this post was submitted on 05 Jan 2024
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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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[–] scruiser@awful.systems 9 points 11 months ago (2 children)

The thing that gets me the most about this is they can't imagine that Eliezer might genuinely be in favor of inclusive language, and thus his use of people's preferred pronouns must be a deliberate calculated political correctness move and thus in violation of the norms espoused by the sequences (which the author takes as a given the Eliezer has never broken before, and thus violating his own sequences is some sort of massive and unique problem).

To save you all having to read the rant...

—which would have been the end of the story, except that, as I explained in a subsequent–subsequent post, "A Hill of Validity in Defense of Meaning", in late 2018, Eliezer Yudkowsky prevaricated about his own philosophy of language in a way that suggested that people were philosophically confused if they disputed that men could be women in some unspecified metaphysical sense.

Also, bonus sneer points, developing weird terminology for everything, referring to Eliezer and Scott as the Caliphs of rationality.

Caliphate officials (Eliezer, Scott, Anna) and loyalists (Steven) were patronizingly consoling me

One of the top replies does call this like it is...

A meaningful meta-level reply, such as "dude, relax, and get some psychological help" will probably get me classified as an enemy, and will be interpreted as further evidence about how sick and corrupt is the mainstream-rationalist society.

[–] dgerard@awful.systems 7 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Also, bonus sneer points, developing weird terminology for everything, referring to Eliezer and Scott as the Caliphs of rationality.

ahaha, this was a joke inside the subculture, which Scott A even posted about - because Scott was posting a lot on Slate Star Codex and Eliezer wasn't really posting much at that time.

[–] scruiser@awful.systems 8 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Right, its a joke, in the sense that the phrase "Caliph" started its usage in a non-serious fashion that got a chuckle, but the way Zack uses it, it really doesn't feel like a joke. It feels like the author genuinely wants Eliezer to act as the central source of authority and truth among the rationalists and thus Eliezer must not endorse the heresy of inclusive language or else it will mean their holy prophet has contradicted the holy scripture causing a paradox.

[–] jonhendry@awful.systems 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

“Kidding on the square” as they used to say.

[–] dgerard@awful.systems 3 points 11 months ago

a phrase for jokes that only work insofar as they're true?

[–] dgerard@awful.systems 3 points 11 months ago
[–] Amoeba_Girl@awful.systems 7 points 11 months ago (1 children)

The false dichotomy between "material/biology/physics-based" and "metaphysical i.e. fake" is everywhere in everything lesswrong outputs yet it never fails to annoy me. Sometimes I wish I could take these people aside and bully some sense into them, but due to their nazi leanings maybe being selfdestructively wrong and stupid is a fitting punishment.

[–] dgerard@awful.systems 8 points 11 months ago (2 children)

you would almost think these people were doing philosophy while deliberately learning fuck all about it

[–] ogoftheskye@awful.systems 9 points 11 months ago (2 children)

They skim read some utilitarianism, which is a limited school of thought (if it has any value at all), and jumped straight to "fuck yes! This is everything!"

[–] dgerard@awful.systems 7 points 11 months ago

"at last! I can do some really telling thought experiments!"

[–] gerikson@awful.systems 6 points 11 months ago

This is very undergraduate.

[–] Amoeba_Girl@awful.systems 7 points 11 months ago (1 children)

ties big yud and scott up in her basement, forces them to go through the critique of pure reason giving them a werther's every time they manage to genuinely engage with the ideas

[–] dgerard@awful.systems 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

scott's undergrad degree, he FUCKING MAJORED IN PHILOSOPHY