SneerClub

1266 readers

6 users here now

Hurling ordure at the TREACLES, especially those closely related to LessWrong.

AI-Industrial-Complex grift is fine as long as it sufficiently relates to the AI doom from the TREACLES. (Though TechTakes may be more suitable.)

This is sneer club, not debate club. Unless it's amusing debate.

[Especially don't debate the race scientists, if any sneak in - we ban and delete them as unsuitable for the server.]

See our twin at Reddit

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

self@awful.systems

blakestacey@awful.systems

dgerard@awful.systems

Moldbug has a sad (www.thenerdreich.com)

submitted 1 year ago by AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space to c/sneerclub@awful.systems

12 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Apparently DOGE isn’t killing enough people (literally or metaphorically)

top 12 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] bitofhope@awful.systems 0 points 1 year ago

Ooh, pants-on-head stupid semantics nonsense detected.

First, the government needs to be run top-down from the Oval Office. This is why we call it the “executive” branch. “Executive” is a literal synonym of “monarchical”—from “mono,” meaning “one,” and “archy,” meaning “regime.” “Autocratic” is fine too. The “executive branch” is the “autocratic branch,” or should be if English is English. Libs: if these words don’t mean what they mean, what do they mean?

Executive, as in pertaining to execution. Executing the the duties of a government as defined by legislation. Where the fuck did Curtsy get the impression that "executive" is somehow synonymous with "monarchical"? Did he mix it up with "exclusive"? Even corporations often have multiple executives with different roles.

Mr. Thiel you have so much fucking money couldn't you afford a fascist philosopher king who is more intelligent than this guy who thinks an "executioner" is a guy that makes you a dictator?

[–] froztbyte@awful.systems 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

aww, poor baby, he didn't consider the risk of incentives around an avaricious power-hungry narcissist! whoops! what an utterly embarrassing and predictable mistake to make

(get fucked moldbug)

[–] istewart@awful.systems 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

He will never stop to reflect that his "philosophy," such as it is, is explicitly tailored for avaricious power-hungry narcissists, soooooo

[–] froztbyte@awful.systems 0 points 1 year ago (2 children)

"what if my CEO god-king decides not to follow my plan" is a thesis even the worst startup founders have muddled through and I find it repeatedly funny as fuck that this mediocre monster of a man is hitting it

maybe it's indicative of other things? maybe he believed so hard in the plan that he misjudged felon's ability? maybe felon just conned him easily? extremely possible on multiple fronts, and still just as funny

imagine how fucking frustrated the little shitgoblin must be. it makes my angry heart flutter!

[–] bitofhope@awful.systems 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's weird how you can always find autocracy supporters in every era despite the overwhelmingly strong and incredibly obvious counterargument "what if the autocrat wants to do something you don't like"

[–] YourNetworkIsHaunted@awful.systems 0 points 1 year ago

I'm reminded of an old essay from Siskind that tried to break down the different approaches to disagreement as either "conflict theory" - different people want different, mutually incompatible things - and "mistake theory" where we all want the same basic thing but disagree about how to get it. Given the general silicon valley milieu's (and YudRat's specifically) affinity for "mistake theory" I think the susceptibility to authoritarianism and fascism fits remarkably well. After all, if we all want the same basic thing the only way the autocrat could do something we don't like is if they were wrong, so we just have to get a reasonable enough autocrat and give them absolute power, at which point they can magically solve all problems. See also the singularity God AI nonsense.

If I had my wish, it would be that this doesn't just remind people of how authoritarians can be/are evil or incompetent, but also that the general structure isn't actually more "efficient" because whatever delays the democratic process introduces are dwarfed by the inevitable difficulties of just trying to do anything at the scale of any modern state, much less the sheer scale of the USA.

[–] istewart@awful.systems 0 points 1 year ago

I actually think it's part-and-parcel of Yarvin's personality. As much as he rails against "the Cathedral," PMCs, whatever, he himself is a perfect example of a pathological middle manager. Somebody who wants power without having to shoulder ultimate responsibility. He craves the childishly simplified social environment of a medieval-fantasy king's court, but he doesn't want to be the king himself. He wants to be (and has been, up until now) the scheming vizier who can run his manipulation games in the background, deciding who gets in front of the king but not having to take the heat if the king makes a bad decision. (And the "kings" he works for have made plenty of bad decisions, but consequences have only just begun to catch up.)

I suspect this newfound mainstream attention is far more uncomfortable than it is validating for him. Perhaps the NYT profile was a burst of exhilaration, but the shine has worn off quickly. This correlates with the story last year about him coming back to Urbit as a "wartime CEO." If Urbit is so damn important for building his ridiculous vision, why wasn't he running it the whole time? He doesn't actually want to be CEO of anything. Power without responsibility.

[–] rook@awful.systems 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It’s been a long time since I read any moldbug, and I vaguely recalled him as someone as a tedious reactionary who wouldn’t stop goddamn writing. Was he always this murderously unhinged, openly fantasising about mass graves?

Anyway, I hope the realisation that the ultra rich are no smarter or more capable than anyone else gnaws away at what ever he has in lieu of a soul and consumes the rest of him.

[–] cstross@wandering.shop 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

@rook @sneerclub No; back in the early 1990s he was an amusing usenet troll with a sideline in ice-cold sarcasm, but the libertarianism hadn't eaten his brain yet (although it had already gotten to his elder brother, the cypherpunk).

[–] AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space 0 points 1 year ago

This appears to be him in his Downfall era, pacing his doomsday bunker off his tits on Pervitin.

[–] aninjury2all@awful.systems 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This post reminded me to ask: what's the over-under on Moldy skipping out on child support?

[–] gerikson@awful.systems 0 points 1 year ago

oh god has he spawned????