Big couple weeks in manifestos! Three highlights:

1. Mark Zuckerberg dropped his manifesto on AI. It’s 6,500 words and Pangram says it was apparently written by a human being (shrug emoji)? This from the folks at Wired gives all the tldr you’ll need:

   It’s very “Hey everybody, don’t worry. AI’s just fine and it’s going to be great for you. Why is everybody so upset about all this stuff? Don’t you trust us to make your life better?” And this is coming from Meta, a company that I just have to say a week ago-ish, not even, was ordered by a court to pay $567 million for failing to do enough to protect kids’ mental health online. Why are we trusting Meta with anything, much less AI and its impacts on society?

2. Tucker Carlson dropped a 10-point manifesto (mine is 11-points, therefore better). It’s his vision for the future of America, and he revealed it via livestream from his cabin in Maine (the same cabin where he was once apparently mauled by a demon in the middle of the night that left clawmarks). Not the first manifesto to originate from a cabin in the woods. Would be curious to see polling data on which manifesto people vibe with more...

3. The final episode of Dan Taberski’s Manifesto is out, featuring punk legend showing us all how it’s done -- how to write a manifesto from deep down, that still resonates even today. I’ve gotten a few complaints that the episode causes “ugly crying.” Listen at your peril.

First off, that’s how you write a headline.

RG Davis died this week. He was a mime, a big ole hippy, and author of the bulldozer of a manifesto called Guerrilla Theater (1966) — against culture that “greys the mind” and for theater that has “a morality at its core”:

For those who like their theatre pure of social issues, I must say—F*** ***! buddy, theatre IS a social entity. It can dull the minds of the citizens, it can wipe out guilt, it can teach all to accept the Great Society and the Amaaaaarican way of life (just like the movies, Ma) or it can look to changing that society. . .and that’s political.

Who doesn’t love an angry mime.

Episode Five of Dan Taberski’s Manifesto drops this week! It’s about the shit-stirring hacker collective Anonymous and the infamous video manifesto that started it all — a manifesto that was actually kinda meant to be a joke. Until it wasn’t.

And, neatly, it caused a battle inside Anonymous around the same questions RG Davis was miming out loud about 60 years earlier - did their brand new style of internet theater need a moral center? Or could it just be for the lulz?

Warning to the faint of heart: If detailed descriptions of covering a person in vaseline and pubic hair as a joke is something that makes you uncomfortable — eh listen anyway, it’s good to expand your horizons.

Manifestos in this episode:

Message to Scientology, Anonymous (2008)

SCUM Manifesto, by Valerie Solanas (1969)

The Great Dictator, dir. Charlie Chaplin (1940)

This week, Apple’s valuation hit 5 trillion for the first time. (Also this week, my 3-year old iPhone began acting fritzy. Coincidence? Let the markets decide.)

But nearly 30 years ago, in 1997, it was a different situation. Less than 5% of personal computers sold were Apple computers. The company reportedly (apocryphally?) only had 90 days of cash left on hand. And Steve Jobs had just returned as captain of the ship that seemed destined to sink.

This is the story of the manifesto that saved Apple, changed advertising, and reoriented how tech could present itself to the world (for better and for worse).

And thanks to everyone listening to and vibing on Dan Taberski’s Manifesto — especially Sarah Larson at the New Yorker who called it one of the best podcasts of the summer. My hearts swells.

I just wish I could forgive her for, just days later, trashing the Little House reboot. My heart withers and dies.

The sheer diversity found in the manifesto kingdom is pretty staggering — from Bjork’s bjorky Nature Manifesto (“the apocalypse has already happened…”), to manifesto to save polka music (”the only place the average North American person encounters an accordion is as a punch line in a meme or in an old Far Side cartoon… How did we get here?”).

But read enough manifestos and you begin to smell a pattern. Despite all that variety in poetics and pov, most manifesto writers are, whether they know it or not, trying to write one of two things — their Communist Manifesto or their Declaration of Independence.

It’s either “grab your pitchforks everyone, we’re storming the castle…” OR, it’s “we’re outta here and starting our own thing, so suck on that.”

Episode Three of Dan Taberski’s Manifesto is about the second kind — a radical plan one group cooks up to nope out and start something new — and the remarkable wiseass who ran with it, HARD.

Manifestos referenced in this Episode:

The Free State Project Manifesto (2001)

The Declaration of Independence (1776)

Anyone else feel like screaming?!!??? Do it. That’s when things get interesting.

And dangerous. And full of possibility.

Episode One of DAN TABERSKI’S MANIFESTO is out now. Listen here! Listen hard! Listen wherever you get your podcasts!

Manifestos referenced in this episode:

• “To: America. Subject: Last Resort.” Christopher Dorner, Los Angeles (2013)

• “To the Feds…” Luigi Mangione (2024)

• The Declaration of Independence, as sung by the Fifth Dimension on NBC Stars and Stripes Variety Show (1976)

• Mad as Hell, Network (1976)

• The No Cussing Club Manifesto, McKay Hatch (2008)

• Pussy Manifesto, Bitch and Animal (2011)

• Manifesto of 343 Sluts (1971)

• Bitch Manifesto, Jo Freeman (1968)

• Black Panther 10 Point Program (1968), as read by Bobby Seale (cigarette in hand)

• Manifesto for Smoking, David Hockney (2007)

• Dan Taberski’s Manifesto (2026)

AND YOU’RE DOING THIS BECAUSE…?

Hey calm down with the questions. My seventh series drops Monday — Dan Taberski’s Manifesto.

It’s the ripping story of manifestos in the 21st century — the artful screams that try to capture our anger and actually do something with it, that try to make something big happen. This show is my manifesto on manifestos - and if I do say so myself, it’s a banger. Trailer:

That’s Reason #1 for starting the stack — to support what I make. Episode drops, conversations about the show, my favorite raunchy manifesto lines — the kind of hard-earned knowhow you only get by reading manifestos til your eyes bleed.

Reason #2 — Media, amiright? Gazoinks. Lotta change, real real fast. Well this is me slowing it down, to have a place to settle. I’m repotting myself here — to see what I can do with a little more room to experiment, a little more ease in sharing what I’m doing and you sharing back, a livelier place to lay down some roots.

AND I CAN EXPECT WHAT NOW…?

Beyond Manifesto, expect an update few weeks — works in progress, short shots of journalism, recorded conversations i’ve been wanting to have, non-fiction recs, chats with people who are making the non-fiction movies/tv/podcasts/longform that I wish I had thought of first, goddamit.

Also, I’m gonna start going deeper into my work making quilts and tapestries from second hand clothes (also non-fiction in their own way). Like, this is the one I stare at while I’m recording:

All outside the paywall until I get my sea legs.

If all goes well, this’ll be a place to make work and deliver it right to you, my ravenous fans, my hate listeners, my basket of adorables.

And why Dan Taberski: Fury Road? It made me laugh. When it no longer does (doubtful), i’ll change it. I am sovereign here.

xo Dan (em-dash 4eva)