When WIRED We launched a top-down policy in January this year, our decision was not without criticism. After all, WIRED is best known as a “tech publication,” a place that can help you understand the changing landscape of consumer products and technological innovation; one that delves into TikTok trends and champions sustainability. We’re in a place where the public can geek out over new phones, new memes, and new heat pumps. you guys love heat pumps.
However, at that time our decision was firm and our logic was simple: you can no longer separate technology, science or online culture from politics. We based the launch of WIRED Politics on many potential intersections we saw in the coming year. There was the potential for generative AI to disrupt campaigns and elections, as well as the continued influence of disinformation campaigns, and the certainty that we would see more foreign intrusions and hacking attacks like those on the Democratic National Committee in 2015 and 2016. Not to mention the steady rise of online pundits and influencers, on platforms like Twitch and TikTok, whose voices mattered more to many voters than those of TV hosts or newspaper editorial boards.
Ultimately, all of those factors played important roles in this year’s global elections and have been notable in the American presidential race. But at WIRED, technology and politics proved to be even more intertwined than we expected: Look at the disturbing far-right turn of some in Silicon Valley’s elite ranks, notably Elon Musk, who turned his X account into a megaphone for Donald. Trump and opened his vast coffers to tilt the election in his favor; consider the devastating implications of Project 2025, a GOP-linked policy plan for a second Trump presidency, on everything from climate change to our children’s education; and take note of how unprecedented both campaigns were in their embrace of influencers and alternative online media to engage potential voters.
And now, well, here we are. In the coming days (maybe weeks, hopefully not months), a deeply polarized country will barely make a decision. America will choose its future; one that half of this country will almost certainly repudiate. If you read WIRED with any consistency, our policy is probably very clear to you: a better future, for us, is based above all on respect for people, all of them. That means defending our democratic institutions; It means assuming an unwavering commitment to human rights and bodily autonomy; and it means recognizing that (no shit!) climate change is an existential emergency. To ensure a better future it is also necessary to start from a shared understanding of the present: a framework of reality, of what is true and what is not. It is something that Donald Trump, the Republican Party, and the multitude of conspiratorial, racist, and dangerous enablers around them have completely lost touch with, putting the future of this country at great risk.
In other words, we will vote for Kamala Harris. The alternative is a future too loathsome for even WIRED’s most dystopian imaginations to contemplate.
As for this week: WIRED reporters will fan out across the country and cover the election across our digital platforms, including in instagram and tiktok. David Gilbert will report from the Sun Belt swing states: Arizona and Nevada; Vittoria Elliott will travel across Pennsylvania, while Tim Marchman will cover the crucial southeastern corner of the state; and Makena Kelly will go where the influencers are, figuratively and literally. Starting today, you can follow WIRED’s election coverage on our live blog, where we’ll follow propaganda, election conspiracy theories, what major tech players do and say, and what our reporters see and hear.
Whatever the outcome, WIRED will continue to boldly and bravely cover the future as it unfolds before us all, and hold the creators of that future, including our political leaders and government institutions, accountable. So take the time to vote if you haven’t already, take a few deep breaths if you’ve been holding yours, and together, let’s move on to what’s next.
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