistook design for their own personal competence.

AI does not fall into this category. You need training. You need to know how it works.

What you have is a bunch of people who think it is still 2022 and make ignorant and archaic arguments and they have no clue how this whole AI thing works. A responsible government would give everyone, from children to adults, free AI literacy training. People would be shocked to know AI isn’t just image and text generation.

And this is the problem. People talk about AI slop and completely ignore the number of cold cases being solved thanks to AI being fused with forensic testing.

So you have an AI illiterate president dismissing a real barrier when his administration should have laid the groundwork to making sure its people understood AI. You cannot muddle your way through it. You have to keep up with it.

And yes, I do. I take courses and webinars because progress is so rapid and expansive, that things change in a matter of days.

But having a basic understanding doesn’t require taking weekly courses or certifications. But it does require taking basic literacy courses before forming an opinion, and worse, deciding to politicize something that’s not political. That’s like saying you won’t use a hammer because someone who has different beliefs than you used it.