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Curtis Yarvin's Plot Against America

newyorker.com

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Re: Curtis Yarvin's Plot Against America

#61

Post by foobarian »

ceejayoz wrote: post #17
kragen wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please don't post glib dismissals here.

It's not that glib, it's a point made in the article. > He found more of a community on Usenet, a precursor to today’s online forums. But even in groups like talk.bizarre, where intellectual peacocking was the norm, he stood out for his desire to dominate.

This guy reminds me of another breed of oldschool Usenet creature, the crackpot physicist. These individuals are very smart, and often have advanced degrees, but for some reason have these crazy ideas that almost seem like their brains have gone a bit off the rails. The content is typically very verbose, hiding the weaknesses in the volume, and also seems very alluring and can attract a bit of a following.

And then just how a lot of brilliant physicists have switched over to software because it pays a lot better, seems like this guy switched to political crackpottery for the audience. :-)

Re: Curtis Yarvin's Plot Against America

#62

Post by Benjammer »

sitkack wrote: post #32
A_D_E_P_T wrote: post #18

I mentioned this previously, but I frequently think back to Gibson's "Jackpot" -- a cross-lashed, polycausal catastrophe: Lots of bad little things accumulating, building up a certain momentum. I think that even as far back as 2009, an astute observer would have noticed that society is beginning to burn through its seed corn. In some places, things are now getting extremely acute: https://www.neilobrien.co.uk/p/the-c…

> He's foppish and playful more than he is scary. This is a very unwise stance to take. Peter Thiel has teamed up with the Heritage Foundation to implement this plan. This is why A16Z and Musk put Trump in power, it is precisely to implement this plan.

The fact that Thiel backs him so hard is what worries me more than anything. Thiel has a way of making things happen when he's really committed to something on a personal level... (see the Gawker Media case)

Re: Curtis Yarvin's Plot Against America

#63

Post by wat10000 »

jobs_throwaway wrote: post #41
A_D_E_P_T wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's more The Diamond Age than Snow Crash. The "Patchwork" of Yarvin and Land maps pretty neatly to Stephenson's Clades -- micronations as voluntary societies.

TBH Diamond Age seems pretty cool, other than the Fists I think/hope we will see something similar to voluntary societies in the future. Nation states are too heterogenous to row in the same direction. Stronger ethics are needed

Locked-down technology, courts where you don't get to present a defense and executions are carried out immediately without even telling the person, widespread illiteracy, violent revolution, masses of child soldiers.... Definitely "cool to read about" rather than "cool to live in."

Re: Curtis Yarvin's Plot Against America

#64

Post by quickthrowman »

senkora wrote: post #5

Scott Alexander also recently had a take on Curtis Yarvin’s recent actions: https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/moldbug-sold-out The gist of it is that he had interesting ideas on political systems in the past, but that his current ideas are nonsense, and in fact his old work explains exactly why his new work is nonsense.

A fascist technocracy is not interesting in the slightest. It’s what basement dwelling teens who idolize John Galt dream about before they are exposed to the complexity of the real world.

Re: Curtis Yarvin's Plot Against America

#65

Post by unsigner »

mikrl wrote: post #42
rubyfan wrote: post #10

Why are big media outlets suddenly sharing this guys ideas?

My philosophical excursions eventually led me to his writings, but I never found what I read to be inspiring or substantial. Pretty much like Ayn Rand in that respect. Like a precocious undergrad who just discovered set theory and thinks he’s king of the… uhh sovereign corporation? Lots of literary references though. Borges, of course gave him Urbit/Tlon[0], and wrote some racially spicy stuff in his day. Pretty sure…

you're not wrong about most of this, but anti-semitic? he's very openly Jewish

Re: Curtis Yarvin's Plot Against America

#66

Post by cassepipe »

soulofmischief wrote: post #45
runako wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> society is beginning to burn through its seed corn This is mostly true in the US, where a defining characteristic of the population is a belief that we cannot do better or have more, that things will always continue to get worse, and that everyone is out to take advantage of you all the time. Other countries continue to invest in the future. China, among others, do not suffer the current American fatalism.

China's population is purportedly set to halve by 2100. They're well on their way to a massive population shock if they don't thread the needle carefully. There's also been lots of stories about bank closures and Chinese citizens losing their money. Additionally, China, like the US and many other world powers, is a totalitarian authoritarian government which is hostile towards its people. Whether China has high-speed…

They have invested a lot into their energy sources whether it's nuclear or renewables + batteries or hydro. They also have industrial capacity.

I feel like we tend to forget that the brunt of the economic output is made by machines which feed on energy. When you have virtually free energy and sufficient level of machinery, you can do anything.

Re: Curtis Yarvin's Plot Against America

#67

Post by exizt88 »

One of my favorite things about Curtis Yarvin is that one of his main ideas is laughably easy to prove wrong. He says that whenever we go into the past, the previous generation seems to be more "right-wing" than the current one. Which is almost comically wrong. For example, you get Victorian Era being much more conservative than its predecessor, Georgian Era. Same goes for Christian Roman Empire vs Pagan Roman Empire, Nazi Germany vs Weimar Germany, etc etc. There are literally dozens of examples. It seems that Yarvin genuinely doesn't know any of these high school-level facts.

Re: Curtis Yarvin's Plot Against America

#68

Post by runako »

ryeats wrote: post #57
runako wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> society is beginning to burn through its seed corn This is mostly true in the US, where a defining characteristic of the population is a belief that we cannot do better or have more, that things will always continue to get worse, and that everyone is out to take advantage of you all the time. Other countries continue to invest in the future. China, among others, do not suffer the current American fatalism.

This is not true. Your rose colored glasses of Chinese culture, and the current state of Chinese economy and society need a reality check.

Pointedly, I did not make any points about the state of the Chinese economy etc.

Rather, I observe that the Chinese continue to make large investments that will not pay off in the next couple of quarters. As the Chinese economy has expanded over the last 25 years, the average standard of living for Chinese people has increased. They continue to invest in infrastructure as if there will be a future.

This all stands in contrast to the United States, where eating seed corn (the OP reference) is a very good analogy for our policies and actions.

Re: Curtis Yarvin's Plot Against America

#69

Post by timewizard »

antisthenes wrote: post #12

It's pretty sad that loonies like this get a platform at all. The ultimate irony is that New Yorker in this case is writing an article about him, mocking his views...yet legitimizing them at the same time by associating their name with this kind of person at all. How is this guy different from any other of the thousands moderately-successful tech people with an obscure hobby project (Urbit). Just because of his far-o…

> yet legitimizing them at the same time by associating their name with this kind of person at all.

Discussing things does not "legitimize" them. No one is required to read The New Yorker.

> Just because of his far-out-there views?

Probably the length of time he's held and promulgated them.

> someone on the Internet will agree with you

We used to think that connecting disparate groups of people together was a good thing. I have no idea when that changed but apparently it's the style now to use the awesome power of the internet to deny people their individuality out of gross fear.

> think it's a good thing

You should have to prove it's a bad thing. Not the other way around.

Re: Curtis Yarvin's Plot Against America

#70

Post by cempaka »

soulofmischief wrote: post #45
runako wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> society is beginning to burn through its seed corn This is mostly true in the US, where a defining characteristic of the population is a belief that we cannot do better or have more, that things will always continue to get worse, and that everyone is out to take advantage of you all the time. Other countries continue to invest in the future. China, among others, do not suffer the current American fatalism.

China's population is purportedly set to halve by 2100. They're well on their way to a massive population shock if they don't thread the needle carefully. There's also been lots of stories about bank closures and Chinese citizens losing their money. Additionally, China, like the US and many other world powers, is a totalitarian authoritarian government which is hostile towards its people. Whether China has high-speed…

A good measure of where China really stands is the fact that it continues to do business with Israel, even though it would be quite trivial to cut ties.
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