Ok, I will try to be more pursuasive and less autistic but in the meantime where do I find enough thumbnails like that to inject directly into my veins?
Hmm. I have been aware of rationalists etc since 2017. All that time I have seen people from left and right call them ineffectual nerds, convincing them to abandon their ways, etc. Their star has only risen. The cold rationality is an aesthetic in and of itself, and apparently seduces a certain type of person.
I believe both Scott and BB have posted a list of achievements, and so has the EA website. It’s all numbers of lifes saved etc, which is what they care about. They also seem to be pretty influential among the half a dozen labs that are trying to create the machine God of the future. I know multiple normies in my IRL social circle who are highly influenced by them.
Their way of thinking, in more diluted form, seeps to the abundance and neoliberal types like Klein, Yglesias and even Hanania.
And even many right-wingers, like Walt or yourself, cannot help but engage with them. Their smugness, their sterility, it triggers.
They are the still center of the turning wheel of the empire
I don’t know if triggered is the right word. I am basically saying that they have a tendency of wishing their audience was motored the same way they are and then calling them defective/stupid/immoral/racist when they aren’t. I argued my case somewhat sarcastically but also dispassionately.
You can see my other piece Bentham’s Burden for more if you’re interested.
I am saying they can push the same agenda items in more compelling ways. But if you think they have all the backing they already need then great. They don’t need the rest of us.
I read your piece then, I will read it again. I find myself triggered all the time by them. I am trying to debunk utilitarianism in the shower. Everytime I meet my EA friend I rant to them about the calculation problem, the lack of dynamism, why Frederick the Great should not have spent all his capital on handing out medicinal leeches to the poor, etc.
I do not have this urge when it comes to the woke, tradcaths, libertarians, etc. Somehow I find EAs uniquely annoying, but yet somehow interesting and worthy of respect. I vaguely sensed that this might be the same for you and Walt, but maybe that is projection.
It's simple, you are not their target audience. Billionaires are, and billionaires like thinking of themselves as being above petty motivations, at least some of them do, some of the time.
In the same way that if you were to sucker in a poor Karen into your gym, it would tank your business, so too would it tank EA's brand to sucker you in
They (EAs) are always humble in the way that lets you know they think of themselves as better than everyone else.
Swashbuckling analysis, just how I like it, and fully worth the attention I paid for it. Good deal.
The cardi b line made me laugh out loud and almost shoot tequila through my nose
You get it
Ok, I will try to be more pursuasive and less autistic but in the meantime where do I find enough thumbnails like that to inject directly into my veins?
It was called American Apparel.
You didn’t really tell me how to do anything tho fam.
True—“My first go at it with a pretty broad post.” Just putting down broad strokes here…
You are a wise man, sir.
Hmm. I have been aware of rationalists etc since 2017. All that time I have seen people from left and right call them ineffectual nerds, convincing them to abandon their ways, etc. Their star has only risen. The cold rationality is an aesthetic in and of itself, and apparently seduces a certain type of person.
Can you give some examples of their wins? Are they going to increase the size of their tent or just keep targeting “a certain type of person?”
I believe both Scott and BB have posted a list of achievements, and so has the EA website. It’s all numbers of lifes saved etc, which is what they care about. They also seem to be pretty influential among the half a dozen labs that are trying to create the machine God of the future. I know multiple normies in my IRL social circle who are highly influenced by them.
Their way of thinking, in more diluted form, seeps to the abundance and neoliberal types like Klein, Yglesias and even Hanania.
And even many right-wingers, like Walt or yourself, cannot help but engage with them. Their smugness, their sterility, it triggers.
They are the still center of the turning wheel of the empire
I don’t know if triggered is the right word. I am basically saying that they have a tendency of wishing their audience was motored the same way they are and then calling them defective/stupid/immoral/racist when they aren’t. I argued my case somewhat sarcastically but also dispassionately.
You can see my other piece Bentham’s Burden for more if you’re interested.
I am saying they can push the same agenda items in more compelling ways. But if you think they have all the backing they already need then great. They don’t need the rest of us.
I read your piece then, I will read it again. I find myself triggered all the time by them. I am trying to debunk utilitarianism in the shower. Everytime I meet my EA friend I rant to them about the calculation problem, the lack of dynamism, why Frederick the Great should not have spent all his capital on handing out medicinal leeches to the poor, etc.
I do not have this urge when it comes to the woke, tradcaths, libertarians, etc. Somehow I find EAs uniquely annoying, but yet somehow interesting and worthy of respect. I vaguely sensed that this might be the same for you and Walt, but maybe that is projection.
It's simple, you are not their target audience. Billionaires are, and billionaires like thinking of themselves as being above petty motivations, at least some of them do, some of the time.
In the same way that if you were to sucker in a poor Karen into your gym, it would tank your business, so too would it tank EA's brand to sucker you in
Top picture taken by: Patrick Bateman