this post was submitted on 06 Apr 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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I think I'm the normie here and I'm very confused (and have no idea what this community is).
A few years ago someone mentioned the Harry Potter fanfic somewhere and I looked into what it is out of curiosity, but since I'm not interested in reading Harry Potter fanfics, I never read it. But I saw it's connected to the LessWrong website, which described itself as being for rationalists. Sounds good - being rational is obviously a good thing, so I read a few of the promoted blog posts there and thought they were nice reads about rational thought, it seemed like a good community to me on first glance. Then I forgot about it all before reading more.
And now I'm here, and learning all of this is somehow connected to AI and apparently it's all some kind of sect? How did I get from a Harry Potter fanfic to some Peter Thiel drama? This is extremely confusing from the outside. And I don't know where does this Lemmy community fit into all of this.
understandable! and it's messy in the weeds, because the loons have been talking about and doing absolutely crazy shit for a long time
so, before I answer, I'll tell you upfront that you'll probably hate what you learn. that said, see the sidebar for some links and descriptions
the community (techtakes, sneerclub) can be loosely described as a collective of people who've, for some reason or another, found themselves caring- /having to care about/encountering/etc one or more of the loons in the subject groups, and then needing a place to vent about it
partly this is because these loons are extremely influential in tech and related spheres, and have been becoming ever more so in recent political pushes in the US. much of yarvin's thought is directly influencing current US government policy, and all the harms that is causing people. the current stock market bonfire? yeah, these fucking guys.
there's a difference between "being rational" and capital-R Rationalism (which is what's involved from yud/lesswrong/etc)
on paper, that's the pitch. in practice, it's cult shit. it's also self-reinforced for years against any actual expertise - all the fuckers in this scene don't want to learn from anyone "outside", and they do an extreme amount of mental gymnastics to justify their various beliefs (which frequently include scientific racism, eugenics, etc)
if you listen to podcasts, Behind The Bastards has featured episodes of (Curtis) Yarvin in the last 2y, as well as another (very recently) on Ziz. all these go into a fair amount of detail about these people. but, again, warning: you will hate what you learn.
Thanks for answering, it's... fascinating in it's bizarreness.
Its the sort of stuff that makes great material for science fiction! It's less fun when you see it in the NYT or quoted by mainstream politicians with plans that will wreck the country.