this post was submitted on 07 Jun 2025
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SneerClub
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Hurling ordure at the TREACLES, especially those closely related to LessWrong.
AI-Industrial-Complex grift is fine as long as it sufficiently relates to the AI doom from the TREACLES. (Though TechTakes may be more suitable.)
This is sneer club, not debate club. Unless it's amusing debate.
[Especially don't debate the race scientists, if any sneak in - we ban and delete them as unsuitable for the server.]
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Just once I'd like a popular N.American public intellectual to not be a grifter.
For those who don't know, Pinker is a 'techno-optimist' which means that he believes that iphones and AI are going to solve all the problems of neoliberalism.
If you've ever heard the argument "but poverty worldwide is down and we're living in an unprecedented era of peace", it's this fucking guy.
The whole "TED" circuit is just Shark-Tank for academics. Only instead of good business ideas, they're competing to reassure rich liberals that they're good people and the status quo is moral and right.
Mocking Peven Stinker is one of the main reasons this community exists.
Douglas Adams once identified these guys as a class of prostitute, then cleverly wrote it in a funny book so that no one would get mad at him.
"Do you want to have a good time?" said a voice from a doorway.
"As far as I can tell," said Ford, "I'm having one. Thanks."
"Are you rich?" said another.
This made Ford laugh.
He turned and opened his arms in a wide gesture. "Do I look rich?" he said.
"Don't know," said the girl. "Maybe, maybe not. Maybe you'll get rich. I have a very special service for rich people..."
"Oh yes?" said Ford, intrigued but careful. "And what's that?"
"I tell them it's OK to be rich."
Gunfire erupted from a window high above them, but it was only a bass player getting shot for playing the wrong riff three times in a row, and bass players are two a penny in Han Dold City.
Ford stopped and peered into the dark doorway.
"You what?" he said.
The girl laughed and stepped forward a little out of the shadow. She was tall, and had that kind of self-possessed shyness which is a great trick if you can do it.
"It's my big number," she said. "I have a Master's degree in Social Economics and can be very convincing. People love it. Especially in this city."