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PaperclipPerfector  7d ago (text post)   33449 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of February 17, 2025

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I've heard plenty of people, including over here, condemn Altman for not having a stake in the future, for being a disinterested devotee of Techno Capital without any real skin in the game. Him being gay and childless was pointed at to shore up their claim.

Now, I still think Altman is an untrustworthy snake, but that particular line of argument seems hollow.

My accusations weren't this strong, but I've made similar points.

Altman having a child changes things. I welcome Altman to the 'pseudo-visceral stake in the future club'. Congrats to him and his husband.

I'm in support of gay men adopting children and adopting rituals of traditional marriage. Yes, they're only nominally monogamous, but that's good enough for me. I prefer an effort to maintain optics of normalcy, instead of forcing the culture to accept a public lifestyle that's way outside the overton window. Don't care about what happens behind closed doors. I've seen a few twitter dog-whistles accusing him (and gay men in general) of being pedo groomers. Real unsavory stuff.

It doesn't change that Altman comes across as a uncanny-valley predator (in a lizard person sort of way), but that's par for the course for billionaire tech CEOs. Can't exactly fault him for that.

I certainly don't disagree that Altman shouldn't be trusted further than you can throw him, but I do appreciate you being able to say that you that one (of many) reasons to distrust him no longer count. Most people, once they've made up their minds, are content to let arguments be soldiers and always count them as MIA even when the body was dropped off with the dog-tags attached.

So we went from him having no real skin in the game to him having skin in the game in an unreal way.

Yeah it was a regular argument made during the OpenAI coup attempt, that he was some kind of sociopathic misanthrope who had a deep ambivalence toward humanity. Seems less likely now.

P(misanthrope) less

P(sociopath) unchanged

I disagree.

The threads around the OpenAI coup attempt highlighted multiple inside sources who have stated that Altman is a unique kind of sociopath. He's a non-technical non-founder. He is the networker's networker.

Him having a child, unfortunately, points to one of two pretty extreme scenarios; either he's in the midst of a pretty big change of heart about Techno-post-humanity and does believe in the future in a "people should have kids an invest in them" sort of way. Or...

He's had a surrogate child (who he can easily support as a billionaire) as a magic talisman to deflect precisely these "you don't care about a human future" attacks. "Sure I do!" Sam says, "Look at this human infant that I now pay for! Is this not our culturally agreed upon signal indicating my allegiance to the future of humans?"

Ask yourself if a billionaire sociopath is capable of this.

I don't disagree with your assessment, but it seems pretty unfalsifiable; it's a conspiracy theory writ small.

Yep. This has been directly addressed

I guess? But at the same time it is at least evidence that he is less the way some people feared.

How so?

To be explicit; I think it is probably (further) evidence he is a sociopath who will use people and deceive people to further his own ambitions.

So if he didn't have a kid, you would think it's less likely that he's a sociopath?

Yes!

Although there is still a body of evidence before the kid that would point in that direction.

Because you are assuming that he had the kid merely for optics.

It would be like saying “I think Person X is a sociopath. He did something that generally would not be sociopathic but because I think X is a sociopath he must be doing it to hide his sociopathy.”

Well sure if you already assume the sociopathy. I’m more willing to suggest that maybe your initial assessment might be off.

I would say aesthetics rather than optics.

This sort of behavior seems to me to attempt to wear the skin suit of natural normal male desire.

To see the consequences of your union, your wife swelling with your child. New life brought forth as you participate in the continuing glory of God's creation.

This is not that. This feels more like a sacrifice to Molach or a grotesque distorted simulacra of normal healthy desire

I do think it is reasonable to question whether gay men ought to be able to use surrogates. It is one thing to adopt where a kid wasn’t going to have any family. It is another to intentionally set up a situation where a kid will not have a mom.

Don't orphans already have enough problems without being dropped into some sort of homosexual family life LARP? I'd rather be in an orphanage / orphanarium.

Well sure if you already assume the sociopathy.

I do.

It would be like saying “I think Person X is a sociopath. He did something that generally would not be sociopathic but because I think X is a sociopath he must be doing it to hide his sociopathy.”

This is a good point. It made me think of my own post on conspiratorial thinking and I think that I might be a victim of that in this Altman case. I'll reconsider.

Rejoice, ye mods! The spirit of the Motte lives.

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