Good morning, Quartz readers!
Nobody can deny the ground has shifted in America. Formerly invincible men are tumbling one by one as victims come out with their stories of sexual assault. Some, like Harvey Weinstein, were already fading from power, but others, like Louis CK, were still at the height of it.
Yet one man continues to defy America’s new moral norm: its president. Seventeen women have accused Donald Trump of sexual harassment. Their claims are more numerous and no less credible than those against Roy Moore, the Republican candidate for senator in Alabama. Senate leader Mitch McConnell said this week, “I believe the women” who accused Moore, and that he “should step aside.” But asked if he believes the women who accused Trump, McConnell refused to answer. (Trump’s position: Every one of those 17 women is lying.)
So yes, the ground has shifted, but some still stand high enough on it to escape the cold, swirling waters of justice. In other words, it’s still, in the end, about power. Trump’s power is that the party still needs him (or believes it does). That means it will blatantly ignore accusations that would put any other man on the street, if not in jail.
Still, if you have to be president to achieve that sort of immunity, things aren’t so bad, right? Wrong. What Trump proves is not that you have to be president, just that you have to have leverage. How many predatory local politicians or minor business magnates are safe because, like Trump, someone needs them? How many more men are safe because they’re so obscure that nobody cares but their victims? And what happens when the #MeToo movement starts to lose steam, as it inevitably will?
Yes, the ground has shifted. But it’s still the ground. All that’s changed is the slope.—Gideon Lichfield
Five things on Quartz we especially liked
Why do we call China a “developing” country? Purely on GDP per capita figures, China should be more like India than the UK—both countries Akshat Rathi has lived in. “I was wrong. My experience… left me thinking I was visiting a country as rich as any,” he writes. As we look to break out of information bubbles, one place to start may be by rethinking our own place in the world.
Reclaiming the streets of Naples. Locals are taking back their city from crime—one beautiful piece of art at a time. Street art is developing a renewed sense of belonging, fostering a unique cultural identity, and sparking social awareness in the city, which still struggles to shake off its “dangerous” reputation. Felia Allum and Luca Palermo explore how the murals—in some of Italy’s poorest areas—are giving the young and marginalized a new voice to speak out against the Camorra.
This football player turned feminist will teach you how to fight sexism. Wade Davis tells Leah Fessler that if she had met him 10 years ago, she’d have thought he was a complete jerk. Davis explains his path to being woke, and how he tries, in his work with teams and individuals, to move men from their defensive “not all men” posture to a “tell me more” attitude, where they engage with and attempt to confront the systemic sexism that bedevils our culture and society.
A state Supreme Court justice’s open letter to AI. In a keynote speech at the opening of the AI Now Institute, California justice Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar shared his views on what a society where people and artificial intelligences cohabit will look like. “We’re in for more than just a world of change and evolution,” he says. “We’re in for some discussion of what it means to be human.”
Today’s biggest threat to democracy isn’t fake news—it’s selective facts. There are “true” facts that nonetheless only tell us part of a story. They influence our views on issues from gun control to Islamic terrorism to free trade. Nemil Dalal explains how news organizations and social-media algorithms prioritize viewpoints that make them the most money and please the most readers—even if it means ignoring the other side of the story.
Five things elsewhere that made us smarter
The UK’s hidden economics of curry and lager. JD Wetherspoon pubs in Britain, number nearly 900 and serve some 2 million customers per week. For FT Alphaville (registration required), Bryce Elder collected price data across the country, and in an impressive feat of number crunching, paints a picture of “obsessive menu engineering and predatory cynicism.” By mapping the cost of a pint, curry, burger, and more, he reveals the ruthlessness of a firm with “a menu that reads like several hundred carefully targeted microaggressions against the immediate community.”
What’s the cure for “Shit Life Syndrome?” The seaside town of Blackpool was once the UK’s vacation hotspot. Now, it’s where Brits left behind by the economy go for cheap rent and government benefits. The Financial Times’ Sarah O’Connor looks at the link between health and economics to explain why this city is exchanging fit people and good jobs for antidepressant prescriptions and the lowest life expectancy in England.
Elon Musk: He’s just like us. Musk may be hailed as the “architect of tomorrow,” but his present goal is simply not to be alone. The SpaceX and Tesla CEO gets an illuminating profile by Neil Strauss in Rolling Stone, tracing the insecurities that make him tick back to his childhood and all the way up to a recent breakup that made the Model 3 reveal nearly unbearable.
Twenty-two years as a Russia-obsessed MI6 spook. A turn as the lead investigator into Alexander Litvinenko’s poisoning by the Russians. A tip-off that “lit the fuse” for US law enforcement to take FIFA’s venal top brass. More than 100 private intelligence reports that reached all the way to the desk of secretary of state John Kerry. None of these things are what Christopher Steele is famous for. Luke Harding in the Guardian takes readers deep into the story of how the British spy compiled his infamous dossier on Donald Trump’s alleged relations with the Kremlin.
Is Amazon’s “last mile” contract-worker program breaking the law? Bryan Menegus at Gizmodo documents “Amazon Flex,” the program that explains why deliveries from the online giant are increasingly being made by seemingly random, plainclothes people driving their personal cars around your neighborhood. Like something out of a 21st century Dickens novel, workers compete to book shifts, with one even building a mechanical hand to repeatedly tap the app button that will earn him another carload of packages to drop off on doorsteps.
Our best wishes for a relaxing but thought-filled weekend. Please send any news, comments, Curry Club Thursdays, and Trump dossiers to hi@qz.com. You can follow us on Twitter here for updates throughout the day, or download our apps for iPhone and Android.