FOREVER WARS x TECH WON'T SAVE US
Paris Marx and I talk about the technological aspects of genocide, from quadcopter drones to artificial-intelligence target generation. ALSO: IRON MAN x Big Planet!
Edited by Sam Thielman
I'M WRITING THE NEXT IRON MAN SERIES FOR MARVEL COMICS! IF YOU HAVE YOUR COMIC STORE RESERVE YOU COPIES OF EACH ISSUE, EMAIL RECEIPTS OF ANY FORM TO FOREVERWARS.BULLPEN@GMAIL.COM WITH YOUR MAILING ADDRESS AND I'LL SEND YOU FREE STUFF!
I DON'T ALWAYS PROMOTE my podcast appearances, but this one let me showcase my Danger Room styles, updated for 2024.
Paris Marx, the talented tech critic, invited me on Tech Won't Save Us to discuss what is essentially the missing piece of this essay of mine on the influence of the War on Terror over the year after October 7. We go extensively into what, bloodlessly, could be called the technological innovations of genocide—and how they, too, reflect the influence of the 9/11 era. As it happens, I was despairing over leaving that element out of the essay—I couldn't find an elegant way of making it work on deadline and gave up—when Paris reached out to invite me on TWSU.
But we're not just doing a review of the past year. We're offering a preview of future years. As Paris and I get into—building on the work of Antony Loewenstein, among others—Gaza and Lebanon are showroom floors for weaponry that will be exported, normalized and iterated upon. It's often said in "national security" circles that nothing ages worse than people's predictions of future war, and that's true enough. But I find that this line of cautioning can obscure the economic incentives behind the maturation of military-applicable technologies—downstream of which is the development of constituencies for their use on people.
I really hope you'll check this one out. There's also stuff here for IRON MAN readers.
I WAS BACK ON AYMAN MOHYELDIN'S MSNBC SHOW on Saturday and discussed this moment in foreign policy on the precipice of war with Iran in a manner spicier than I typically give on TV. But the video clip in this tweet seems to be the only record of it that I can present here, unfortunately. Meanwhile, after I had committed to doing the show, my friend Ken texted that he had a seat in a Yankee Stadium suite for me to watch Game 1, in which the Yankees ultimately beat the Royals after a record-setting five lead changes. Anyway, hope you like the clip.
WASHINGTON D.C.! WE MEET AGAIN! On Saturday, October 26, I'll be signing IRON MAN #1, WALLER VS. WILDSTORM, REIGN OF TERROR and really whatever else at Washington D.C.'s Big Planet Comics, where I myself had a pull list back when I lived in D.C.! I'll be at the Bethesda store from 11am to 1pm and then at the U Street NW location from 3 to 5pm! Come yap and buy something at Big Planet!
FRIEND OF FOREVER WARS DAVID KLION has a typically great essay on liberal Zionism after October 7.
HERE'S MY SCHEDULE FOR NEW YORK COMIC CON, where not only will I be signing, but where you can get IRON MAN #1 early! Plus you can also meet Damion Scott, Matt Bors and at least one and perhaps two other as-yet-unannounced special guests!
ANOTHER SCHEDULING NOTE: There will be no FOREVER WARS next week! I've got to return to drafting THE TORTURE AND DELIVERANCE OF MAJID KHAN and then it's New York Comic Con. I gave you three newsletters this week, so I hope that'll be enough to satisfy your appetite for bad and depressing news. Sam, if I try to file something, just tell me to go back to writing the book! [Handcuffing you to the radiator now.—Sam.]
WALLER VS. WILDSTORM, the superhero spy thriller I co-wrote with my friend Evan Narcisse and which the masterful Jesús Merino illustrated, is available for purchase in a hardcover edition! If you don't have single issues of WVW and you want a four-issue set signed by me, they're going fast at Bulletproof Comics!
No one is prouder of WVW than her older sibling, REIGN OF TERROR: HOW THE 9/11 ERA DESTABILIZED AMERICA AND PRODUCED TRUMP, which is available now in hardcover, softcover, audiobook and Kindle edition. And on the way is a new addition to the family: THE TORTURE AND DELIVERANCE OF MAJID KHAN.