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Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending Sunday 14 April 2024 (awful.systems)

submitted 7 months ago by dgerard@awful.systems to c/techtakes@awful.systems

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Have a sneer percolating in your system but not enough time/energy to make a whole post about it? Go forth and be mid!

Any awful.systems sub may be subsneered in this subthread, techtakes or no.

If your sneer seems higher quality than you thought, feel free to cut’n’paste it into its own post, there’s no quota for posting and the bar really isn’t that high

The post Xitter web has spawned soo many “esoteric” right wing freaks, but there’s no appropriate sneer-space for them. I’m talking redscare-ish, reality challenged “culture critics” who write about everything but understand nothing. I’m talking about reply-guys who make the same 6 tweets about the same 3 subjects. They’re inescapable at this point, yet I don’t see them mocked (as much as they should be)
Like, there was one dude a while back who insisted that women couldn’t be surgeons because they didn’t believe in the moon or in stars? I think each and every one of these guys is uniquely fucked up and if I can’t escape them, I would love to sneer at them.

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[–] jax@awful.systems 16 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (3 children)

Long time lurker, first time sneerer reporting for duty.

e/acc got the spotlight in an article on the Australian public broadcaster, and I couldn't help myself.

In many ways, he's a perfect fit for the movement. But despite sharing many e/acc values, he's not willing to call himself one. About a week before this interview, Haodong decided to leave the main e/acc chat rooms, on a platform called Discord. "First things first. It's a cesspit," he says. "They have a high tolerance towards, very, very far right people and trolls." The final straw came, he says, when someone was advancing an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory that an evil Jewish cabal was trying to wipe out western civilisation. It's true that sexism, racism and general bigotry are regular features in the forum. "I don't want to be associated with a lot of these guys. They're very extreme libertarian kooks."

[–] self@awful.systems 14 points 7 months ago (2 children)

welcome! this is a good first post.

"Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to figure out a theory of everything, to understand the universe."

It turned out the real Beff Jezos was a brilliant Quantum AI computing scientist.

He's only in his early 30s, but he'd already held leadership roles at two cutting-edge companies owned by Google's parent company, Alphabet.

and I can see why you needed to sneer. the entire fucking article quirkwashes e/a and BasedBeffJezos by sharing some of the absolute stupidest opinions and memes ever formed (an e/a staple) and a small fraction of the bigotry in their community, and handwaves it all away by claiming BasedBeffJezos must be a genius cause he was a nepo hire at two google subsidiaries and was a “Quantum AI computing scientist”, whatever the fuck that means

Despite the apparent war, e/accs and doomers have a surprising amount in common.

wow, it’s almost like your ass forgot to interview anyone outside of an AI cult for this article

[–] jax@awful.systems 10 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (3 children)

thanks! I've been enjoying the weekly threads, feels like they provide an easier way to get involved.

I thought at the end of the article they'd provide a modicum of push back by sharing the perspective of someone outside the cult, but nope, they round it out with a "self-professed doomer" EA, who they introduce as (and only as):

the co-founder of a global accessories brand called Bellroy, Matt's a successful Australian entrepreneur.

Objection, relevance?

[–] jax@awful.systems 8 points 7 months ago

nvm found the relevance, Linkedin tells me he was involved in hosting Lesswrong for 9 years lol

[–] swlabr@awful.systems 6 points 7 months ago

the co-founder of a global accessories brand called Bellroy,

fuck now I gotta burn my bellroy shit.

[–] carlitoscohones@awful.systems 5 points 7 months ago

Bellroy stuff is kind of in my wheelhouse for minimalist manly man stuff; luckily I haven't bought any.

[–] self@awful.systems 10 points 7 months ago (1 children)

when I asked BasedBeffJezos what I should expect from an e/a future, he replied “welcome to the fantasy zone. get ready !”. it was only then that I realized he had cleverly tricked me into interviewing a standup cabinet of the 1985 Sega arcade hit Space Harrier

[–] saucerwizard@awful.systems 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I’ve been playing the 32x version!

[–] self@awful.systems 2 points 6 months ago

same! though I was giving the Saturn version a try while writing that post

[–] swlabr@awful.systems 11 points 7 months ago

This journo: "Hmm, a guy that was deeply in this community says it's a fucked up shithole with bad politics. I'm going to ignore that aspect of it and just uncritically platform them wholesale"

[–] blakestacey@awful.systems 9 points 7 months ago

The thermodynamic god is a kind of in-joke for e/acc; a reference to the laws of physics

But apparently asking a physicist whether these people are all full of shit is too much.