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Iconochasm

2. Bootstrap the rest of the fucking omnipotence.

2 followers   follows 10 users  
joined 2022 September 05 00:44:49 UTC 

				
User ID: 314


				
				
				

			

		

	














	


		


			



	

		

			

			

				

					

						

							
						

						

							
							

								
Iconochasm


								

								

								
								
								

								
							
					
 
				


				
2. Bootstrap the rest of the fucking omnipotence.

				
				
				

				

					2 followers  

					follows 10 users  

					joined 2022 September 05 00:44:49 UTC
				


				
					

					
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User ID: 314


					
					
					
				

			


					

						
					



		

	

 











			
			

			
			

			




	


		

			
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				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 24, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I was very good friends with a girl who was a die hard, life-long Democrat.  Like, door-to-door campaigning in middle school, joking about how much she'd like to be Bill Clinton's intern in the mid-00s, etc.  I went to college with her and she spent her days preparing to be Leslie Knope and tangling with [famous conservative firebrand].  Her first real job in politics was somehow as an intern for a red state Republican senator, and she came back absolutely gushing about him.  They had fun chats and he gave her a cute pet name and everything!


I was just flabbergasted.  "Senator [recognizable name]?  Neocon, evangelical fundamentalist, anti-gay, anti-abortion, Iraq War-supporting Senator [recognizable name]?  I'm not mixing him up with some other Senator [recognizable name]?"


And she'd just cheerfully go "Yeah, him!  Great guy."


Voice of Saurman is a solid analogy.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 10, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Medicare fraud is extremely common.  There are entire companies that just ship wildly expensive, random "medical equipment" (which is usually some kind of actual equipment, like a back brace or something) to old people and charge it to Medicare on their behalf, and then just see if the octogenarians can figure out how to file a return through their Byzantine phone trees or website.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 7, 2024
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Absent from this article: literally any quotes from Kamala Harris.  "Advisors" say that she believes her role in certifying is ceremonial, and that she would certify even if she lost.  Has she ever taken a question (and given a direct answer) about if she would meaningfully accept the results of the election in a timely manner, even if there were minor or moderate oddities?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 13, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Oh, boo.  Remember, you are the alpha.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 13, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Is there any way to read the 40k books aside from buying them each individually?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 13, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Do you have any interests that you could find very niche old school style forum communities for? A lot of the idle internet browsing attention I used to have pointed toward social media with has been redirected toward very specific small communities with very specific expertise banks and, on average, for the good ones, usually majority older members.




I was kind of hoping to get some recommendations...


But if you want to feel old, apparently Taylor Swift is releasing new songs tonight.  My teen daughter was excitedly telling me all the rumors she has been following, and I asked her where she finds them.  "Are you reading Taylor Swift forums?" "No...?"  "Do you know what a forum is?" "I... think... so?"


Thank you for the well wishes.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 13, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Luck to you, too.


What's wrong with the Wednesday threads?




Do you play an instrument?




I would say that I can't carry a tune in a bucket, but it's possible that an AI could possible attain true agency, and upon hearing my attempts at music, decide the human species was irredeemable.




For that I can only suggest fanfiction. I'd shill /r/rational, but I'm pretty sure I've seen you around there before.




Yeah, though that place lost a lot of my attention naturally.  Anything worth checking out in the last couple years?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 13, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I actually agree with everything you said here, and I've been pondering the parallels to the Cold War (I have a family history of hippiness on my mother's side).  I see this as very similar to deciding that worrying about it was too much, so you just stop reading the paper, and instead read novels.


Intellectually, I really thought I'd met and defeated existentialism decades ago.  But Aurelius has a bit early in Meditations where he says that all men know they'll eventually die, but the situation is actually worse than that because you'll probably go feeble and senile first, so your effective time is actually less than the span of your life.  This is hitting me like an early dementia diagnosis.  The degree of anxiety is not terribly rational, but it's also proving resistant to rational counter-argument, like the one you offered.  There is probably a great deal of ape status anxiety involved as well.


And on a random tangent because there will probably not be a better time, you once showed up in a dream.  I was on some sort of a stone quay, looking for some random dream nonsense thing, and something in my brain said about a figure standing near the water "Hey, that's 2rafa".  I offered a polite acknowledgement, literally "Oh hey, how's it going?"  "Good, you?"  "Good, gotta run, have a good one."  "You too."  And then took off chasing a boat or something.  It was just very funny to me, because I have fairly severe aphantasia and sometimes joke that I live in a world of words and numbers, and apparently my subconscious doesn't even bat an eye about visually "recognizing" someone I've never seen in any format whatsoever.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 13, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I have been reading your story, and enjoying it quite a bit.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 13, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
That vibe is sort of the opposite of what I'm looking for.  But if any of you folks are ever in the hinterlands betwixt The City of Brotherly Love and America's Playground, feel free to DM on reddit.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 13, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Via con dios, compadre.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 13, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Alright, folks, I'm out.


Consider me the first Motte casualty to AI.  No, I'm not planning on any self-harm.  Quite the opposite, in fact.  But reading about this shit is so depressing and anxiety-inducing that it's giving me a premature mid-life crisis, so I'm going to do the reasonable thing and take the grill pill.


As part of that reevaluation of how I've been spending my time, I've taken a look at the 15ish years I've been "Very Online And Politically Aware".  Since the financial crisis in 2008, really.  And I have to conclude that the investment of 10's of thousands of hours of my life has been basically a wash.  I don't think I can point to a single tangible benefit to my life, it's all just sunk opportunity cost.  Maybe a few memes pushed out, but thinking I inspired them is probably just arrogance.  My lazy, slacktivist involvement almost certainly didn't matter for anything at all.  Being Politically Aware is arguably the worst thing I've done with my life; I would rather have played more video games.


Even the insight porn is getting stale.


So combining these two epiphanies, I'm going to block TheMotte and SSC, and ACT and Instapundit, and unsub from any remotely political or AI-interested subreddit and block /all.  Anything else I can think of or that comes up, I'm just gonna dip.  (I would like some advice on how to block websites on chrome mobile for Android.  The recommended apps seem to not really work the way they're presented.)


Because if this is the beginning of the end, of us becoming either obsolete or all dying, I would rather go out in a eudaemonic frenzy than wasting my time whining and worrying.  I would rather double-down on being an amazing dad, and son and brother.  I'll double-down at the gym, and run the best D&D campaign my friends have ever seen.  I've had fantasy novels fermenting in my head for decades, I'd like to write a couple before GPT-X makes human creativity obsolete (and then I can have GPT-X churn out countless sequels!)  Maybe I'll even try dating again.


And if and when the nanite disassembler swarms come for me, I'll go down on my feet knowing that I was a pretty kick-ass human, back when that mattered.


If anyone has suggestions for other things worth doing or being, or that satisfy that "check my phone while waiting in the line to pickup the kids" nudge that avoids my new no-nos, I'm all ears.


I've enjoyed this community a great deal, and think fondly of many of you.  Thank you for contributing to making this a place where I felt at home.  Maybe we'll have a grand meetup if humanity wins, and spend a subjective eternity having AI-moderated arguments about who was right.


And if any of you are in a position to do anything about the future - godspeed.  We're all counting on you.


Thank you again.  <3


Now if you'll excuse me, I need to take this empty propane tank to ACE for a refill.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 13, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Maybe if 100% of all matter is converted into computronium-based Awareness, all of these problems will finally solve themselves.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 13, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


And "achieve world peace" may include "kill all humans", so the AI obediently does that as the quickest, easiest way to the goal.




My big hope is that the AIs will reliably notice that the actual quickest, easiest way to achieve a goal is to redefine success such that the job is done, in which case woke postmodernists may be the ideal AI aligners.  Failing that, that they become even more crippled with ennui and existential horror than humans.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 13, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
This makes me think of my college roommate's girlfriend.  She seemed torn between religious tradwife and empowered modern woman, and it did ruinous things to her mental health.


On one more tradwife-y occasion, she invited him and a few of our guy friends over, and just served us each a plate of steak and potatoes and a beer.  And my blue-tribe acclimated ass reacted with wild-eyed panic,  exactly because it felt like doing something terribly retrograde.


That memeplex is powerful and merciless. And I think it contributes mightily to modern human unhappiness.  Which isn’t necessarily me advocating for trad roles, but for being being more relaxed about it all around (and accepting that most people will thus prefer something a little more trad than not).


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 13, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I think many of us view crying as being emotionally overwhelmed.  In this view, it's not about openeness, it's about self-control and emotional maturity.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 13, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Can you think of any countries in, say, Europe, who have many or all of these policies you say would encourage you to have more children where women actually go and have more children?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 13, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
You mention being 24, so I was curious if you'd ever seen The Life of Julia.  It was heavily criticized at the time for taking a "nanny state will care for me cradle to grave" approach.


Now honestly... in a hypothetical world where all of these items were attained, do you honestly think you'd even want children?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 6, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Keep buzzing their air defense, like someone going "pspsps" at a skittish cat.




This is now my favorite theory for UFOs.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 6, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Where did you get these numbers from?  You have Philly listed as having 201 murders in 2020 (down 24%), when Philly actually had 499 murders in 2020, for an increase of 40%.  Similarly, Atlanta had 157, not 59


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 6, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
That's fair.  If we really wanted to answer the question, given the disparity in mayorships for big cities, we might want to do something like find the 50 largest Republican-run cities, and then compare that to the 50 Democrat-run cities with the closest demographics.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 6, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Smaller absolute numbers are still more likely to be outliers.  The very first iteration of this argument I saw was trying to make the opposite point (that R cities had a bigger increase than D cities), and it did so by cherry-picking out some random tier 3.5 cities with an R mayor that went from 4 murders to 8, and weighed that "100% increase" against the "50% increase" from major cities depicting hundreds of excess murders.  Hundreds of discrete murders is obviously going to offer more statistical reliability than something like "This year had an unusually lethal driveby shooting".  Similarly, it would be asinine to look at stats from the early 2000's and count 2001 as having an extra 3000 murders in NYC.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for March 10, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
In my journey of trying new whiskeys, I have to give a negative review for Leadslingers.  Tastewise, it's fine.  Better than I expected for a $40 fifth, even.  But it hits in just the worst possible way.  It feels like it either does nothing, or just gives the unpleasant parts of being a little drunk, and somehow still leaves me abnormally hungover the next morning.  It's just the worst anti-optimized alcohol.  I wonder if a monkey's paw was somehow involved in it's creation.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 6, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
The dean would have worn an SS uniform if he though "Jeffrey" might like it.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Wellness Wednesday for March 8, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
"Holy shit, a thread about showering," he laughed in gasps, each mountainous heave puffing a cloud of Cheeto dust into the dark room.  Stubby fingers ponderously wiped queso off on his hairless moobs before knocking aside enough Mountain Dew cans to reach the crusty keyboard.  "Time to destroy their community with le epic sneer for my fellow clubbers."