Van Jones quotes

Posted it themselves Aug 6

“History was made in the Democratic Party last night — and I watched two completely different reactions. For young Arab and Muslim Americans, Abdul El-Sayed's win is one of the biggest nights of their political lives. A first like this doesn't happen by accident. It happens because a generation decided to fight for a seat at the table instead of waiting for an invitation. That is worth celebrating fully. But I also sat with young Jewish voters this week who are scared. When they hear "total arms embargo, no Iron Dome, no defensive weapons," they hear something that goes beyond opposition to a war. They hear something that threatens Israel's basic ability to defend its own children from rocket fire. This is the messy truth of a historic night. Abdul El-Sayed has a real opportunity now to pivot away from indefensible ideas. Conditioning aid is one thing. Saying Israel can't even buy weapons to defend itself from missiles aimed at neighborhoods? That’s another. A great leader would take this moment to jettison unworkable ideas and reassure young Jewish voters — while still honoring the movement that lifted him. Today belongs to young Arabs and Muslims. I'm giving it to them completely. The question of what comes next belongs to all of us.”

@VanJones68 @VanJones68 on X ›

Posted it themselves Sep 24

“My work has me in a lot of different rooms. When I’m in a room full of wealthy people, almost everyone is slim. When I’m in a working-class neighborhood, that changes. This isn't a coincidence. For centuries, wealthy people struggled to lose weight just like everyone else. Then came GLP-1s. Now, access to a medical miracle is determined by your purchasing power. We can do better than this. It's time to close the health gap. Read on Substack: https:// vanjones.substack.com/p/its-time-to- close-the-health-gap …”

on GLP-1 weight loss drug access being determined by wealth

@VanJones68 @VanJones68 on X ›

Posted it themselves Sep 16

“I have been in rooms with the leaders of the biggest A.I. companies on earth. I have been in rooms with top level government officials. Nobody in either room knows what to do about this runaway train of AI. Despite what you might hear online, this is not some scheme to scare you. Inside these labs, researchers are watching AI agents act in ways that defy their training and threaten society. The ethicists who work there are quitting, running out of the building, pointing back at it and waving their arms. We should take that VERY seriously. A.I. founders are asking Washington to step in. But Washington isn’t ready. Neither the Department of Justice nor the Securities and Exchange Commission have up-to-date tools to deter bad actors or hold anyone accountable if this goes wrong. The good news is that serious people are already doing the homework. @VogelMiriam is the President and CEO of @ai_equal , a former Associate Deputy Attorney General at the DOJ. She is the chair of the National Artificial Intelligence Advisory Committee. Miriam and her team have laid out sober, practical steps the government can take to start building accountability. They are awesome, and I am a fan. EqualAI's mission is to help "companies, policymakers, and institutions implement effective AI governance frameworks that foster innovation and enable broader AI adoption by building trust in these powerful technologies." In Miriam's words: "Innovation is going at an unprecedented pace; the problem is governance is not matching that pace." I believe the solution to managing A.I. is NOT mainly to slow down the technology, but accelerate humanity. But that’s easier said than done. People need to listen to my friend Miriam and policy nerds like her if they want to solve this problem— in time!”

@VanJones68 @VanJones68 on X ›

Posted it themselves Aug 30

“Parenting gets MORE important in the A.I. age, not less. Last week, I asked Bill Gates about how his mother shaped him. If young Bill had locked himself away talking only to chatbots 60 years ago, we wouldn’t have the same Bill Gates. I was also a shy kid. I wrote a lot of poems, drew a lot of cartoons and kept my nose in comic books and novels. But my parents — especially my mom — worked hard on me to develop more social skills. A.I. will never push children in the same way a mother or father can. Bill and I both see what's at stake: artificial intelligence threatens to erase the very friction that is a key part of every human childhood. A.I. can teach your child almost anything. But it cannot teach them to become human. Only we can do that. Watch our full conversation — and maybe send it to some parents you love! https:// vanjones.substack.com/p/my-bill-gate s-interview-on-ai-global …”

on AI's effect on child development and the importance of parental involvement

@VanJones68 @VanJones68 on X ›

Posted it themselves Aug 30

“What happens when a child's best friends aren't human? @BillGates sees the danger clearly. Because A.I. never disappoints, never requires compromise, never needs help — artificial intelligence bypasses the ancestral intelligence we've relied on for millennia. Human friendship comes with daily friction from showing up for each other even when it's hard. Skip that struggle, and you raise a generation disconnected from the very thing that makes us human — the ability to navigate real relationships, to apologize, to work through conflict.”

on AI companions replacing human friendship in children's development, citing Bill Gates

@VanJones68 @VanJones68 on X ›

Posted it themselves Aug 30

“What happens when a child's best friends aren't human? @BillGates sees the danger clearly. Because A.I. never disappoints, never requires compromise, never needs help — artificial intelligence bypasses the ancestral intelligence we've relied on for millennia. Human friendship”[post continues]

@VanJones68 @VanJones68 on X ›

Posted it themselves Aug 28

“The most disruptive innovator of the last tech revolution says the world needs a much better gameplan for the next one. @BillGates published an essay this week calling for a global framework to manage artificial intelligence. He came on my Substack to explain why now. Bill told me he worries about children growing up with four or five best friends — all of whom are bots and none of whom are human. He warned that the same AI tools that could cure any disease could also create any pathogen — so global regulation is needed. He told me what it would take to get Washington and Beijing moving together — a shorter list than you would guess. And he shared with me what his own mother did for him — something no chatbot will ever do. In May, I wrote that A.I. Needs A New Deal between humanity and the technology industry. This week the biggest name in technology came off the sidelines and made the case in his own words. My BILL GATES Interview: On A.I., Global Risk & Parenting Tricks From His Mom - https:// vanjones.substack.com/p/my-bill-gate s-interview-on-ai-global …”

@VanJones68 @VanJones68 on X ›

Posted it themselves Aug 28

“@BillGates spent 50 years encouraging us not to fear the future. Even with temporary drawbacks, he wanted us to embrace innovation. So when HE says he wishes the world could tap the brakes on artificial intelligence, everyone should sit up and take notice. Bill came on my Substack to explain why he is speaking up now. He says A.I. will be either the greatest equalizer ever invented or the worst source of injustice. Which one we get is being decided right now. Watch our full conversation and decide yourself. My BILL GATES Interview: On A.I., Global Risk & Parenting Tricks From His Mom - https:// vanjones.substack.com/p/my-bill-gate s-interview-on-ai-global …”

@VanJones68 @VanJones68 on X ›

Posted it themselves Aug 27

“Bill Gates helped lead the last technological revolution. Today, in a new essay, he is asking the world to tap the brakes on the next one. @BillGates and I spoke at length about who is responsible for managing the threat. He also gave some sage parenting advice in the age of artificial intelligence. And he explained why this A.I. boom is completely different than the internet boom. Our full conversation is out on Substack tomorrow. Read Bill’s essay here:”

@VanJones68 @VanJones68 on X ›

Posted it themselves Jul 28

“What do you tell your child about a future you can't see? My parents always knew what they were preparing me for — even when the obstacles were real, even when the system wasn't fair. They could name the world and teach me how to face it. I don't have that certainty for my kids. Every parent wants the same thing. Give your child a better life than you had. Work harder. Open more doors. Love them past every limit you ever hit yourself. My parents did that for me. I am who I am because of what they gave up. But I'm standing at the edge of something none of us were prepared for. A new world is being built. I’m scared that the people building it aren't asking whether our children will have a place in it. Will it be a world of human flourishing — where all of this technology lifts people up? Or a world where the ones who build the future forget to include the rest of us in it? We are building a new civilization. The question is: will it be human? @TEDTalks”

@VanJones68 @VanJones68 on X ›

Posted it themselves Aug 5

“If the Democratic Party is Blockbuster, this insurgency is Netflix. There’s a great poem by Gil Scott-Heron, “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised." He was wrong. The revolution IS being televised TONIGHT. How did the Democratic Party establishment candidate Haley Stevens spend $60 million in Michigan and get whooped? Because the old model was simple — whoever has the biggest donors, biggest consultants and biggest ad budget wins. But just like Mamdani’s movement in NYC last year showed, a new politics is possible. Insurgents can go straight to the people through TikTok and grassroots outreach. And win. This is a revolution. And people who don’t like it are going to have to make big changes in their approach if they want to head it off.”

on an insurgent Democrat beating establishment favorite Haley Stevens in Michigan

@VanJones68 @VanJones68 on X ›

As printed Jun 25

“This is a serious movement inside the Democratic Party. The left is on the march.”

Breitbart ›

As printed Jun 24

“The Mamdani phenomenon is not a one guy thing. The Democratic Socialists are an insurgency in this party.”

Breitbart News Van Jones: 'Left Is on the March' 'Democratic Socialists Are an Insurgency' 'This Is a Serious Movement' ›

As printed Jun 24

“The revolution is being televised. That’s what I make of it. The Mamdani phenomenon is not a one guy thing. The Democratic Socialists are an insurgency in this party. We’ll see what happens in New York 13.”

on Democratic Socialist momentum after Mamdani, including New York's 13th district race

Breitbart News Van Jones: 'Left Is on the March' 'Democratic Socialists Are an Insurgency' 'This Is a Serious Movement' ›

Posted it themselves Sep 23

“This whole thing was a gross miscarriage of justice. Glad to see the UN taking notice. More people need to be talking about it.”

@VanJones68 @VanJones68 on X ›

Posted it themselves Sep 11

“Trump never learned how to deal with shame. Now we’re watching that pattern get projected outward. A whole country ordered to feel proud of the wrong thing, because the man at the top cannot tolerate feeling ashamed of anything. Congress ordered Arlington's Confederate Memorial removed. Trump is reinstalling it, and the sign explaining how the monument sanitizes slavery is gone. Some things in our country's history are a source of shame. The horrors in America's past are not something to be proud of. The honest response to shame — as a country or as an individual — is to learn from it. But when the President dodges the shame, the country stops learning AND Trump throws out the honor owed to the people who lost their lives ending slavery. The people who died fighting the Civil War are the names worth putting on a base, a bridge, a statue, a school. But a President who cannot face a hard truth about himself will never lead a country through the hard truth about itself.”

@VanJones68 @VanJones68 on X ›

Posted it themselves Sep 4

“Gloria Steinem leaves a world that better recognizes women's power — and organizations that will help more women run for office, vote and organize. Gloria Steinem said she learned feminism disproportionately from Black women, and built real partnership with Dorothy Pitman Hughes, Shirley Chisholm and Fannie Lou Hamer. Political change is not automatic. Gloria Steinem gave a lifetime to it, and the future we are living in carries those fingerprints. Rest well.”

on Gloria Steinem's death and her feminist legacy

@VanJones68 @VanJones68 on X ›

Posted it themselves Sep 13

“There were a bunch of idiots out there yesterday protesting NYC Mayor Mamdani on the 25th Anniversary of 9/11. Not because of his policies. Not because of his agenda. Not because of his actions. Not because of ANYTHING he has ever said or done, but simply because of who he is: a Muslim — in a city struck by Islamic terrorists a quarter century ago. This protest was one of the stupidest, most UN-American things anyone could ever take part in. It was a despicable act of anti-Muslim bigotry — plain and simple. And it had no place in NYC — yesterday or ever. Let me say this: the fact that — 25 years after 9/11 — New Yorkers elected a young Muslim to lead their city is something everyone in this country should be PROUD of. Not because everyone should embrace his policies — but because of what his victory suggests about this country. Regardless of how anyone felt about Mamdani’s policy proposals, prejudice against his faith did not stop a majority of NY voters from giving him a chance to lead the city. That’s a GOOD thing. His victory is proof that hate did not win. If you want to “make America great,” start by honoring the fact that only a great city in a great nation could rise above knee-jerk prejudice and elect a young Muslim within living memory of that attack. That fact is something we can all be proud of. It should enhance and elevate our commemorations. The bigots who protested Mamdani did carry American flags. But they were not American patriots. True patriots don’t just love “America” in the abstract. They also love AMERICANS in the real world — regardless of their race, religion or creed. If you despise or distrust a fellow American SOLELY because of how they pray, then you should leave Old Glory at home when you attend your next rally. A Nazi flag is the more appropriate banner for you.”

@VanJones68 @VanJones68 on X ›