Reading Behavior Instead of Rhetoric The previous installments established a framework: metric governance produces harm through targets and incentives rather than through decisions and directives, and accountability evaporates because responsibility is distributed across roles that each disclaim ownership of the whole. But frameworks are only as useful as their application.

How Accountability Pools Nowhere The previous installment described how administrative systems can produce systematic harm without anyone deciding to cause it. Targets are set. Operators optimize. Reporting systems surface successes and suppress costs. Harms accumulate. And at every node in the system, individuals can tell a locally true story about

The Waifu We Deserved, Not the One We Needed In January 2026, a purple-haired cartoon schoolgirl named Amelia became an unlikely internet phenomenon. Within weeks, AI-generated videos of Amelia flooded social media—particularly X—showing her waving Union Jacks, denouncing immigration, embracing Donald Trump, and delivering racist and Islamophobic talking