Need to let loose a primal scream without collecting footnotes first? Have a sneer percolating in your system but not enough time/energy to make a whole post about it? Go forth and be mid: Welcome to the Stubsack, your first port of call for learning fresh Awful you’ll near-instantly regret.

Any awful.systems sub may be subsneered in this subthread, techtakes or no.

If your sneer seems higher quality than you thought, feel free to cut’n’paste it into its own post — there’s no quota for posting and the bar really isn’t that high.

The post Xitter web has spawned soo many “esoteric” right wing freaks, but there’s no appropriate sneer-space for them. I’m talking redscare-ish, reality challenged “culture critics” who write about everything but understand nothing. I’m talking about reply-guys who make the same 6 tweets about the same 3 subjects. They’re inescapable at this point, yet I don’t see them mocked (as much as they should be)

Like, there was one dude a while back who insisted that women couldn’t be surgeons because they didn’t believe in the moon or in stars? I think each and every one of these guys is uniquely fucked up and if I can’t escape them, I would love to sneer at them.

Last week’s thread

(Semi-obligatory thanks to @dgerard for starting this)

  • swlabr@awful.systems
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    6 hours ago

    My hope is that either more progressive third party options become more viable OR the dems finally understand that being essentially republican is a bad strategy and actually become progressive. I know the reality is that the dems will learn nothing from this as they have clearly learned nothing from 2016.

  • slopjockey@awful.systems
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    12 hours ago

    The worst part about Trump being president is Trump being president for a year. The second worst part is Vance being president for the next three (after Trump dies of heart failure). The third worst part is the fact that I’ve been owned in a way I can’t even explain to my closest friends.

      • YourNetworkIsHaunted@awful.systems
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        2 hours ago

        Most likely. Backing out of international obligations and supporting fellow authoritarians seem to be pretty consistent aspects of what passes for MAGA ideology.

    • bitofhope@awful.systems
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      11 hours ago

      The third worst part is the fact that I’ve been owned in a way I can’t even explain to my closest friends.

      Oh god, this so much. Well, third worst for me personally, as a non-American white guy. I suppose Palestinians, Ukrainians, and marginalized groups in the US might have a few issues they’d rank higher.

  • BlueMonday1984@awful.systemsOP
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    14 hours ago

    Fuck it, off-the-cuff prediction: I expect resistance to Silicon Valley is gonna turn violent during Trump’s term.

    • bitofhope@awful.systems
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      12 hours ago

      “Our mission at Mozilla is more high-stakes than ever,” wrote Syed in an email to staff, a copy of which was shared with TechCrunch. “We find ourselves in a relentless onslaught of change in the technology (and broader) world, and the idea of putting people before profit feels increasingly radical.”

      “which is why we don’t”

      • froztbyte@awful.systems
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        14 hours ago

        last I saw that wasn’t really well-insulated from upstream’s bullshit

        one of the recent things moz pulled ended up enabled in librewolf on basically the same day/timeline

  • sc_griffith@awful.systems
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    19 hours ago

    re: election results. unfortunately i’m not surprised or even disappointed by now. it makes me feel sad for my 2015 self and her naivete. she didn’t understand what a disgusting and evil culture she lived in

    • blakestacey@awful.systems
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      2 hours ago

      The level of fucked we are is too big for words

      I wanted to say something darkly comedic about the AI bubble popping under the new regime, but my heart is too sick to make a joke

    • YourNetworkIsHaunted@awful.systems
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      7 hours ago

      I think I’m more angry than anything. l hadn’t realized how tight my media bubble had gotten and was pretty sure this wasn’t realistic. I had gotten myself ready for another round of 2020 nonsense and denial, not this.

    • o7___o7@awful.systems
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      8 hours ago

      Nashville, here. I hear ya.

      I don’t know what else to say, I can’t explain any of this, but also please know that you’re not alone out there.

    • self@awful.systems
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      19 hours ago

      I don’t have too much coherent to say right now

      fuck the fascists for what they’ve done and what they intend to do

      fuck the neoliberals for doing their best to convince marginalized people that they shouldn’t defend themselves against a terrible fate

      fuck the accelerationists for pumping shitheaded propaganda into the fediverse, for the victory lap they’re taking now, and for the general idea that their revolution is worth our deaths

      shit’s about to get very hard and very weird and I can’t stress enough how important it is to be careful who you trust with your life

      • self@awful.systems
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        16 hours ago

        what a surprise, the thread all the leftist shitposters on mastodon boosted about how you’re a class traitor if you don’t vote for the Green Party (who I don’t buy as socialist) or “any other socialist party” (fucking who??? am I supposed to write “socialism” on my ballot in crayon???) conveniently went missing

        anyway post your favorite fuckhead accelerationist here, mastodon’s a shooting gallery tonight

        • o7___o7@awful.systems
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          8 hours ago

          The bad guys have definitely learned a new sort of trick. Haven’t wrapped my head around it yet, but it is bad, innit?

          • swlabr@awful.systems
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            1 hour ago

            Apologies for the screed:

            Quick recap:

            2016-2020: executive orders every day, non-elected positions being captured by conservatives, dems just hand-wringing and tweeting. but Dems get lucky with a pandemic and trump loses

            2021-2024: weekend at biden’s.

            Where was the election reform? The dismantling or reform of the electoral colleges? The extra seats on the SC? Bribing the public with stimulus packages to boost the economy?

            Remember when we pushed Biden left? Remember when the dems preserved abortion rights, prevented the invasion of ukraine, and stopped bankrolling Israel’s genocide?

            “exercise your democratic rights and voice by voting for our candidate that wasn’t democratically chosen as our candidate”. “vote blue and do not voice any critical thought”. “any vote that isn’t for the party that didn’t meaningfully reverse or prevent conservative actions is a vote for trump”.

            In sum: the bad guys didn’t do anything new.

            The closest we got to a trump loss was some republican spook who went to a trump rally with a gun because it was closer than the harris rally.

            • o7___o7@awful.systems
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              7 hours ago

              The thing that’s most baffling to me is how the difference in ground game had zero impact. We were pounding the pavement, doors got fuckin knocked. The GOP did less than zero, firing their entire staff responsible for in-person outreach and gave 100 million to PACs run by grifters who put it directly into their own pockets.

              Unless we’ve missed a trick, retail politics as it has existed is dead.

              • Amoeba_Girl@awful.systems
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                4 hours ago

                Dem talking heads spending so much energy courting moderate conservative votes was an excellent way to demobilise their base. They really gave their all to lose an election that should have been a free win.

                • ShakingMyHead@awful.systems
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                  1 hour ago

                  This wasn’t a free win, however. The reason Harris took over in the first place was because Biden’s performance in the debate was poor enough that the Democrats thought there was no longer any chance with him, and this was already with lowering approval ratings. Had he stayed, I bet Trump’s victory would have been even wider.

                • YourNetworkIsHaunted@awful.systems
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                  3 hours ago

                  I mean, I don’t think it was unreasonable to expect liberals to show up against someone who’s sole policy proposals were mass deportations and political reprisals, and so I can understand the logic of focusing on the center (which in US politics means center-right).

                  But this being the democratic party, they also couldn’t commit to an actual narrative to make that play. Rather than “look at their ties to Big Tech!” or even sticking with “look how weird these people are!” they had to go hat-in-hand and stake themselves to divisive (to say nothing of abhorrent) policies because that’s the only connection they could try to make. I think we’re seeing a major problem with the whole “big tent” concept.

              • ShakingMyHead@awful.systems
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                7 hours ago

                It was twitter. Elon Musk joins Trump’s team. What happens? Harris’ chances begin to drop.
                Trump did lose support, but there was probably enough propaganda on Twitter to make enough people go “both sides” and just sit out the election.

                • self@awful.systems
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                  5 hours ago

                  and of course, Twitter and Facebook style influence campaigns work just as well or even better elsewhere, in communities that haven’t hardened themselves against that type of bullshit

                • o7___o7@awful.systems
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                  IDK, do you really think twitter still has that much cultural relevance? ugh

                  I’m sure it played a part, though.

        • Amoeba_Girl@awful.systems
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          14 hours ago

          i do love how the “anti-imperialist” protest vote against harris was a choice between like three or four putin apologists. the state of the US left is really fucked up and i don’t want to look at it ever again.

        • Soyweiser@awful.systems
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          13 hours ago

          Didn’t the Green Party woman also just go ‘I’m pro Israel’ the day for the election or so? Which I think is one of the reason she might have picked up a few moves (the idea she might be more pro gaza I mean).

        • froztbyte@awful.systems
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          16 hours ago

          anyway post your favorite fuckhead accelerationist here, mastodon’s a shooting gallery tonight

          I’ve intentionally been avoiding feeds the last few days because I just do not have the headspace for it, but I quickly checked on shit now

          and

          fuck

      • froztbyte@awful.systems
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        15 hours ago

        I can’t stress enough how important it is to be careful who you trust with your life

        strong agree

        minor upside: it’s going to be a good time to make lists of people who suddenly feel comfortable to mask off

        fucking fuck this sucks

        • self@awful.systems
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          14 hours ago

          minor upside: it’s going to be a good time to make lists of people who suddenly feel comfortable to mask off

          correct. keep receipts.

    • Soyweiser@awful.systems
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      15 hours ago

      Yeah this is fucked up. I feel so bad for everybody (esp the Americans, but this will hurt the world). Shit this prob means I should start looking into seriously helping out locally when all this explodes into more international shit. (Which imho is the best you can do anyway, do things locally, build a bit of a support network for your community).

      (Note I’m not American, but I think this will end badly, just the fucker stepping out of the paris accord for example, and all the weird blowhard fascists this will make feel emboldened to do more politics locally).

      E: I really hope the people who go ‘this is the same as in 2020, wait till all votes are counted’ are correct and not on hopeium.

      • sc_griffith@awful.systems
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        18 hours ago

        yes, i am. i’ve been plotting to get out for years but i’ve been too depressed since my partner died to make any progress tbh. i’ve no idea what to do

        • ShakingMyHead@awful.systems
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          2 hours ago

          I would suggest Canada, but we’re set to get our own Trump in power in about a year or so. Too many people looking on the house on fire and thinking that pouring gasoline on it is the best solution.

  • bitofhope@awful.systems
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    19 hours ago

    Bitcoin peaks as Trump is elected

    (Article encrypted in Finnish, see spoiler for translation)

    lightly fixed machine translation

    The cryptocurrency Bitcoin climbed to a new high record on Wednesday as Republican Donald Trump seemed to be taking the lead in the US presidential election. Bitcoin went up by almost $6,000 and traded above $75,000. The previous record from March, when the rate settled slightly below $73,800?

    Trump has previously branded cryptocurrencies a scam, but he changed his line and during his campaign has praised them and promised to make the United States the world’s centers for bitcoin and cryptocurrencies.

    “The price of Bitcoin has followed Trump’s position in opinion polls and the betting market. Investors estimate that the victory of the Republicans would increase the demand for digital currencies", says Russ Mold, an analyst at the financial company AJ Bell, to the AFP news agency.

    In the United States, the stock exchanges in New York were on the plus side at the end of the trading day on Tuesday after the previous day’s declines.

    The technology-focused Nasdaq closed up by a percent 1.4, while the more general S&P 500 was up 1.2 percent. The Industrial-oriented Dow Jones, on the other hand, ended the day with a 1.0 percent increase.

    The dollar is initially weakened against the euro, but began to rise in Asian markets against both the euro and the Japanese yen as Trump’s lead. Stock exchange rates were also rising in various parts of Asia. In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 index ended by a percent 2.4.

    The presidential race is a struggle between Democrats Kamala Harris and Republican Trump.

    Trump has proposed a combination of low corporate tax rates and looser regulation that would be boosted by corporate profits and tighten the stock market, experts told ABC News.

    Dry heaving at the shameless public fellatio Trump performed on Musk in his speech.

  • BlueMonday1984@awful.systemsOP
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    2 days ago

    Recently read Brian Merchant’s latest piece on the upcoming election, and I felt like making a quick-and-dirty prediction:

    If Harris wins, I expect there will be some pretty harsh regulation against Silicon Valley. Putting aside everything but simple political pragmatism:

    1. Elon Musk’s election antics and Trump’s support from tech billoinaires have shown SV holds a significant amount of power over politics - power which will almost certainly prove a constant thorn in Harris’ side. As such, it’d be in her self interest to kneecap the Valley ASAP.

    2. Public opinion of Silicon Valley has taken a pounding over the years for a variety of reasons, with the AI slop-nami just the latest and most serious grievance the public has against them. Any tech regulation a Harris presidency makes (especially against AI) is gonna enjoy significant public support from day one.

  • self@awful.systems
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    2 days ago

    Ubisoft’s NFT game is going great:

    Ubisoft’s NFT game, which has about 6 active players, has a game breaking exploit where one player is winning every match.

    “One player pointed out that the Paulstar111 account was top of the rankings with over 56,000 matches played. It’s not yet clear how the player has been able to connect to so many games and automatically win them”

  • o7___o7@awful.systems
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    2 days ago

    In Arizona’s U.S. Senate race, Republican Kari Lake told Politico why she feels confident in her chances, despite recent polling showing her behind Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego: “Our polling is a little different. We take polling, but we also combine it with AI, which reads all of what’s happening on social media and across the Internet.”

    https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/mondays-campaign-11424-kari-lake-adds-ai-polls-rcna178681?icid=latestpost_bot

    Edit: Found the map she’s using:

    https://xcancel.com/IwriteOK/status/1853647442740441289#m

    • e8d79@discuss.tchncs.de
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      2 days ago

      A significant fraction of the people commenting on HN believe themselves to be the next Jeff Bezos. They cheer for the boot that crushes them, as surely one day they themselves will own that boot.

      • istewart@awful.systems
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        2 days ago

        Said it before, I’ll say it again: if Americans are all temporarily embarrassed millionaires, HN is where the temporarily embarrassed billionaires go to hang out

        • bitofhope@awful.systems
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          11 hours ago

          We live in a world where you can watch billionaires publicly humiliate themselves on the daily and never suffer consequences for it. What’s a little temporary embarrassment compared to that?

  • Soyweiser@awful.systems
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    3 days ago

    For any drive by readers who slightly want to know more background about some stuff: Why Richard Feynman wasn’t a great rolemodel.

    (more context for the drive by readers, Feynman is often held up as a great man in STEM circles, and even more so in the world of LessWrong Rationalism. (Which is fine if it is about scientific achievements, but it often goes beyond that as here in their page on ‘traditional rationality’)).

    • corbin@awful.systems
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      1 day ago

      Feynman reminds me of the brujo (one specific man, not brujería in general) from Pirsig’s Lila. Feynman’s safecracking and unorthodox approaches are like the brujo’s routine flaunting of social norms; through routinely doing things the wrong way (sacred clowning), new possible behaviors and modes of social existence are explored. Also, Feynman’s attitudes towards women remind me of that brujo’s tendency to spy on women by looking through their windows into their homes while they were not necessarily dressed, which the brujo’s society did not tolerate.

    • swlabr@awful.systems
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      2 days ago

      Before my postmodern deconstruction and unlearning of the worship of Great Men, all I needed to know about feynman not being a good person to look up to was the calling women bitches thing. Miss me with that PUA shit

      • Soyweiser@awful.systems
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        2 days ago

        Considering the history of PUA stuff on lesswrong, Im going to assume this was a pro not a con for them even.