Ayuuuuuuuup. Movable feast is a great term for it. Even once formerly ostracized groups get permitted into the in-group, their membership is strictly conditional on serving the interests of those closer into the center of the Whiteness construct. Stop being useful, watch how fast the old hate rears its ugly head again.

How delightfully ineffective

(Seriously, what has Effective Altruism ever accomplished beyond buying castles?)

...The vast majority of guys I know who have been in a lot of fights (me included) are quite happy never getting in a fight again? Like, there's definitely a few weirdos and dudes with anger issues who love fighting, but the shine wears off pretty damn quick for most people, and they'd rather avoid the fight in the first place? I really don't think real-life arenas and duels would work the way this guy thinks.

(I used to work as a bouncer in a bar, haven't been in a fight since then, I prefer keeping it that way. Also, fair notice, I wasn't actually a very good fighter- I was the average-sized, unintimidating bouncer, my job was to head off fights before they happened, so the bigger bouncers and bartenders didn't have to intervene, and I was good at talking drunks down. I wrestled a decent number of drunks when I had to, but that did not an impressive fighter make, I'd suck at Colosseum fights, lol.)

Neoreaction: A Basilisk really is great, you definitely should tackle it soon!

Me, about to suggest some actually really good, thought provoking Marvel comics that somehow got made alongside the relentless superhero soap opera: oh wait now isn't the time, we're dunking on the AI bro

It's like the classic comic "we should improve society somewhat!" "And yet you participate in society!"

I haven't seen any numbers on how much Sora cost to train, nor how much it costs to run- I can't help but believe it's painfully high.

Oh lord one of my less online friends posted this in a group chat. Love that group, but I am NOT happy about having to read so much of Scott's writing again to explain the various ways it's loony.

RIP digital drug trip, you were actually pretty cool

You should check out the book A Libertarian Walks into a Bear for another great example, if you haven't already!

But the laughter it brings us?

Priceless.

Has anyone checked for kernels of corn growing behind their ears?

• The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, by Thomas Kuhn

Bit of philosophy of science is a useful bit of immunization against Rationalist bullshit. Maybe not on its own, but it helps.

Uggggghhhhhhhhhhhh

As someone who made decent money off that site back in the day, fuck Steemit. Realizing that my earnings came from Korean folks losing their life savings turned me against crypto for life.

Yeah, there's absolutely a place for arguments that aren't full-bore "capitalism is evil, forward the revolution!" Some people need to be eased into that space, and articles like this, that show how fundamentally stupid and terrible Musk and company are, are a great way to get people to start asking HOW dingbats like that got power. And it's not the longest journey from there to questioning whether something is wrong with the system itself.

(There are failure states, of course- namely, reinforcing the neoliberal idea that if you just put better people in charge of a system, it will work better. But that's a question of execution, not of tactical validity.)

I've spent way too many pages of my books making fun of utilitarians to stop now lol.

Somehow, I doubt there's many other sneerers in Hanoi, but you never know...

Solid post, already shared this a few times.

Oh heck yeah new Dan Olson