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PaperclipPerfector  12d ago (text post)   30485 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of December 9, 2024

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It seems like the mainstream press is finally catching up with the shatter zone article about the alleged CEO shooter.

The articleseems fair enough (apart from embedding an unrelated video, which is likely an editorial decision), not the kind of hatchet job we hate the NYT for.

First, let me stress: so far, there’s little evidence that this worldview inspired Thompson's killing, at least directly. Unlike more usual suspects like neo-Nazis or Islamic jihadists, gray tribe thinkers rarely preach armed insurrection, and are more likely to advocate social change through high-quality randomized controlled studies.

Often, when the mainstream media convers the rationality/EA subculture, it is in a negative context:

  • NYT: Who is this weird blogger read by some influential silicon valley people which we hate?
  • What is the ideology of SBF, who gambled with the money of honest (if foolish) people?
  • Who are these evil guys who tolerate HBD proponents within their midst?

Here, the context feels less negative, which is amazing given that we are talking about a homicide. From my understanding, while the life experience of rural Americans is very different from the life of Americans in the big coastal cities, getting reasonable claims denied by health insurance companies is basically a universal US experience. The victim was easily in the lowest percentile of sympathy. Murdering a drug dealer, terrorist, corrupt cop or tobacco CEO would likely have invoked a stronger average disgust reaction.

(Of course, I am in my own bubble, perhaps all the cynics with their quips about their thoughts and prayers unfortunately being out of system, only form a small minority, and the median US citizen is positively horrified that someone could put bullets into the pillar of society who runs the company which put them into medical debt.)

The grey tribe attributes dysfunction in healthcare to evil CEOs less than any other group in the world, it feels like. It's always complex economic arguments. Evil CEOs only come into the picture with regulatory capture.

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