I’ve been thinking a lot lately about truth. Not in some philosophical, navel-gazing way, but in a very practical sense: how do we know what’s real anymore?

There’s been quite a bit of discussion online about an AI safety researcher resigning from Anthropic, warning that the world is “in peril.” And while my first instinct was to roll my eyes at yet another doom-and-gloom headline, the more I read about it, the more the knot in my stomach tightened.

I’ve been watching the AI consciousness debate unfold online, and honestly, it’s starting to feel like watching people argue about whether a really good flight simulator is actually flying. There’s this fascinating article making the rounds—behind a paywall, naturally—claiming that AI consciousness is just clever marketing. The kicker? Someone in the comments pointed out the marketing isn’t even that clever. Fair point.

But here’s the thing that’s been rattling around in my head: we’re having the wrong conversation entirely.

There’s a satirical headline doing the rounds that pretty much sums up the absurdity of our current political landscape: Sussan Ley apparently can’t believe she’s less popular than a bloke who managed to combine an almost impressive litany of failures, scandals, and questionable decisions during his time as Prime Minister. The headline lists just a few of Scott Morrison’s greatest hits, and honestly, it barely scratches the surface.

The thing that struck me while reading through the discussion around this piece wasn’t the list itself – we’ve all seen variations of it before. What caught my attention was how many people admitted they’d forgotten just how terrible Morrison was as PM. One person put it perfectly: we have a collective goldfish memory when it comes to politics.