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sockpuppet2  4d ago (astralcodexten.com)   2276 thread views

Scott: Come On, Obviously The Purpose Of A System Is Not What It Does

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This made me reflect that I hadn't actually thought critically about the phrase (at least, commensurate to how often it's used). For fun, if you think the purpose of a system is what it does, write what you think that means, before reading Scott's critique, then write if you've updated your opinion. For example: I think it's a useful way of re-framing obviously dysfunctional systems, so as to analyze their dysfunction, but Scott is persuasive that it's not a good means of understanding systems, in general, so people should be more cautious about adopting this framing and using the phrase, rhetorically.

(Spoilers go between two sets of "||")

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But between him and moldbug putting out "okay, newage rightwing, sometimes the system is actually pretty good, we just need to change who the system caters to" posts, I've noticed my growing confusion on what they actually wanted with the change of the guard.

Without getting into my whole long analysis/rant about Yarvin's thought and political project (and my many disagreements with it), it seems to me that it was always about an internal turnover within the "Brahmin"/"Elf" ruling caste, away from quasi-religious "Puritan" Mayflower descendants trying to "uplift" the chuds and towards people like, well, himself; away from promoting ideology and toward efficient technocracy a la "Fnargl."

Phrasing it like that makes it sound like moldbug imagines himself as a faang middle manager.

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