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Curtis Yarvin's Plot Against America

newyorker.com

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Re: Curtis Yarvin's Plot Against America

#81

Post by throwaway29812 »

cassepipe wrote: post #66
soulofmischief wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

[dead]

Re: Curtis Yarvin's Plot Against America

#82

Post by agumonkey »

legitster wrote: post #40

Growing up, one of my criticisms of Orson Scott Card's "Enderverse" was how unrealistic it seemed that children could literally rise to power simply through posting theories and arguments on the internet. How wrong I was.

It should be studied how large (world scale) populations can flip with just the right amount of social struggle, populists, wealthy owners leveraging said populists, and new found gurus serving as grandiose ideal sources for the last two groups.

Re: Curtis Yarvin's Plot Against America

#83

Post by ceejayoz »

unsigner wrote: post #65
mikrl wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Pockets of self-hating minorities most certainly exist.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_of_German_National...

Re: Curtis Yarvin's Plot Against America

#84

Post by kmoser »

user982 wrote: post #47
blactuary wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

The last decade has hammered in that you ignore the cranks at your own peril, because closing your eyes doesn't make them disappear.

Ignoring them only works when everyone ignores them from the beginning. Once they gain traction, it's no longer an option.

Re: Curtis Yarvin's Plot Against America

#85

Post by n2d4 »

blactuary wrote: post #24
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.

[flagged]

What makes Scott a crank?

Re: Curtis Yarvin's Plot Against America

#86

Post by throwaway29812 »

bdangubic wrote: post #75
cempaka wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

countries have no friends or enemies, only national interests

Dictatorships do they best to make everyone convinced of this.

That way their way of doing business isn't questioned.

Re: Curtis Yarvin's Plot Against America

#87

Post by antisthenes »

timewizard wrote: post #69
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 th…

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

Well, good thing you put that in quotes, because you seem to be using some definition of the word legitimize that is only apparent to you and not the general public. Discussing things does legitimize them, because it allots them time that could have been used for something else.

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

Many people hold views their entire lives, or at least decades. I don't see New Yorker or Wikipedia write articles about them.

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

You understand what context means, or just trolling?

Re: Curtis Yarvin's Plot Against America

#88

Post by ivraatiems »

rjbwork wrote: post #27
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.

The style of this post reminds me a lot of Matt Levine's money stuff.

Agreed, or patio11's financial writing. The style is a big part of why people like Alexander so much.

Re: Curtis Yarvin's Plot Against America

#89

Post by cassepipe »

blactuary wrote: post #24
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.

[flagged]

[flagged]

Re: Curtis Yarvin's Plot Against America

#90

Post by and0 »

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…

RE: that Neil O'Brien piece

Demographic collapse? Sure, huge issue. But why is this happening? Why did it start happening before the other issues?

A rap group being critical of Churchill at an official event? Not really an issue. I don't think that is why Britain is failing. And I'll need citations for why moral introspection is demoralizing rather than uplifting and enlightening for a culture. Or maybe suggest something that the youth should feel good about rather than browbeating them for not being thrilled at the state of things.

Immigration? Not an issue for the USA after the great depression, which also had a massive welfare state.

I agree that Britain is collapsing, but not for those reasons. What a stunning lack of imagination.

e: Also, are migrants really to blame for Britain selling off all of its state capacity for pennies on the dollar since the 80s? Did migrants vote to violently eject Britain from the European economy in 2015? Any mention of that? Or would that type self-reflection hurt the cultural morale?

Maybe Britain would be better off with people who are a little less integrated with those values.

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