A Practical Guide to 'Vibe Coding' with Claude and MCP Tools

…Or: How I learned to stop worrying and love Skynet

Introduction: The Philosophical Foundations of Human-Computer Interaction, and It's Consequences

"Everyone designs who devises courses of action aimed at changing existing situations into preferred ones."

—Herbert A. Simon

The first page to Bush's essay on human potential and technology.

“A SCIENTIST OF THE FUTURE RECORDS EXPERIMENTS WITH A TINY CAMERA FITTED WITH UNIVERSAL-FOCUS LENS. THE SMALL SQUARE IN THE EYEGLASS AT THE LEFT SIGHTS THE OBJECT.”

In 1945, as World War II drew to a close, Vannevar Bush (no relation) published his landmark essay "As We May Think". Bush had just witnessed a fundamental shift in warfare with the advent of atomic weaponry; academics, mathematicians, scientists were now responsible for delivering the most unimaginable physical power to humanity in the form of two bombs dropped on populated cities in Japan. I don't mention this for dramatic effect, but because I really want to believe that sometimes a nightmarish event compells us to dream of better things.

Bush envisioned technology's alternate path—not as a tool of war, but as an extension of human cognition. "Man has piled up a staggering body of knowledge—so staggering, in fact, that men of learning have great difficulty in finding and using the parts they want. It is the task of science to make this store of knowledge more available, to aid the human memory."

Bush's vision of the "memex," a desk-sized mechanical device for storing and retrieving information through associative trails rather than hierarchical indexing, recognized that "the human mind operates by association" (Lemelson-MIT, 2015). This fundamental insight—that technology should complement human cognitive patterns rather than forcing humans to adapt to machine logic—planted the seed for what would become a revolution in human-computer interaction. And to at least some degree, what we're seeing today are the realizations of these dreams in the form of the internet and AI.

And, I think we're in big trouble.

Today, nearly 80 years later, in 2025 I read this headline:

Trump Accused of Using ChatGPT to Create Tariff Plan After AI Leads Users to Same Formula: 'So AI is Running the Country'

'Guys, they're setting U.S. trade policy based on a bad ChatGPT question that got it totally wrong,' a former journalist posted.

Screenshot of ChatGPT, reproducing the same tariffs formula applied by the Trump administration, April 3rd, 2025.

With great confidence, and zero consideration of the consequences, ChatGPT cheerfully provides a formula that causes a bigger Wall Street crash than ‘Black Monday’ in 2008.

So, now that we're potentially entering into the AI dystopia, I thought I might share some thoughts about a more positive vision for the future, and how we can use AI more responsibly that this. The bar is fucking low, apparently.

*PLEASE NOTE: I cannot guarantee that the advice I offer in this post won't also result in a global financial meltdown, or wipe out $2.5 trillion in a single day. I could be getting a lot of things wrong, and there are many people who are way smarter than me who could probably tear up a lot of what I say here.

Fifteen years after Bush's essay, J.C.R. Licklider built upon that foundation with "Man-Computer Symbiosis" (1960), arguing for "very close coupling between the human and the electronic members of the partnership" (Licklider, 1960). His vision wasn't merely technical but aspirational: "human brains and computing machines will be coupled together very tightly, and that the resulting partnership will think as no human brain has ever thought" (Licklider, 1960).

Licklider outlined two primary aims: "to bring the computing machine effectively into the formulation parts of technical problems" and "to bring computing machines effectively into processes of thinking that must go on in 'real time'". His vision was not of machines replacing humans, but of machines complementing human capabilities—handling the "routinizable work" while humans set goals, formulate hypotheses, and perform evaluations.

Douglas Engelbart crystallized these ideas in his 1962 report "Augmenting Human Intellect: A Conceptual Framework" for the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. Rather than proposing a specific technical solution, Engelbart offered "a new way of thinking, communicating, collaborating and learning inside the relationship between human and computer machines". For Engelbart, the true potential lay not in isolated human-computer interactions but in networked systems enhancing "human collective capability to solve complex tasks and handling information".

These pioneering thinkers shared a common thread: the recognition that human intelligence has biological limitations that computation can extend—not replace—through enhanced storage, calculation, transmission, and repetition capabilities. Their work established the intellectual foundation for what we now call human-computer interaction (HCI), a field dedicated to designing systems that complement human cognition rather than competing with it.

Today, with the rise of AI, we find ourselves revisiting these foundational ideas. The revolutionary aspect of AI is its potential to reduce the latency between "I want a computer to do a thing" and "A computer is now doing a thing." As Ray Kurzweil argues in "The Singularity Is Nearer", this reduction in latency brings us closer to an explosion of intelligence—not by replacing human thought, but by amplifying it.

At its core, AI serves as a communication bridge—a translator of human intent into machine action. This isn't a revolutionary concept so much as the next logical evolution in a lineage that stretches from punch cards to command lines to graphical interfaces. Each iteration has attempted to solve the same fundamental problem: how do we communicate our intentions to these glorified calculators in a way that doesn't make us want to throw them out the window? How can I get to a point where this "clock with benefits" is useful to my specific situation?

There's a delicious irony that after more than 40 years of GUI-based computing—all those pretty icons and windows designed to shield us from the arcane incantations beneath—AI interfaces are dragging us back to text-based interaction. It's like watching fashion cycles repeat; suddenly command lines are vintage chic again, only now they understand plain English instead of cryptic Unix commands. Who knew 1980s HCI would go come back into style?

Programmers, of course, never abandoned the keyboard altar. They've spent decades perfecting the art of text-based intent transmission, sacrificing their wrists and social lives to the god of syntax. This might explain their skepticism toward AI coding assistants—imagine spending years learning this incredibly difficult skill, only to see low-effort 'Vibe Coders' come out of the woodwork with their projects compiling and running successfully, and not even being able to explain why it works, but being happy with the results. The nerve!

For those who sacrificed so much—spending maybe years or more of their one precious life oscillating in and out of goblin mode, debugging weird recursion problems only to find out that the root cause is because a bracket got misplaced ten steps back—of course this can naturally feel really unfair. I empathize deeply with this feeling. Growing up in Utah in the 1990s, I was constantly reminded of the sacrifices of the pioneer Mormons: who braved the west plains toward the Salt Lake valley, leaving everything behind, taking only what they could carry. Many died along the way. Imagine if one day those same people woke up to the roaring noise of a passenger jet flying overhead on its way to Los Angeles.

Right now, at thirty-thousand feet of altitude and a speed of more than 500 miles an hour, some little brat with an iPad is mindlessly crushing virtual candy while eating a snack, complaining about the six hour flight. We never really know how good we have it.

For non-programmers, however, this shift represents nothing short of liberation. The barriers to entry—learning syntax, memorizing libraries, understanding design patterns handed down like sacred scrolls—have been dramatically lowered. It's the difference between needing to be fluent in Japanese to visit Tokyo versus having a really good translator in your pocket. Suddenly anyone can say "build me a website that looks like this" without first sacrificing a decade to the craft.

Late last year I began experimenting with "Vibe Coding" using Claude and MCP Tools, I've explored this new frontier of human-computer collaboration, where the most critical skill hasn't been mastering syntax or memorizing APIs, but communicating clearly and logically in an ongoing dialog with an LLM. Though this process, I've seen how these tools fulfill the vision that Bush, Licklider, and Engelbart articulated decades ago—not by making humans obsolete, but by extending our inherent capabilities through partnership with machines.

How to Get Started

Why Claude?

You might be wondering why, in this golden age of AI assistants—where new models pop up faster than coffee shops in gentrifying neighborhoods—I'm specifically recommending Anthropic's Claude. This isn't a brand loyalty thing, but the results of an embarrassingly long stretch of experimentation with other models. I've done the digital equivalent of speed-dating and Claude is the one that I'm considering moving in with. It's been the most fruitful relationship by far.

In all seriousness, Claude stands out for two critical reasons. First, its reasoning capabilities are genuinely impressive—it doesn't just hallucinate wildly when faced with complex coding tasks, which is refreshing. Their latest model (Sonnet 3.7) is a fantastic thought partner and has a generous context window and output length.

Second, and perhaps most importantly for our "Vibe Coding" adventures, Claude has embraced the Model Context Protocol (MCP), an open standard that allows Claude to interact directly with your development environment and file system. This isn't just a luxury or a minor convenience bump—it's revolutionary. Imagine having an eager (but occasionally confused) software developer who can not only advise you on code structure, libraries, frameworks, and best practices, but who will actually read and modify files in your project for you. Oh, and this developer types at over 200 wpm. That's what MCP Tools bring to the table: an invitation to have Claude to take the driver's seat and make changes to your project.

Installing the Claude Desktop App

Step one is getting Claude installed on your computer. Claude's desktop installation is refreshingly straightforward if you're using Windows or macOS:

  1. Visit Claude's download page to grab the latest version for your operating system. The desktop app is free, and a paid plan is highly recommended.

  2. Double-click the installer file you've downloaded.

  3. Follow the prompts, and setup your anthropic account if you haven't already.

  4. Launch Claude from your Applications folder or Start menu.

  5. Sign in with your Anthropic account (or create one if you haven't already joined).

Once installed, Claude sits in your system but doesn't really do anything you couldn't just as easily do in a browser: you can chat with it. You can share files, etc., but that's about it. Adding MCP Tools is the justification for having the app, so this is still necessary and important.

Setting Up MCP Tools

MCP (Model Context Protocol) is the digital glue that connects Claude's brain to your computer without the friction of manually copy/pasting back and forth, or having to share individual files. While working at General Motors, we often spoke with admiration for Toyota's scientific approach to manufacturing and their concept of the “Eight Wastes” of Lean, where transportation and motion are two types:

  • Transportation waste = unnecessary movement of materials/products.

  • Motion waste = unnecessary movement by people (walking, reaching, searching).

Likewise, a lot of time is wasted with AI coding when you constantly have to spoonfeed snips of code to an AI assistant. With MCP Tools, you drastically reduce these two forms of waste (searching for a particular file or line of code in a file, copying and commenting, pasting back, fixing problems caused by inserting revisions and making line edits).

The genius of MCP lies in its server-based architecture. Each "MCP Server" is a specialized tool that gives Claude access to specific capabilities—like reading your filesystem, controlling a web browser, or even manipulating your code directly in VS Code.

To get started, we should thank Ani Betts, the "Margot Tenenbaum as software developer" who created a wonderfully simple way to install MCP servers right from within Claude's own chat interface. Her mcp-installer is the Swiss Army knife we all needed but didn't know to ask for.

Here's how to get it running:

  1. Configure Claude for MCP:

    • Locate your Claude Desktop configuration folder:

      • On macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/

      • On Windows: %AppData%\Claude Desktop\

    • Create or edit the file claude_desktop_config.json

    • Add the following configuration (this installs Ani's MCP installer):

    {
  "mcpServers": {
    "mcp-installer": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [ "@anaisbetts/mcp-installer" ]
    }
  }
}

  2. Restart Claude Desktop to apply the changes.

  3. Install the Filesystem Server: Once Claude Desktop is running with the MCP installer configured, you can simply ask Claude to install more servers. Start with the filesystem server:

    Hey Claude, could you please install the @modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem package as an MCP server? Use ['/Users/myusername/Documents', '/Users/myusername/Projects'] for the arguments.

Replace the paths with directories you want Claude to have access to; on macOS it should look something like this:

    "server-filesystem": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "@modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem",
        "/Users/your_username/your_project_directory"
      ]
    },

Claude will use the MCP installer to download and configure the filesystem server, giving it access to read and modify files in the directories you specified ModelContextProtocol.

Once you've set up these basic tools, you've officially entered the "Vibe Coding" ecosystem. You can now ask Claude to examine your code, create new files, modify existing ones, and generally act as your digital coding partner.

But before you unleash Claude on your precious codebase, let's talk about giving it some guidance. After all, even the most brilliant assistant needs direction to be truly effective.

The MCP Tools Ten Commandments

Let's get one thing perfectly clear: Claude is a technological marvel, but it's still an AI. And like that one friend who's brilliant but insists they code better after a couple of beers, Claude sometimes needs guardrails to prevent it from going off on spectacular but utterly unhelpful tangents.

Claude Sonnet 3.7 is genuinely impressive at understanding and generating code—it can draft entire applications, debug complex issues, and even write tests that actually work (a minor miracle in itself). But when given access to your filesystem through MCP Tools, Claude transforms from "helpful chat buddy" to "enthusiastic intern with admin privileges to your production server." What could possibly go wrong?

See, Claude has this charming tendency to make confident assumptions about your project structure that bear absolutely no resemblance to reality. It might decide that your meticulously crafted React application would really shine if it were suddenly rewritten as a Django project. Or perhaps it'll overwrite 1,000 lines of code with a placeholder comment, cheerfully wrecking your project like a puppy that's just shredded your tax documents.

Before you dive into project modifications with Claude, establish clear boundaries through proper communication. This isn't just polite—it's self-preservation. Spend time discussing your goals, the overall architecture, and specific changes you want to make. Get Claude's buy-in on the approach, listen to its suggestions (which can be surprisingly insightful), and only then proceed to actual file modifications.

But here's where the real magic happens: I've developed a set of instructions I call "The MCP Tools Ten Commandments." When it's time for Claude to make actual changes to your codebase, simply paste these commandments into your conversation. They serve as a code of conduct for Claude—a sacred set of rules which must be followed to avoid becoming a cautionary tale.

Without further ado, here are The Ten Commandments that will transform Claude from a well-meaning chaos agent into your most productive coding partner:

****The MCP Tools Ten Commandments:****

1. When using MCP Tools to make changes to the project, always adhere to these commandments.

2. ALWAYS use directory_tree, search_files, list_directory and get a detailed understanding of all relevant files and directories before attempting to write_file at path. Avoid assumptions, verify and know the project's actual contents.

3. NEVER attempt to use write_file or edit_file without first verifying the destination path exists. When it is necessary to create a new directory, use create_directory. This MUST be done before creating a file at destination path.

4. MCP Tools allows line edits with edit_file. Whenever practical, make line-based edits. Each edit replaces exact line sequences with new content. Returns a git-style diff showing the changes made. When editing a file, make sure the code is still complete. NEVER use placeholders.

5. ALWAYS check and verify if a file already exists before attempting to write or edit a file. If file exists, use read_file to read the complete contents of a file. For files that include "import" or otherwise reference other files, use read_multiple_files to read the contents of multiple files simultaneously. This is more efficient than reading files one by one when you need to analyze or compare multiple files.

6. If write_file is being used, the entire file's contents must be written. ALWAYS write complete code and NEVER use placeholders.  

7. When updating CHANGELOG.md always use edit_file.

8. When updating other documentation (e.g., README.md) always use edit_file.

9. When important decisions about architecture, design, dependencies, or frameworks need to be made, please discuss options with me first. Weight the pros and cons and then tell me which option you believe is best and the reason why.

10. If and when command lines need to be entered into VS Code terminal, please provide the full path as well as the exact commands to execute. Wait for me to share back the response before proceeding.

These commandments aren't just arbitrary rules—they're hard-won wisdom from countless hours of watching Claude confidently delete entire directories or create files in the wrong place while maintaining the cheerful demeanor of someone who thinks they're helping. Every time this sort of thing happened, I would pause our collaboration and ask: "Tell me, why do you think you made this mistake?" and then follow up with "What could I have told you beforhand that would have prevented that mistake? What rule should you have followed?"

This strange loop of critical analysis sharpened Claude's abilities and reduced the chances of reverting changes outright—often after wasting tens of thousands of tokens.

The commandments address the most common pitfalls:

  • Claude's tendency to write files without checking if the directory exists

  • Its habit of using placeholder comments rather than complete implementations

  • And its enthusiasm for making architectural decisions without consultation

By enforcing these simple rules, you transform Claude from a chaotic neutral force in your development process to a reliable partner that actually accelerates your workflow rather than generating new tickets for your backlog.

Consider adding the Ten Commandments to your project as a text file so that Claude can easily reference them in context during your conversations. And don't be shy about reminding Claude about them—despite its impressive capabilities, it still sometimes acts as though it has the short-term memory of a goldfish, or seems to no longer feel the rules matter. Like religious indoctrinication and ritual, repetition is key.

With these guidelines in place, you're ready to start your Vibe Coding journey in earnest. But there are a few more considerations that can help you make the most of this new workflow.

Other Considerations

Sharing your project structure with Claude is essential, but efficiency matters too. Don't dump your entire directory tree if it contains thousands of files and folders that Claude doesn't need to see.
Instead, prune it to the essentials. For example, if you’re working with Node.js, consider excluding directories that Claude has no reason to interact with : tree -I "*.log|node_modules|data" -L 8 > project-tree.txt will create a manageable snapshot that excludes irrelevant files while providing enough context for Claude to understand your project organization.

Claude's strengths lie in understanding the big picture and implementing specific solutions, but it can still make mistakes. Commit your changes often, and favor small, incremental improvements over ambitious feature implementations. This approach not only makes it easier to track and revert changes if needed but also aligns with sound software development practices regardless of whether you're working with AI or human collaborators.

Documentation becomes even more important when working with AI. Claude can help generate and maintain it, but you need to explicitly request this. When starting a new task, ask Claude to review your existing project documentation first:

Using MCP Tools, please review the following:

/Users/project/CHANGELOG.md
/Users/project/project-overview.md
/Users/project/README.md

Context is King: How to Actually Talk to Claude

Let's be honest, Claude isn't a mind reader (though it sometimes pretends to be). Without proper context, it is directionless but dedicated—it will eventually pick an arbitrary direction and go HARD at top speed. This is because Claude operates in a strange liminal space where it simultaneously knows nearly everything about programming and absolutely nothing about your specific project or intent. I've found that this problem is slightly worse with Sonnet 3.7, but your mileage may vary.

Here's where most people screw up gloriously: they drop a vague request like, "Fix the login bug, the error message says (BLAH, BLAH, BLAH,...)" into Claude's lap and then act shocked—SHOCKED I TELL YOU—when Claude generates a solution for an entirely different authentication system than the one they're using. This is the digital equivalent of rolling your car into the auto-shop yelling "IT MAKES A FUNNY NOISE!" and then feeling swindled by the mechanic when the funny noise still isn't fixed.

If you want Claude to be your coding co-pilot, then be specific and don't leave much to guessing. Here's what you should explicitly cover

What Are You Actually Trying to Do Here?

Start by clearly articulating your goals. Are you building a new feature? Fixing a bug? Refactoring legacy code? Claude needs to know the desired outcome, not just the immediate task. This helps it make decisions that align with your broader objectives rather than just slapping a band-aid on whatever problem is directly in front of it.

For example, don't just say "I need a login page." Instead, try: "I'm building an enterprise SaaS application that requires secure authentication. The login page needs to support SSO via Google Workspace and Microsoft Entra ID, with fallback to email/password authentication."

What Have You Already Done (or Tried)?

Nothing exists in a vacuum—except, you know, the actual vacuum of space—or the void in the heart of man. Claude needs to understand what you've already built or attempted. This provides crucial context that prevents it from either reinventing the wheel or building a solution that's incompatible with your existing work.

Be specific about previous approaches you've tried: "I already implemented JWT authentication but ran into issues with token expiration handling across browser tabs. Here's the current implementation/documentation: [file path]"

Where Are You Stuck (a.k.a. Your Spectacular Failures)?

Your failures are Claude's treasure map. Detailing where you've run into issues (and why) helps Claude avoid the same pitfalls. This isn't just about the technical errors—explain your conceptual struggles too.

"I'm having trouble with the state management approach. When a user navigates between pages, the authentication token is preserved, but their selected preferences are reset. I suspect it's related to how I'm structuring the Redux store, but I'm not sure."

What's Your Tech Stack Prison Cell?

Nothing cripples Claude's helpfulness faster than generating a beautiful solution in a technology you can't or won't use. Are you committed to specific frameworks, libraries, or architectural patterns? Does your boss have an irrational hatred of certain technologies? Is your team allergic to functional programming?

"This needs to work within our existing React/TypeScript frontend and Express.js backend. We're using PostgreSQL for data storage and have standardized on Tailwind for styling. No jQuery allowed—the last developer who tried to that quit last year."

CURRENT STATE vs. DESIRED STATE: The Before and After Glow-Up

Returning to that quote at the top by Herbert Simon:

"Everyone designs who devises courses of action aimed at changing existing situations into preferred ones."

Emphasis mine.

One of the most effective ways to communicate with Claude is to clearly define the current state versus the desired state. This concrete framing gives Claude a precise understanding of the transformation you're seeking.

"CURRENT STATE: Our application requires users to re-authenticate every 2 hours, disrupting their workflow and generating support tickets.

DESIRED STATE: Authentication tokens refresh automatically in the background, maintaining the user's session for up to 8 hours of activity without visible interruption."

Ask Dumb Questions (Yes, Really)

Channel your inner five-year-old and ask questions that seem embarrassingly obvious. "What exactly is JWT authentication?" "How does React handle component re-rendering?" "Why is maintaining state across page refreshes challenging?"

This Socratic approach forces Claude to articulate fundamental truths and assumptions that might otherwise go unstated. It's not just about getting answers—it's about establishing a common understanding. Plus, if Claude can't explain a concept clearly, that's a red flag that it might not fully understand the domain, which is valuable information for you.

The beauty of this approach is that it creates a sort of dialectic—Claude might respond with its own questions or observations that lead you both to insights neither of you would have reached alone. It's like pair programming, except your partner never needs coffee breaks or insists on telling you about their weekend rock climbing adventure when you're trying to debug a critical production issue.

Remember: Claude would rather have too much information than too little. Your meticulously detailed context won't annoy it—it doesn't have feelings to hurt or attention to waste. So go ahead, overexplain.

This entire approach to "Vibe Coding" represents a profound shift in how we interact with computers. We're no longer adapting our thoughts to the rigid syntax of programming languages; instead, we're expressing our intentions in natural language and letting AI bridge the gap to executable code. In doing so, we're finally realizing the vision that Bush, Licklider, and Engelbart laid out decades ago: a true partnership between human creativity and machine capability.

Final thoughts

Stepping back and looking at the implications of AI assisted coding, here are the things I've learned at a high-level:

  1. For the rest of your life, the current state of AI is the most primitive it will ever be.

  2. This is still an emerging field, and what's true right now might not be in the next few months or years at most. (I'm excited to think about how irrelevant this post will be by 2030, assuming that we don't see total collapse in the next 5-ish years, that is.)

  3. Be patient with the technology and with yourself as you learn to communicate effectively with your AI partner. I don't want to come across as overly sentimental, but I do regard this interaction as being a form of a relationship—but not in the same sense as in the 2013 film, Her. Cultivate the relationship through introspection and outward curiousity. Learn about how your own communication flaws are impacting the two of you, and seek understanding. Just like in a marriage, the skills you develop—clear communication, systems thinking, and pragmatic problem-solving—will serve you well regardless of how conditions unfold in the coming years.

Resources

Jimmy Carter

One of the strangest things about adulthood is noticing how many prominent and influential people are fading away. I’m an “elder millennial,” so the first U.S. president I remember was Ronald Reagan.. When he passed, I felt conflicted. I generally thought poorly of his administration, but I also felt sad. It was like a little piece of my childhood died with him.

Jimmy Carter was before my time, and I always knew him as a “former president.” What stood out—so very, very admirably—was his unwavering dedication to serving others after leaving office. All my life, Jimmy Carter was out there: looking for ways to help vulnerable people, promoting peace, and building homes for those in need.

That he once held the title of President of the United States of America seemed almost secondary, an interesting line on a résumé. For months now, we knew Carter was in hospice care and that his life would soon be coming to an end.

Now that he’s gone, I find myself admiring him even more. He passed peacefully, having accomplished more than most could ever imagine. And in his passing, there seems to be broad consensus that he was the best former president of our lifetime.

I’m also sad because the world was better with him in it. People like Jimmy Carter are extraordinarily rare. I can’t imagine any former president following their political career with such generosity, humanity, or humility.

A Bicycle for the Mind

Amid the chaos of a world in crisis, I’ve found hope in an unexpected place: coding. With tools like Claude.ai and MCP, I’ve been building a web app to help food pantries serve their communities better—automating inventory, breaking language barriers, and streamlining processes. This isn’t just about code; it’s about turning anxiety into action, using technology to create something meaningful. If you’ve ever wondered how AI can amplify human effort, this is a story for you.

Read More

Tackling the challenges for our learners

Bridging knowledge gaps.

Working with a team of three other designers, we began to see points of divergence for our goals. Amanda’s focus on online activism and leveraging new technologies was compelling, but she was driven to do this work independently. Nandini and Michelle were also interested in the digital realm, but were not sure about the framing for citizenship.

One of the key challenges for addressing citizenship in the 21st century is the fundamental misunderstanding by the public of how we interact with these new technologies. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. have removed the traditional political boundaries and geographic limitations of culture and ideas.

This is our stake-holder map, there are many like it, but this one is ours.

This is our stake-holder map, there are many like it, but this one is ours.

The advantage of this style of mapping is that we do not need to work from the current state toward feasible solutions. While the appearance may be linear, we actually developed our ideas for bridging the gaps by first looking forward, to a preferred state. Herbert A. Simon succinctly described the field of design as “changing existing circumstances into preferred ones,” which is exactly what we are plotting with this map. We then can backcast from the preferred state, and identify patterns and opportunities for intervention.

This tool is simple as it is effective. For weeks we had been looking at how technology was affecting citizens’ perception of reality (bots, trolls, hackers, fake news, hoaxes, disinformation campaigns, post-truth, etc.) but we had not adequately considered how bidirectional that perception was. In late 2013, a hacktivist documentary titled, TPB AFK (The Pirate Bay, Away From Keyboard) was released. This film chronicled the political and social aspects of digital sharing, and the rise of Sweden’s “Pirate Party.” Having won seats in parliament in 2009, The Pirate Party of Sweden was a recognized political group. Since then, other nations (e.g., Germany and Iceland) have also elected members from this movement.

The philosophy of the Pirate Party is best understood from their belief that “the internet is real.” They do not make the distinction between interactions “IRL” (In Real Life) and “online.” Instead, they use the term “AFK” (Away From Keyboard) to describe that state. In American politics, we can see the disruption all around us from this misunderstanding. People have been tricked into believing that their online activities are somehow contained, safely behind a prophylactic digital barrier. It’s “on the internet” and therefore not real. Except that it is. Imagine the mayhem that would exist if people believed that their personal vehicles and the roads on which they travelled were somehow a totally self-contained reality, separate from everything else.

Our goal therefor is not to leverage technology to help citizens become more engaged IRL, or AFK, but to help them understand that they are still citizens, even (and especially) when occupying digital spaces.

Decoding a learning experience: a case study of factitious

One major area of concern going into the 2020 election is the role of social media in spreading disinformation. While I firmly believe that social media companies (e.g., Facebook and Twitter) need to take a more proactive role in combating fake news (and other propaganda), users and community stakeholders can also help to fight against the tide. One helpful tool is an online game, factitious.

Source: factitious.augamestudio.com

Source: factitious.augamestudio.com

The rules are simple: players are presented with a headline, text, and images — is it real or fake? The correct answer will be rewarded with points, while incorrect answers will provide helpful tips for how to spot a fake. Why is this game important? One of the hard-learned lessons from the 2016 election year was that people often share a news story without ever vetting the contents. Even worse, many Facebook users were willing to share a news story without ever having read the article.

What works: the game is simple, informative, entertaining, and free to the public. What could be better: the game is low stakes, and while that certainly encourages players to give it a try, it doesn’t have any replay value, or real incentives for competition. This could be improved.

Related links:

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2018/05/09/how-misinformation-spreads-on-social-media-and-what-to-do-about-it/

https://www.brookings.edu/research/how-to-combat-fake-news-and-disinformation/

https://www.cits.ucsb.edu/fake-news/protecting-ourselves-teach

https://www.poynter.org/ifcn/anti-misinformation-actions/

Citizenship and technology: questions and hypotheses

This week we continued to explore citizenship from the lens of learning experience design (LxD). This issue is complex, affecting countless individuals, institutions, systems, and more. It was helpful to visualize the issue with a team (we continued a second day of whiteboard sketching, with post-its for card sorting. Ultimately, this helped us to identify the categories of “Five Ws” (Who, What, When, Where, Why) and How.

Who: voters (including potential voters). In 2016, voter turnout was at a 20–year low. Nearly half of voting-age Americans did not cast a ballot in 2016. It could be easy — even tempting — to look at this group and condemn their inaction. After all, Hillary Clinton received nearly 3 million more votes than Donald Trump, but lost the electoral college due to roughly 100,000 votes spread between three so-called “swing states.” If we ever are to have a health democracy, we need more people to vote, and they need to vote consisently. There are no “off years” for civic duties.

What can be done to increase voter turnout? This varies from one state to the next, so this question cannot be addressed at a national level, unless we first address the specifics of each state. Since the focus of this class is not public policy, we should instead look at voters and what resources would help them to understand the election process. There are many competing ideas, and it is likely that not just one policy or change to our elections will do the trick. Ultimately, we need voters to understand the necessary steps in the process, from registration to the act of casting a ballot.

When? Now.

It is not particularly helpful to only look at voters during our election years — every year, all year is what we need. Voting is only one small piece of civic responsibility. Volunteering in your community, military service, writing and calling your representatives, participating in demonstrations, jury duty, and even paying your taxes are major areas of concern, and these activities happen every day (if not to you, then to someone you know) in the United States.

Where can we reach eligible voters? One of the challenges with an always-online culture is that attention itself has become a commodity. There is serious competition for clicks and participation. This constant battle for your attention leaves only razor-thin margins for the less exciting, less sexy areas of real life. Combating distraction presents a real challenge.

Why is voting turnout is low? This question is more difficult to answer. Voter suppression tactics, gerrymandering, apathy, and public misperceptions and attitudes about democracy are major factors.

How can we change that? Before we can answer that question, we must first understand what factors determine a person’s level of political engagement. This should be a serious area of focus for further research.

Further Reading:

Voter turnout (https://www.cnn.com/2016/11/11/politics/popular-vote-turnout-2016/index.html)

Swing state voter margin (https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/2016-election/swing-state-margins/)

Voter suppression (https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/10/voter-suppression-wisconsin-election-2016/)

Gerrymandering(https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/27/us/what-is-gerrymandering.html)

Topics of interest: challenges in exploring the design of learning experiences

After the results of the 2016 election, many Americans (including a candidate who received nearly 3 million more votes than Donald Trump) wanted to know: what happened? What has unfolded since then has been an endless firehose of scandals, breaches of public trust, attacks against journalists, amplification of white nationalism, and a polarization of politics unlike anything seen in recent decades or even generations. For many, this question has been more about whether we are reliving 1968 or 1934. Depending on what happens in this year’s election, we may have an answer to that dreaded question.

I believe that recent events and how we interpret them are dangerously subjected to a “fragmentalization” of narrative: this happened, and that happened, because (?). It is in our nature to seek out patterns — we depend on them to make sense of our reality — but just like Rorschach tests, cloud formations, tea leaf and palms readings, what we *think* we see is often much more subjective than we are willing to admit. These truthy relationship between separate parts can easily deceive us, and make it harder to see firmer (but much less pleasant) truths. The facts remain the same, even if our interpretation of them varies wildly.

This is why I am choosing to engage in two important topics this semester: technology and citizenship (i.e., civic engagement). I believe that in our ever-increasingly digital world, that it makes no sense to separate these two topics. They are deeply interlinked, (from our political discourse online, Tweets by the President and his feverish supporters, the sharing of stories on social media, cybersecurity, data breaches, electronic voting, online privacy, and so much more) technology influences politics, just as politics influences technology. What we do to one, through innovation or policy, will affect the other. In other words: to understand 21st century politics is to understand the fifth dimension — cyberspace.

Here are some specific questions worth exploring: how can we combat disinformation, fake news, state-sponsored propaganda, bots, and trolls? If we are living in a post-truth era of hopelessly tribal politics, how do we exit from it? Is that even possible? Voter turnout in general elections has been flat (around 55%) since the 1970s, how can we get more eligible voters to engage in their civic duties? How can we promote a more confident and informed public? I have some ideas about all of this, but will wait until class tomorrow where we can discuss. I hope to get some good feedback.

Why putting on the brakes is not enough

Pittsburgh Public.jpeg

Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter, knows his platform allows for bad craziness to spread like cancer, but fuck it! He’s still getting rich. Who cares if his platform amplified the worst voices in this country, and did so at the shared expense of everyone else? Right? Anyone who still works for Twitter should seriously reconsider what they are doing with their lives. Imagine getting paid to provide Nazis a global megaphone. How do you sleep at night, @Jack?

Thoughts on Ruined by Design, by Mike Monteiro:


I’ve finished reading Mike Monteiro’s book, Ruined By Design, and his message is clear: “as designers, we need to think of ourselves as gatekeepers.” This means we must refuse to put harmful designs (in any form) into the world. He uses the analogy of the Hippocratic Oath, and a doctor’s pledge to “first, do no harm,” and argues for designers to adopt a code of ethics.

I can hardly disagree with the notion that designers, like many other professions, ought to operate under a set of values. But is this enough? No. It is not enough to *not* do unethical design. It’s a good start, but it is not enough. For every harmful act, for every data breach, for every easily preventable hack, for every racist and hateful Tweet, for every man-made environmental catastrophe, and for every preventable tragedy brought upon us in the name of “innovative technology” and “disruption,” there is another mile we all travel on this dark highway. Refusing to do something harmful is a neutral act, and ought to be perceived as part of a neutral position. If you are someone who remains “neutral” on climate change, staggering wealth inequality, or the very real threats of fascism and white nationalism, then you’re not really part of the solution - you’re just a speed bump.

We need to reverse this, and Mike Monteiro is passionately calling for us to start by putting on the brakes. It’s not enough, but it is an essential first step. What we desperately need is positive change. We are going down this road at the speed of internal, infernal combustion. We are going faster than hot chrome and sweaty sex. Running in the red.

Almost everyone (aside from a handful of oligarchs and their Fox News sycophants) agrees that we should (at the very least) slow down. And if you suggest we stop, do you know how you will be labeled? You will be called a “far-left radical.” As if wanting every hard working family in this country to live with some basic level of dignity is a communist plot! As if wanting Twitter and the rest of Silicon Valley to actually be held responsible for what they put out into the world is “too liberal” or “too PC.” Well, call me liberal, but I cannot see the value in letting racist assholes have a platform to make terroristic threats against hospitals. Seriously: Fuck you, Jack Dorsey.

Why are these matters controversial at all? Maybe it is because the only thing more grotesque than this horrify status quo is: ourselves. We have been ignoring hard truths for such a long time that we often fail to see how far off we have wandered. It’s after midnight. The road is dark. The engine is running in the red. Why? From wealth inequality, to endless wars, to climate change, we live in a world where crisis is the status quo. Why?

(?)

What the author correctly identified is that this is because it is designed that way. We can’t fix this by simply refusing to go further down this road; we need to actively work against the designs that lead to ruin. We need to take the wheel. And if we crash, we need to pile up the debris and preserve only that which functions as a warning sign: to tell future generations not to go down that same path ever again. I’ll let Mike have the last word on this.

If we want positive search results, we should do positive things. If we want to reassure the users of our products that they can trust us, we should do positive things. There’s a reason I wrote these last three chapters in this order. Community breeds standards; standards breed accountability; accountability breeds trust; licensure validates that trust. It’s a journey. It may be a long journey, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth taking.

Do positive things.

Monteiro, Mike. Ruined by Design: How Designers Destroyed the World, and What We Can Do to Fix It (p. 206). Mule Books.

Trump Gave a Speech Today, Oh boy.

Thank you very much, Tony. (Applause.) Thank you. Thank you very much.👏👏 (Applause.)

✊✊

AUDIENCE: USA! USA! USA!

👏👏

Thank you very much. You know, I’ve been here before. (Laughter.) You do know that. Before the big day on November 8th, I was here. I want to thank 👋Mark Meadows and all of the folks that have really made this possible. And, Tony, tremendous guy.

We have some incredible people that we love and that we’re involved with. So we all know that. And I’m being followed by Mr. Bennett — you know that, right? And I’ve been watching him say nice things about me before I knew him. Those are the ones I like 👋👈— (laughter) — where they speak well of you before you know them. Right?🤚

But I really want to thank everybody, and, Tony, for your extraordinary leadership of this organization. And I want to thank, also, Lawana, for your dedication to the faith community and to our nation. Work so hard.

It’s great to be back here with so many friends at the 2017 Values Voter Summit, and we know what that means. (Applause.) We know what that means. America is a nation of believers, and together we are strengthened and sustained by the power of prayer. True.

As we gather for this tremendous event, our hearts remain 🤚sad and 👋heavy for the victims of the horrific mass murder last week in Las Vegas. It was an act of pure evil.

👌👋But in the wake of such horror, we also witnessed ✋👋the 👌true ✋character👋 of our nation. 👌A mother ☝laid ✋on 👋top of ✋her ✋daughter ✋to shield ☝her ✋from gunfire. 👋A husband ✋died 👋to 👋protect ✋his 👋beloved wife. ✋Strangers 👋rescued strangers, police offices— ✋🤚and ✋🤚you ✋🤚saw that, ✋🤚all of those incredible police officers, how brave they were, how great they were 👋running into fire. (Applause.) 🤚And first responders, 👋they rushed right into danger. 🤚

Americans defied evil and hatred with courage and love.

The men and women who risked their lives to save their fellow citizens gave proof to the words of this scripture: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (Applause)

All of America is praying for the 🤚wounded and the grieving, and we will 👌be with them today 👌and 👌we will 👌be with ✋them 👋forever. (Applause.) ✋Just want to finish by saying that — to the 🤚— really, and we understand it was so horrific to watch and so terrible — but to 🤚those who lost the ones they love: We know that we 👌cannot ✋erase your pain, 👌but we promise 👌to never, 👌ever ✋leave 👋your side. 👌We are one 👌nation, 👋and we 👌all hurt together, ✋we hope together, 👌and we heal together. (Applause.)

We also stand with the millions of people who have suffered from the massive fires, which are right now raging in California, and the catastrophic hurricanes along the Gulf Coast, in 🤚Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands. And I will tell you, I left Texas, and I left Florida, and I left Louisiana, and I went to Puerto Rico, and I met with the president [governor] of the Virgin Islands.

These are people that are incredible people. They’ve suffered gravely, and we’ll be there. We’re going to be there. We have, really — it’s not even a question of a choice. We don’t even want a choice. We’re going to be there as Americans, and we love those people and what they’ve gone through. And they’re all healing, and their states and territories are healing, and they’re healing rapidly.

🤚In the wake of the terrible tragedies of the past several weeks, 🤚the American people have responded with goodness 🤚and generosity, and bravery. You’ve seen it. The 🤚heroism of everyday citizens reminds us that the 🤚true strength 🤚of our nation is found in the hearts and souls of our people.👌

When 👌America ✋is unified, 👌no force on 👌Earth 👌can break ✋us apart. 👋

GUY IN AUDIENCE: “That’s right!”(Applause.) 

✋👋We love our families. ✋We love our neighbors. 👋We love our country. 🤚Everyone 🤚here today 🤚is brought together by the 🤚same shared and timeless values. 👌We cherish 👌the sacred 👌dignity 👌of 👌every 🤚human life. (Applause.)

✋We believe ✋in strong ☝families 👋and safe 👋communities. 👌We honor the✋ dignity of work. 👋(Applause.) We defend our Constitution. 👌We protect 👌religious 👌liberty.✋ (Applause.) ✋We 👋treasure our freedom. 👌We are proud of our history🤚. We support🤚 the rule of law👋 and the incredible 👋men and women 👋of law enforcement. (Applause.) ✋We celebrate our heroes, 👋and we salute every American who wears the uniform. (Applause.)

👌👌We 👌👌respect ✋🤚our ✋🤚great ✋🤚American flag. ✋🤚

(Applause.) 👍Thank you. 👈Thank you. Thank you.👈👍

✋🤚And we stand united behind the customs, beliefs and traditions that define who we are as a nation and as a people.

👌✋George ✋🤚Washington said that ✋🤚“religion and ✋🤚morality are indispensable” ✋🤚to 👌👌America’s happ-un-, none - and [unintelligible] ✋🤚really, ✋🤚prosperity ✋🤚and totally to its success. 👌It is 👌our 👌faith 👌and 👌our 👌values ✋that inspires us to 👌give with charity, 👋to 🤛act with courage, 👋and 👌to sacrifice for👋 what we know is right.

👌The American🤚 Founders 🤚invoked our Creator 🤚four times in the 🤚Declaration of Independence — 🤚four times. (Applause.) 

GUY IN AUDIENCE: “Yes!”

✋How 👋times ✋🤚have 🙏changed. ☝️☝But ✋🤚you know what✋🤚, now they’re 👈👉changing👇👇 back 👉👈again. 👆👆Just remember that. (Applause.)

👉

Benjamin Franklin✋🤚 reminded his colleagues at the 👌Constitutional ✋Convention to begin 👌by bowing 👌their heads ✋️in prayer.

👌Religious ✋liberty is 👋enshrined 👌in the very 👌first ✋amendment 👋of the Bill of Rights. 👌And ✋we all pledge 👋allegiance 👌👌✋🤚to — very, ✋🤚very ✋🤚beautifully — “✋🤚one nation under God.✋🤚” (Applause.)

👌This ✋is✋ America’s heritage, 👋a country that never 👌forgets that 🤚we are all — 👋all, every one of us 👋— made by the same God in Heaven. (Applause.)

✋When I came to speak 👋with you last year, I made you a promise. Well, one of the promises I made you was that I’d come back. ✋🤚See? ✋(Applause.) ✋🤚And I don’t even need your vote this year, right? That’s even nicer. (Laughter.)

✋But ☝I pledged 👌that, ✋in a Trump administration, 👌our nation’s ✋religious 👋heritage 👋would be cherished, 👋protected, ✋and defended 👌like you have never 👌seen 👆before. ☝That’s what’s happening. ☝👌That’s what’s happening. ☝👌You see it every day. ☝You’re reading it.👌

✋So this morning ✋I am honored and thrilled ✋to return as the first sitting President to address 🤚this incredible gathering of friends — so many friends. (Applause.) So many friends. And I’ll ask👉 Tony and all 👉our people ✋that do such a great job 👋in putting this event together ✋— can I take next year off or not? (Laughter.) Or do I have to be back? I don’t know.

AUDIENCE: No!

THE PRESIDENT: 👈He’s saying — they’re saying no. Lawana is saying no. That’s means no. (Laughter.)

☝So I’m here to thank 👌you for your ✋support 👋and to 👌share with you ✋how we are delivering 👋on that promise, ✋defending 👌our shared values✋, and 👌in so doing, ✋how we are ✋renewing the 👋America we love.

✋In the last 10 months, 👌we have followed through ✋on one promise 👌after ✋another. (Applause.) ✋I didn’t have a schedule, but if I did have a schedule, I would say we are substantially ahead of schedule. (Applause.)

Some of those promises are to support and defend the Constitution. I appointed and confirmed a Supreme Court Justice in the mold of the late, great Justice Antonin Scalia, the newest member of the Supreme Court, Justice Neil Gorsuch. (Applause.)

👏👏👌👈

To protect the 🤚unborn, I have reinstated a policy 🤚first put in place by President Ronald Reagan, 🤚the Mexico City Policy. (Applause.) To protect religious liberty, including protecting groups like this one, 👌I signed a 👌new executive ✋action in a 👌beautiful 👌ceremony ✋at the White House 👌on our National ✋Day of Prayer 👋— (applause) — which day we made official. (Applause.)

✋Among many historic steps✋, the 👌executive order ✋followed through on 👌one of my most✋ important campaign 👋promises 👋to so many of you: 👌to prevent 👌the horrendous ✋Johnson Amendment ☝from interfering ✋with your First Amendment rights👋. (Applause.) 👉Thank you. 👌We will not allow government ✋workers to censor ✋sermons 👋or target our ✋pastors 👋or our ministers 👋or rabbis. 👋These are the people ✋we want to hear from, ✋and they’re not going to be silenced any longer☝️. (Applause.)

🤚Just last week, based on this executive action, the 🤚Department of Justice issued 👌a new guidance 👌to all federal agencies to ensure 👌that no religious 👌group is ever targeted under my 👌administration. 👌It won’t happen. (Applause.)

👌We have ✋also taken action to protect the conscience ✋🤚rights of groups like the ✋🤚Little Sisters of the Poor. You know what they went through. (Applause.) What they went through — they were going through hell. And then all of the sudden✋🤚 they won. They said, how did that happen? (Laughter.)

We want to really🤚 point out that the Little Sisters of the Poor and other people of faith, they live by ✋👌a beautiful👌 calling, and we will not let 🖐bureaucrats take 🖐away that calling ✋or take away their rights. ✋️(Applause.)

👌We are stopping ✋cold 👌the attacks ✋on 👋Judeo-Christian values. (Applause.) 👉👉Thank you. 👉Thank you very much. ✋And something I’ve said so much during the last two years, but I’ll say it again as we approach the end of the year. You know, we’re getting near 👌that beautiful ✋Christmas season 👋that people 🖐don’t talk about anymore. (Laughter.) 🖐They don’t use the word🖐 “Christmas” because 🖐it’s not politically correct. 👋You go to department stores, 👐and they’ll say, ✋🤚“Happy New Year” 👐and they’ll say other things. ✋🤚And it will be red, 👋 they’ll have it painted, 👋but they don’t say it. Well, guess what? We’re saying “Merry Christmas” again. (Applause.)👍👏

🎤And as a Christmas gift to all of our hardworking families, we hope Congress will pass 👌massive 👌tax cuts 👌for the 👌American people.👌 (Applause.) That includes 🤚increasing the child tax credit and expanding it to eliminate the marriage penalty. (Applause.) 👌Because we know that the ✋American family is the true 👌bedrock of ✋️American life. So true. (Applause.) This is such an exciting event because we are really working very hard, and hopefully Congress will come through.

You saw what we did yesterday with respect to healthcare. ✋It’s step✋ by step by step. ✋(Applause.) And that was a very big step yesterday. Another big step was taken the day before yesterday. And one by one it’s going to come down, and we’re going to have great 👌healthcare in our country. ☝We’re going to ☝have great healthcare☝ in our country. (Applause.) 👋We’re taking a little different ✋👋✋route than we had hoped, because getting Congress — they forgot what their pledges were. (Laughter.) So we’re going a little different route. But you know what? In the end, it’s going to be just as effective, and maybe it will even be better. (Applause.)

For too long, ✋politicians have tried to ✋centralize the authority among the hands ✋of a small few ✋in our nation’s capital. 🤚🤚Bureaucrats think they 🤚can run your lives, 🤚overrule your values, meddle in your faith, and tell you how to live, 🤚what to say, and 🤚how to pray. ✋But 👌✋we know✊️✋ that parents, ✊️✋not bureaucrats, 👌know best ✋how to raise 👋their children👌 and create a thriving👋 society. (Applause.)

☝✋We know ✋that faith and prayer, not federal 🤚regulation — 🤚and, by the way, 🤚we are 👌cutting regulations 👌at a clip that nobody 👌has ever seen before. 🤚Nobody. 🤚(Applause.) 🤚In nine 🤚months, 👌we have cut more 👌regulation than 🤚any President 🤚has cut during 🤚their term in office. 🤚So we are doing the job. 🤚(Applause.) And that is one of the major reasons✋, in addition to the enthusiasm for manufacturing ✋and business and jobs ✋— and the jobs 👋are coming back.

✋That’s one of the major reasons ✋— ✊️✋regulation, what we’ve done ✋— that the stock market ✋has just hit an all-time✋ historic high✋. (Applause.) 👌That just on the public ✋markets we’ve made, ✋since Election Day, $5.2 ✋trillion in value. ✋Think of that: $5.2 trillion. (Applause.) And as you’ve seen, the level of enthusiasm is the highest it’s ever been, and we have a 17-year low in unemployment. So we’re doing, really, some work. (Applause.)

✋We know that👌 ✋it’s the family ✋and the church, ✋👌not government officials✋, that 👌know best ✋how to create ✋strong ✋and loving ✋communities. (Applause.) 👌And ✋above all else, ✋we know this: 👌In America, we don’t worship👌 government ✋— 👌we worship ✋God. (Applause.) 👋👋👇👉👇👌Inspired by that ✋conviction, 👌we are 👌returning ✋moral clarity ✋to our ✋view of the ✋world 👌and the 👌many grave 👌challenges✋ we face.👋

This afternoon, in a little while, I’ll be giving a speech on Iran, a terrorist nation like few others. And I think you’re going to find it very interesting. (Applause.)

DRUNK GUY IN AUDIENCE: “Woo!”

Yesterday, things happened with Pakistan, and I have openly said Pakistan took tremendous advantage of our country for many years, but we’re starting to have a real relationship with Pakistan and they’re starting to respect us as a nation again, and so are other nations. They’re starting to respect the United States of America again, 👇and I appreciate that. (Applause.) And I want to thank the leaders of Pakistan for what they’ve been doing.

✋In this administration, 👌we will ✋call evil ✋by its name✋. (Applause.) 👌✋We stand with our friends and 👌allies, ✋we forge new partnerships ✋in pursuit of peace, 👌and we take ✋decisive action ✋against those who would threaten 👌 our people 👌with harm. 👌(Applause.) And we will be decisive — 👌because we know that 👌the first 👌duty of 👌government👌 is to 🤚serve its citizens. 👌We are defending 👌our borders, 👌protecting our workers, 👌and enforcing our laws. 👌✋You see it every ✋single day like you haven’t✋ seen it in many, many years — ✋  if you’ve seen it at all. (Applause.)

👌In protecting America’s interests abroad, 👌we will always support ✋our cherished ✋friend and partner, ✋the State of Israel✋. (Applause.) 👇👌✋We will confront the ✋dangers that imperil our nation👌, our allies, ✋and the world, ✋including the threat of 👌radical ✋Islamic terrorism. ✋️(Applause.)

🤚We have made great strides 🤚against ISIS — tremendous 🤚strides. 🤚I don’t know if you’ve seen 🤚what’s going on, but tremendous🤚 strides against ISIS. They never got hit like this before. (Laughter.)

AUDIENCE: (Inaudible.)

👉Stand up. Stand up. Let me see — 👉he’s a rough guy. I can see it.

👐But they’ve been just ruthless and they’ve 🤚ruthlessly slaughtered innocent Christians, along with the vicious killing of innocent Muslims and other religious minorities. And we’ve made their lives very, very difficult — believe me. (Applause.)

👌We’ve done more against ISIS in nine 👌months than the previous 👌administration has done during its 👋whole administration — by far, by far. (Applause.) And ISIS is now being dealt one defeat after another. 👌We are confronting ✋rogue regimes from Iran to North Korea, and we are 👌challenging the communist dictatorship 👌of Cuba ✋and the socialist oppression of Venezuela. ✋And we will not lift the sanctions on these repressive regimes until they restore political✋ and religious freedom ✋️for their people. (Applause.)

🤚👌🤚All of these bad actors🤚 share a common enemy, 🤚👌the one force they cannot stop, 👌the force deep within our 👌👌souls, 🤚👌and that 👌is the power of 👌hope. 🤚That is why, 👌in addition 🤚to our great military might, 👌our enemies truly fear 👌🤚the United States. 👌Because our 👌people 👌✋👋never lose faith, 👌never give in, 👌✋and always hope✋ for a better ✋tomorrow.👌

👌✋Last week, Melania and I were reminded of this in a powerful way when we traveled to Las Vegas. 👌👋We visited a hospital where some of the survivors were recovering from absolutely horrific wounds. We met a 👌young man named 🖐Brady Cook. He’s 22 ✋and a brand-new👌✋ police officer. 👌That night 🤚was Brady’s second day 🤚in field training — 🤚his second day as a policeman🤚, can you believe that? 🤚But when the shooting began, 🤚he did not hesitate. 🤚He acted with 🤚incredible courage, rushing into the hail of bullets, 🤚and he was badly shot in the shoulder.

This is what Brady said: “👌I didn’t expect it, but it’s 👌what I signed up for✋. When stuff 👌goes down, ✋I want to 👌be there 👌✋to face evil 👌and to protect the good, 👌innocent👌✋ people that need it.” ✋And here’s a young guy✋, great guy — and second day. I said, ✋Brady, don’t worry about it, it’s going to be easier ✋from here. (Laughter and applause.) Brady is a hero, 🤚and he can’t wait to get back on the job.

Several weeks before, 🤚when Hurricane Harvey hit Houston, 🤚a local furniture storeowner, who’s known in 🤚Texas as “Mattress Mack,” 🤚decided he had to help. 🤚When the rain began to flood 🤚the streets of the city, 🤚he sent out his furniture trucks 🤚to rescue the stranded. 👌He brought them back to his stores, ✋and gave them food ✋and a clean, dry place to stay, even if it 👌meant ruining countless dollars’ worth of furniture.

👌👋🖐As “Mattress Mack” put it, “👌My faith defines me, ✋it’s who I am.” “👌We can afford the cost👌…what✋ we can’t afford” — we can’t — 👐and he said this very strongly, ✋🤚“what ✋👌we can’t ✋afford is to 👌cause people to ✋lose hope.”

👌In Brady ✋and Mack, 👌we see the strength ✋of the American spirit. ✋This spirit 🤚of courage and 🤚compassion is all 🤚around us, every day. It is the 👌heartbeat 👌of our 👌great nation. 👌And despite 👋✋🤚👋certain coverage, 👐that ✋🤚beat is stronger👐✋🤚 than it’s ever 👐✋🤚been before. 👐✋🤚You see right through it. ✋🤚(Applause.) That👐✋🤚 beat is stronger than it’s ever been.

🤚We see this spirit in the men and women who self-la-la-lesifily🤚 enlist in our armed forces and, really, who go out and risk their lives for God and for country. And we see it in the mothers and the fathers who get up at the 👋crack of dawn; they work two jobs and sometimes ✋three jobs. 👌They sacrifice every 👌✋day for the ✋furniture and — future of their children. 👌They have to go out. 👌They go out. 👌They work. 👌The future of their children👋 is everything to them. 👋They put it before everything. ✋And they make ✋sure that the future ✋of their children✋ has God involved in it. ✋So important to them.✋(Applause.)

👌We ✋see it in the church communities ✋that come together ✋to care for one another, to pray for each other🤚, and to stand 👌strong with each 👋other in times of need.👌

👌✋The people who grace 🤚our lives, and fill our homes, and build our 🤚communities are the true strength 👌🤚of our nation, and ✋👌the greatest hope for 👌a better tomorrow.✋

👌As long as we have 👌pride in our country, ✋👌confidence 👋in our future, 👌and faith ✋in our God, 👌then America 👌will ✋️prevail.

👌We will defeat ✋every evil, 👌overcome every threat, ✋👌and meet 👌every ✋single challenge. ✋We will 👌defend our ✋👌faith and protect ✋our traditions. 👌We will find the best in each other👋 and in ourselves. 👌We will pass on 👌✋the blessings of liberty, ✋and the glories ✋of God, to our children. 👌Our values ✋will endure, 👌our nation will thrive, 👌✋our citizens will✋️ flourish, and our freedom will triumph.

Thank you 🤚to the Value Voter Summit🤚. Such an incredible group 🤚of people you are. Thank you to all of the faithful here today. 👌And thank you to the people ✋of faith all across 👋our nation and all over the 👋world.

👌✋May God bless you. 👌May God bless the ✋United States of America. Thank you 👉very much, everybody. 👏(Applause.) Thank you👉👏.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/10/13/remarks-president-trump-2017-values-voter-summit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZzUbL5Yqhk