Technology

She's got a point I bet they were all tortured in school.

I’ve worked hard to keep these kinds of men out of my personal life, to keep them away from me, out of my goddamn sight... It’s time for us to start getting revenge on the nerds.

And there's the rub. I was there, and we still have the nerd-to-nazi pipeline pumping vast numbers of boys into the alt-right. And to this day, no-one wants to deal with them.

Curiously, Japan is entirely dissatisfied with herbivore men who just want to be left alone in their life with their waifu, but that doesn't produce the next batch of cheap labor and soldiers for industrialists to exploit.

Yes, I'm bitter, and righteously so. Treat our kids better; acknowledge they have sexuality. Teach consent and human intercourse in public school. (We're not going to do these things. We hold great contempt for our fifteen-year olds, whether men or women, and just can't help ourselves.)

cringe = cringeworthy for anyone who needs an easy search-and-replace

This is something I observed regarding Trump in his first term, here this guy is allegedly super rich and now leader of the free world, and he still thinks he's a total loser, hence his own inability to tolerate criticism, and obsession on harming enemies and bullying people.

He has to fuck other people's wives and make John Kennedy Jr. eat McDonalds because even being President isn't enough assertion of dominance to make him feel on top.

I have a tender self esteem, myself, and have deep-running neural pathways that will drive me nearly to self harm when I mess something up (e.g. drop my coffee, or burn dinner, or thoroughly lose my wallet). I have these structures of rational self-assessment so that when I calm down I can see I'm actually alright and have some sweet talents, and friends find me useful, and when not even that, at least lovable.

Trump with all his money and power doesn't have that, and people like me can see Trump feels like a total loser propped up by hollow victories, even as POTUS, which is a fucking scary place to be. This is why cabinet meetings are a round-robin ritual of telling Trump how huge he is.

As for the tech bros, they succeeded in their careers which is exactly what we are taught manly men are supposed to do and still feel hollow (which is common when you fixate only on your career). They didn't have that (possibly essential) experience where they collapse into despair as a young person and realize they need personal integrity or spirituality to climb out. (For me it was a moment of rational self-assessment and finding I was not wanting after all; that my depression and self hatred were based on delusions.)

As for Musk, his bio on Behind the Bastards suggests it's really difficult for someone not to emerge from his upbringing without turning into a Disney / Marvel supervillain.

Thiel has his own backstory and obsession, and is perpetually feeling Death (his own mortality) chuffing hyperborean chills on the back of his neck.

So yes, these guys are desperate to cling to power, _because wealth and political transactional power are the only power they've ever known, hence J. D. Vance's obsession on forcing women into natality which is likely to turn into Lebensborn style breeding programs (which inspired Atwood to write A Handmaid's Tale. ) They are terrified of equality because then they'll just be eccentric, antisocial dorks.

(I am an eccentric, antisocial dork, with few things to offer other than listening skills, peer psychology, computer nerding and moral philosophy, and in a world where we're not all overwhelmed with bad news, that is more than enough to find friends, family and crew. But it takes some personal introspection and willingness to practice soft power to learn this.)

If they were able to step away from power, or we took it from them and forced them into peer group support, they'd eventually discover that they don't need to be captains of industry (or James Bond supervillains) to be accepted and loved (and consequently, fed and homed by the community).

And when they've given you their all
Some stagger and fall, after all it's not easy
Banging your heart against some mad bugger's wall

It's true that we've gone from "oh good now it's cool to be a nerd!" and rapidly progressed to "oh god the really bitter ones are using their success for revenge." What's wild is the image I have of an 80's "reaganaut" (besides a bigot with bad taste) is someone who wants to be out and with people. They want a fuck ton of money to throw around in huge, public, ostentatious ways. These nerds are all obsessed with their fortresses of solitude. Like look even at your brolosopher grifters on the right - they live in sterile, expensive apartments. They never show themselves with people. They are offering this weird cult guru situation of "you don't need people, you need my supplement and course and you will be a king like me." Musk, Zuck, all those fucks (hyuk hyuk hyuk) believe and feed into this shit.

Now they're mainstreaming eugenics and it's getting really bad.

Zuck can piss off

I read the first chapter of Careless People last night and I never thought these people were such large dorks, but here we are.

The saying money can't unlame you still true.

Every major politician in the USA has major financial backers with their own agendas that they purchase through superPAC contributions and by funding re-election campaigns. It's been the ruling oligarchy my whole life and I'm middle aged. Pretending it's different or worse now is disingenuous.

He's such a fucking dork.

If they were posh people with "breeding" that wouldn't make being the direct or indirect victim of their destruction any better, unless you're an upper middle class Briton who has bern btought up with 19th century notions of "born to rule elites" such as most columnists for The Guardian.

I get it that people here derive a little enjoyment out of taking the piss of the character flaws of these wankers, but were they are coming from is not were this columnist is coming from.

I don’t know if anyone else has noticed this but everything seems to be going down the tubes quite fast.

Yeah like having to accept all cookies to read the article.

I will be happy if Zuck is Luigi’d before my death. Also Musk and Bozo.

No one seems to have read Machiavelli’s stuff these days. It explains so much. Also, just history in general will tell you all about today’s happenings.

Imagine if, when Facebook rolled out, people were just like "no thanks, I'm good" and it never took off.

The thing they all share is that they are deeply unloved. Trump, musk, bezos, zuck, none of them have healthy loving families. They have noons they can genuinely connect with. And they all think by having more money and being more popular will fulfill that human need. But it never does, so they just keep going not realizing the path they chose doesn't end anywhere near what they desire. Money will never buy love and peace.