The Sundance documentary Ghost in the Machine boldly declares that the pursuit of artificial intelligence, and Silicon Valley itself, is rooted in eugenics.
Director Valerie Veatch makes the case that the rise of techno-fascism from the likes of Elon Musk and Peter Thiel is a feature, not a bug. That may sound hyperbolic, but Ghost in the Machine, which is built around interviews with philosophers, AI researchers, historians and computer scientists, leaves little room for doubt.
But even I was surprised to learn that we can trace the impact of eugenics in tech all the way back to Karl Pearson, the mathematician who pioneered the field of statistics, and who also spent his life trying to quantify the differences between races. (Guess who he believed was superior.) His legacy was continued by William Shockley, a co-creator of the transistor, an avowed white supremacist who spent his later years espousing (now debunked) theories around IQ and racial differences.
An early robot toy. (Valerie Veatch for “Ghost in the Machine”)
As a Stanford engineering professor, Shockley fostered a culture of prioritizing white men over women and minorities, which ultimately shaped the way Silicon Valley looks today. His line of thinking could have had an influence on John McCarthy, the Stanford researcher who coined the term “artificial intelligence” in 1955,
Through its many interviews, which include the likes of AI researcher Dr. Emily Bender, historian Becca Lewis and media theorist Douglass Rushkoff, Ghost in the Machine paints the rise of AI as a fascistic project that aims to demean humans and establish the techno-elite as our de facto rulers. Given how much our lives are already dominated by gadgets and social networks from companies that have pioneered addictive engagement over user safety, it’s easy to imagine history repeating itself with AI.
Ghost in the Machine doesn’t leave any room for considering potential benefits around AI, which could lead proponents of the technology to dismiss it as a hit-job. But we’re currently at the apex of the AI hype cycle, after Big Tech has invested hundreds of billions of dollars on this technology, and after it has spent years shoving it down our throats without proving why it’s actually useful to many people. AI should be able to withstand a bit of criticism.
Sydney Sweeney is finally addressing the controversy surrounding her American Eagle jeans campaign!
You may recall that back in July, the actress teamed up with the clothing company for the now-infamous “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans” ad campaign. She quickly came under fire after it launched, with social media users calling out the play on “great genes.” For instance, she said in one ad:
“Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality, and even eye color. My jeans are blue.”
Many people accused Sydney and American Eagle of promoting eugenics — “the practice or advocacy of controlled selective breeding of human populations (as by sterilization) to improve the populations’ genetic composition,” per Merriam-Webster. When you have a White, blonde-haired, blue-eyed woman as the face of the campaign, it comes across as the brand is promoting those specific genes only, the same ideology as Hitler, which is extremely problematic.
And that wasn’t the only issue people had with the ad! Part of the collaboration saw the Euphoria star create “The Sydney Jean,” which featured a buttery motif on the back pocket to represent domestic violence awareness, a cause she is passionate about. Because of that, she planned to donate all proceeds from the jean sales to a non-profit organization. It’s admirable. However, fans didn’t appreciate how the company executed the ad. They called it “tone deaf,” slamming Sydney for sexualizing herself while supporting such a serious subject matter.
The campaign had a lot of problems overall, so you can understand why folks had a lot to say about it. Heck, even Donald Trump spoke out, unsurprisingly, in support of the campaign since Sydney’s a registered Republican. Meanwhile, American Eagle hit back at the criticism, insisting that the ad “is and always was about the jeans,” and nothing more. But what does Sydney have to say for herself? The Madame Web star remained silent on the issue for months, but she is finally speaking out… and not giving us much!
When asked by GQ in a new interview published on Tuesday if she was surprised by the response to the ad campaign, she replied:
“I did a jean ad. I mean, the reaction definitely was a surprise, but I love jeans. All I wear are jeans. I’m literally in jeans and a T-shirt every day of my life.”
That’s it? She’s not going to say one word about the eugenics promotion accusations and instead talk about her love of jeans? The Immaculate star went on to express how “it was surreal” to have the president and vice president praise the ad. When pressed if she felt thankful to have powerful people back her up amid the intense backlash, Sydney explained she really didn’t pay much mind to all the chatter surrounding the campaign:
“I don’t think…. It’s not that I didn’t have that feeling, but I wasn’t thinking of it like that, of any of it. I kind of just put my phone away. I was filming every day. I’m filming Euphoria, so I’m working 16-hour days and I don’t really bring my phone on set, so I work and then I go home and I go to sleep. So I didn’t really see a lot of it.”
Hmm.
At the moment, Sydney is promoting Christy, her new biopic about former professional boxer Christy Martin. And given all the controversy surrounding the star lately, one may think she is worried that people will avoid the film, just like her other project Americana. However, she insists she is not! She said:
“No, I think that if somebody is closed off because of something they read online to a powerful story like Christy, then I hope that something else can open their eyes to being open to art and being open to learning, and I’m not going to be affected by that.”
GQ then gave Sydney one last opportunity to explain herself… and she didn’t take it. The outlet asked if there is “something that you want to say about the ad itself,” specifically about the comments on how “white people shouldn’t joke about genetic superiority.” To which, she responded:
“I think that when I have an issue that I want to speak about, people will hear.”
And Sydney apparently doesn’t want to speak much about this American Eagle ad issue. Wow. Reactions, Perezcious readers? Sound OFF in the comments!
Just seven days after the midnight release of Taylor Swift‘s twelfth album, The Life of a Showgirl has inexplicably become her most controversial. But are the lyrics really that offensive? Or is it the listeners who got… weird?
Look, we’re not talking about the intentional spicy lines, like Actually Romantic seemingly igniting a feud with Charli XCX, letting everyone know she might have her more controversial friends’ backs on CANCELLED!, or getting dirtier than she’s ever gotten singing about Travis Kelce‘s Wood. All that we expected. No, these are takes we could never have anticipated because, well… frankly they’re such leaps in logic they defy reason!
Tradwife Propaganda
Listeners are interpreting her desire to get married and have children as… conservative tradwife propaganda. Um… WHAT?!?
Y’all. The patriarchal tradwife thing is not about wanting a husband and kids. It’s actually the opposite! That’s about women being forced into the position of being a full-time wife and baby factory — because they’re seen as the property of men. Taylor saying she wants that stuff for herself is making a choice.
Taylor isn’t being anti-feminist here. She’s just telling everyone what she wants. Which we should all be fine with. LOVE IS LOVE, remember that? It works the other way, too!
Also, let’s not forget, even if Tay retired right now she’d remain one of the most successful humans in their chosen field OF ALL TIME. That’s not what a tradwife is. Tradwives are basically teenagers drafted into marriage like chattel. Taylor looks great, but let’s not forget she’s 35 years old! And richer than her husband-to-be by A LOT. This ain’t that.
Oh, and Tay herself said she’s NOT retiring just because she got married. And in fact she finds that assumption “shockingly offensive” by the way.
Also from WI$H LI$T? Some “fans” somehow pulled the idea Taylor wants to propagate the white race like she’s Elon Musk. Why? Because she sang about wanting to:
“Have a couple kids, got the whole block looking like you”
See, Trav is a white man, so she clearly is saying she only wants everyone on the block to be white. And voila, the song about not being into modern materialistic desires is actually… promoting eugenics.
You can see a lot more about that theory and the Swifties blasting it HERE. (Oh, and also take a listen toKylie Kelce hilariously explaining why that’s much funnier if you know the Kelces and their frustratingly dominant genes.)
Also, here’s a response we really love from Saints tight end Juwan Johnson and his wife Chanen…
So. Cute. Too bad Juwan is clearly a white supremacist, right? Y’all see how ridiculous you sound now??
Homophobia
In her track Actually Romantic, Tay takes a new tactic on the diss track. She likens someone’s nonstop, compulsive hatred of her to, well… a romantic obsession. She’s basically saying that Charli XCX — or whoever it’s about, more than one person in all likelihood — talking about her all the time doesn’t feel dangerous, it’s harmless. It’s even flattering, like a crush.
But there’s a contingent who are just champing at the bit to call out Taylor for being homophobic, so they say it’s gay panic. They figure since she’s a woman and Charli is a woman, she’s basically calling someone gay as an insult…
Forget the fact Taylor loves the LGBTQ community, was the first pop star to cast a trans actor as a love interest in a music video, and has been vocal politically mostly about this topic.
She doesn’t speak about politics much, but she did tweet in 2021 that she had her “Fingers crossed and praying that the Senate will see trans and lgbtq rights as basic human rights.” In 2018, she also spoke out against the anti-LGBT legislation of Tennessee congresswoman Marsha Blackburn, saying:
“I believe in the fight for LGBTQ rights, and that any form of discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender is WRONG. I believe that the systemic racism we still see in this country towards people of color is terrifying, sickening and prevalent. I cannot vote for someone who will not be willing to fight for dignity for ALL Americans, no matter their skin color, gender or who they love.”
You can listen to what she’s explicitly saying about the matter… or you can infer that she secretly means whatever makes her look the worst. One of those choices respects her and gives her agency.
Racism & Misogynoir
Oof, OK, this is a big one.
There’s a theory that Taylor is not only racist but specifically obsessed with Black women — as it relates to the men she dates. Travis Kelce’s most recent longterm relationship before her was with a woman named Kayla Nicole — and critics are pairing that with some lyrics and doing a hop, skip, and a jump to… misogynoir, the hatred of Black women.
(c) MEGA/WENN/Kayla Nicole/Instagram
The pop delight Opalite is pretty clearly about Tay’s new romance with Trav. She sings about why this is relationship feels so right in comparison with past ones. That means, yes, a bit of a swipe at Kayla. Tay sings:
“You couldn’t understand it / Why you felt alone / You were in it for real / She was in her phone / And you were just a pose”
Folks have taken this to be about Kayla not just because she was Trav’s most recent ex but also because of resurfaced video of the NFL star and his then-WAG living this exact scenario.
That’s nothing wrong with a songwriter singing about their own relationship, and this is all personal stuff. We just know it because Taylor is the most scrutinized woman alive! But again, nothing about race at all.
However, at the same time, the whole song uses the metaphor of opalite, a bright, glittery man-made gemstone, to represent happiness, while the black mineral onyx is used to represent difficult times. People are interpreting this to say dating Black women was what made Trav upset, now he’s with her and all is white in the world. It is SUCH a stretch.
Darkness, night, stormy weather, all classic representations of sadness — ones which Tay also uses in the song. And sunshine and light represent safety, rescue, and hope. Why? Well, they pretty much always have throughout human history. Probably something to do with early man getting lost to predators and accidents in the scary dark, and being safer when it was brighter and everyone could see? In any case, it’s like all of culture, thousands of poems, songs, plays, films…
But when Taylor does it it’s a sign she’s been secretly racist all this time?? Come on, now! Really??
We’ll let some folks explain who have a little more expertise…
But seriously, Taylor has ALWAYS, quite consistently been against racism. She had the courage to blast the President of the United States for “stoking the fires of white supremacy and racism.” And she’s been reaping his wrath ever since.
And when white nationalists tried to embrace her as an “Aryan goddess” in 2019, she did what Trump was never willing to do when they embraced him — she very clearly and explicitly denounced them, telling The Guardian:
“There’s literally nothing worse than white supremacy. It’s repulsive. There should be no place for it.”
You can listen to what she says when she’s not being poetic, making her feelings on the matter clear! Or… You can listen to a song about finding happiness, in which she sings:
“You were dancing through the lightning strikes / Sleepless in the onyx night / But now the sky is opalite”
And assume her secret intention is to take down Black women. Sigh.
Not Political Enough??
In addition to those who think the whole album is a MAGA dog whistle, there are others complaining about Taylor not getting political. For real! We’ve seen tons of posts where people are saying Tay isn’t speaking to the political moment.
Had to block one of my favorite TikTokers (she talks about geography) cause she listened to Showgirl and complained about it not having a song about Palestine pic.twitter.com/lA5KPqJd67
And this isn’t just TikTokers either, we’ve seen actual music critics write whole think pieces about this!
We mean, at least it’s accurate? This album isn’t political. But Tay has never really made political music. It’s mostly been about her relationships, her feelings, what it’s like for a girl going through big life moments… It’s all really personal stuff. Interpretations of politics just aren’t her thing.
There are plenty of folk and classic rock and punk bands to go to for that sort of thing. Like, if Green Day put out Dookie II right now? And completely ignored the rise of fascism? After American Idiot? We could see their fans being pretty disappointed in them. But this feels like ordering pizza and complaining there isn’t enough standup comedy on it.
It’s OK to make something fun and cheerful if that’s your gift! And we’ll let this Swiftie give everyone an excellent explanation WHY!
I live in fucking warzone and Taylor’s music is one of the only things keeping me going, so leave her the fuck alone. She’s one of the only good things about your country, honestly. https://t.co/s5dkJU1Cas
— Marie❤️???? (Taylor’s Version) (@harrypurplebow) October 10, 2025
The WILDEST Takes
Stuff gets crazier. The worst faith takes are actually saying Tay’s album is somehow celebrating the genocide in Gaza… Or that Taylor comparing a hater to “a toy Chihuahua barking at me from a tiny purse” is racist against… can you guess? Asians! Yes, because apparently Chihuahua is a “slur to Asian or half Asian people” — ignoring the context that it’s a well-known dog breed, and she’s explicitly using the term in the context of the dog breed.
But one of the most insulting? We’ve seen multiple hot takes from critics saying Taylor was about to become transphobic. Not that she’s currently transphobic, not that there’s any evidence of that at all. No, they’re going full Minority Report and saying they just feel in their gut that she’s going to go full JK Rowling any second.
They’re calling Taylor a transphobe bc she doesn’t care about online losers opinions pic.twitter.com/KMSVyj9pTq
As a trans woman it’s disappointing to see how people here fetisize about the biggest celebrity in the world being a transphobe
She was the first major straight artist who cast a trans man as her love interest. Stop using trans people as your pawns in this disgusting narrative https://t.co/SZpC7uPMs6