> I don’t think still fundamentally religious US society will fair very well with AI when it becomes clear just how unspecial people are.
Fundamentally religious US society will stay so, it avoids evidence with ease. AI is just machines. Kevin Hamm will more readily make infographics to explain how an ark carried all the animal species on earth and dinos were dragons wiped out by knights.
> Elon represents a similar force, but it’s easy to imagine him supporting the Democrats next election if things don’t go well this cycle.
Wasn't this after the "dark MAGA" dance? That horse has fled.
> Now, within a everyone is pro Elon (pro-growth) political framework, there are still choices. Isolationism, tariffs, abortion, infrastructure spending, social safety net, etc… Once we are in that framework, politics can return, and there’s hope for America from a political standpoint.
So long as your politics are of greed and racist dog whistles, sure.
> Culturally, there’s a far deeper problem. The soul isn’t real, and this will be a very hard pill for many westerners to swallow. There’s already so little social fabric and this will only make it worse.
> In rich Western society people’s expectations exceed their abilities. AI will pummel this even harder. All the clowns who worked jobs that were detrimental to society for fake money.
Medical transcriptionists, legal secretaries, call center representatives, business-to-business salespeople, insurance CEOs, their jobs may have been detrimental but they were the jobs set up by employers and lots of these people needed to eat and wear clothing, hence they needed whatever "fake" money was on offer. People who work at deploying capital (private equity, etc.) are often detrimental to society but they'll do better than ever.
The social fabric feels less well-woven overall, I'd concur. Musk ain't helping to repair it.
Didn't realize this was geohot when starting it but wasn't surprised when I reached the end.
I strongly disagree that "wokeism" is Protestantism, whether that's the leftish definition or the rightish definition. I strongly disagree that everyone is blindly pro elon and I hope hope hope against more policymakers kowtowing to an abusive, self aggrandizing, childish world view.
I find the Elon infatuation both surprising and grating. Every good faith conversation I've had about it instantly devolves into regurgitating buzzlines with zero ability or willingness to follow up. It's frustrating how many people I've talked to will openly say things like "he saved free speech" and aren't willing to hear about the conversations still moderated on x (which is especially egregious juxtaposed next to what is no longer moderated).
Regardless of what you think about anything, remember we're all better off if we're willing to learn or hear the facts, even if (especially if?) it contradicts with the official narrative you're told to repeat.
Anil Dash writes: Understanding DOGE as Procurement Capture [0]
> How is it not a massive conflict of interest to put people who sell hundreds of millions of dollars of products directly to the government in charge of reducing government spending?
And in my opinion, the word "woke" is a dogwhistle for racism and more.
Elon promotes racist [1], misogynist, anti-trans, homophobic, and more speech on his site, and having had a bitter dispute with his trans daughter, is extremely anti-trans.[2]
Well, that's convenient claptrap.
> I don’t think still fundamentally religious US society will fair very well with AI when it becomes clear just how unspecial people are.
Fundamentally religious US society will stay so, it avoids evidence with ease. AI is just machines. Kevin Hamm will more readily make infographics to explain how an ark carried all the animal species on earth and dinos were dragons wiped out by knights.
> Elon represents a similar force, but it’s easy to imagine him supporting the Democrats next election if things don’t go well this cycle.
Wasn't this after the "dark MAGA" dance? That horse has fled.
> Now, within a everyone is pro Elon (pro-growth) political framework, there are still choices. Isolationism, tariffs, abortion, infrastructure spending, social safety net, etc… Once we are in that framework, politics can return, and there’s hope for America from a political standpoint.
So long as your politics are of greed and racist dog whistles, sure.
> Culturally, there’s a far deeper problem. The soul isn’t real, and this will be a very hard pill for many westerners to swallow. There’s already so little social fabric and this will only make it worse.
> In rich Western society people’s expectations exceed their abilities. AI will pummel this even harder. All the clowns who worked jobs that were detrimental to society for fake money.
Medical transcriptionists, legal secretaries, call center representatives, business-to-business salespeople, insurance CEOs, their jobs may have been detrimental but they were the jobs set up by employers and lots of these people needed to eat and wear clothing, hence they needed whatever "fake" money was on offer. People who work at deploying capital (private equity, etc.) are often detrimental to society but they'll do better than ever.
The social fabric feels less well-woven overall, I'd concur. Musk ain't helping to repair it.
Didn't realize this was geohot when starting it but wasn't surprised when I reached the end.
I strongly disagree that "wokeism" is Protestantism, whether that's the leftish definition or the rightish definition. I strongly disagree that everyone is blindly pro elon and I hope hope hope against more policymakers kowtowing to an abusive, self aggrandizing, childish world view.
I find the Elon infatuation both surprising and grating. Every good faith conversation I've had about it instantly devolves into regurgitating buzzlines with zero ability or willingness to follow up. It's frustrating how many people I've talked to will openly say things like "he saved free speech" and aren't willing to hear about the conversations still moderated on x (which is especially egregious juxtaposed next to what is no longer moderated).
Regardless of what you think about anything, remember we're all better off if we're willing to learn or hear the facts, even if (especially if?) it contradicts with the official narrative you're told to repeat.
There's a lot of pretending and regurgitation going on. I've heard all sorts of completely made up things said.
Be less gullible, and watch out especially for being gullible to false accusations that feed your confirmation bias.
Everyone should question the things they are saying themselves, as they are exhorting others to do so. I do.
Learning and hearing facts is good, we can at least agree on that in principle. Whether that applies in practice or not, remains to be seen.
[dead]
Anil Dash writes: Understanding DOGE as Procurement Capture [0]
> How is it not a massive conflict of interest to put people who sell hundreds of millions of dollars of products directly to the government in charge of reducing government spending?
And in my opinion, the word "woke" is a dogwhistle for racism and more.
Elon promotes racist [1], misogynist, anti-trans, homophobic, and more speech on his site, and having had a bitter dispute with his trans daughter, is extremely anti-trans.[2]
[0] https://www.anildash.com//2025/01/04/DOGE-procurement-captur...
[1] https://www.ft.com/content/cfbfa1e8-d8f8-42b9-b74c-dae6cc618..., archived at
[1a] https://archive.is/Y1Uz9
[2] https://www.thewrap.com/elon-musk-daughter-vivian-anti-trans...