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Has America Crossed the Asshole Threshold?

thegrimhistorian.substack.com

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Re: Has America Crossed the Asshole Threshold?

#31

Post by ekelsen »

jbotz wrote: post #17
Cpoll wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't notice any obvious markers, weird prose, or meandering in this one.

It's rather full of "it's not X, it's Y" and expository paragraph followed by short sentence counter-point, and "read that again". But no, I don't think it's AI, I think it's just written in a style that happens to be an attractor for LLMs.

I would believe she wrote it in this style if you can point to any of her writing pre 2022 that is similar in style.

Does that exist? Genuinely curious.

Re: Has America Crossed the Asshole Threshold?

#33

Post by eightysixfour »

fragmede wrote: post #30
eightysixfour wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It absolutely was written with Claude. There are so many Claude-isms in the second half that it was hard for me to digest, despite enjoying the ideas.

Like what?

> Hesiod felt it. Plato theorized it. Polybius mechanized it. Sallust prosecuted it (while guilty). Ibn Khaldun put it on a timer. Five civilizations, twenty-one centuries, one diagnosis. The only thing missing was proof.

> For most of history, “too many assholes ruin everything” remained a vibe. A well-documented, five-civilization vibe, but a vibe. Then, in the twentieth century, it became math.

> Sallust, it turns out, was doing game theory in a toga. He just didn’t have the notation.

> That’s not my characterization — it’s the title of the paper. And the researchers defined the term with clinical precision

> That single belief turns out to be a genetic marker. Everything else travels with it.

^^ that one in particular is a VERY strong Claude-ism

> Now, the finding inside the finding

> The study is not a catalog of monsters [...] It’s a measurement [...] with polling-grade precision

> Political violence wasn’t rhetorical; it was a body count

There are a lot in here, I could keep going...

Re: Has America Crossed the Asshole Threshold?

#35

Post by IIsi50MHz »

eightysixfour wrote: post #33
fragmede wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like what?

> Hesiod felt it. Plato theorized it. Polybius mechanized it. Sallust prosecuted it (while guilty). Ibn Khaldun put it on a timer. Five civilizations, twenty-one centuries, one diagnosis. The only thing missing was proof. > For most of history, “too many assholes ruin everything” remained a vibe. A well-documented, five-civilization vibe, but a vibe. Then, in the twentieth century, it became math. > Sallust, it turns…

Every one of those is also an example of how people have written and spoken since before AI existed. But then, I don't 'Claude', so I'm not sensitised by exposure.

Re: Has America Crossed the Asshole Threshold?

#36

Post by eightysixfour »

IIsi50MHz wrote: post #35
eightysixfour wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Hesiod felt it. Plato theorized it. Polybius mechanized it. Sallust prosecuted it (while guilty). Ibn Khaldun put it on a timer. Five civilizations, twenty-one centuries, one diagnosis. The only thing missing was proof. > For most of history, “too many assholes ruin everything” remained a vibe. A well-documented, five-civilization vibe, but a vibe. Then, in the twentieth century, it became math. > Sallust, it turns…

Every one of those is also an example of how people have written and spoken since before AI existed. But then, I don't 'Claude', so I'm not sensitised by exposure.

Sure, LLMs learned them from somewhere, but when you use it a lot you see that it has very specific, very repetitive writing patterns. This article makes little effort to adapt the writing away from those patterns.

It is like a code smell, when you see it, it is obvious.

Re: Has America Crossed the Asshole Threshold?

#37

Post by toddmorey »

eightysixfour wrote: post #33
fragmede wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like what?

> Hesiod felt it. Plato theorized it. Polybius mechanized it. Sallust prosecuted it (while guilty). Ibn Khaldun put it on a timer. Five civilizations, twenty-one centuries, one diagnosis. The only thing missing was proof. > For most of history, “too many assholes ruin everything” remained a vibe. A well-documented, five-civilization vibe, but a vibe. Then, in the twentieth century, it became math. > Sallust, it turns…

Also: load-bearing!

Re: Has America Crossed the Asshole Threshold?

#38

Post by toddmorey »

ekelsen wrote: post #31
jbotz wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's rather full of "it's not X, it's Y" and expository paragraph followed by short sentence counter-point, and "read that again". But no, I don't think it's AI, I think it's just written in a style that happens to be an attractor for LLMs.

I would believe she wrote it in this style if you can point to any of her writing pre 2022 that is similar in style. Does that exist? Genuinely curious.

“Carlyn Beccia is an award-winning author and illustrator of 13 books.”

Re: Has America Crossed the Asshole Threshold?

#40

Post by Cpoll »

eightysixfour wrote: post #33
fragmede wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like what?

> Hesiod felt it. Plato theorized it. Polybius mechanized it. Sallust prosecuted it (while guilty). Ibn Khaldun put it on a timer. Five civilizations, twenty-one centuries, one diagnosis. The only thing missing was proof. > For most of history, “too many assholes ruin everything” remained a vibe. A well-documented, five-civilization vibe, but a vibe. Then, in the twentieth century, it became math. > Sallust, it turns…

Yeah, I've changed my evaluation. The lists didn't do it for me, because they don't follow the usual rule-of-three, but the "genetic marker ... travels" line seems egregious. And the "not X, but Y".
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