this post was submitted on 07 Sep 2025
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TechTakes

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Big brain tech dude got yet another clueless take over at HackerNews etc? Here's the place to vent. Orange site, VC foolishness, all welcome.

This is not debate club. Unless it’s amusing debate.

For actually-good tech, you want our NotAwfulTech community

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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.

(Credit and/or blame to David Gerard for starting this.)

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[–] blakestacey@awful.systems 12 points 1 day ago (2 children)

The Wall Street Journal came out with a story on "conspiracy physics", noting Eric Weinstein and Sabine Hossenfelder as examples. Sadly, one of their quoted voices of sanity is Scott Aaronson, baking-soda volcano of genocide apologism.

[–] BlueMonday1984@awful.systems 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Somehow, ~~Palpatine returned~~ Scott came off as a voice of reason

[–] blakestacey@awful.systems 11 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Behold the power of this fully selective quotation.

[–] BlueMonday1984@awful.systems 3 points 1 day ago

Being compared to whackjobs with a worse grip on reality than him definitely helped.

[–] corbin@awful.systems 2 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Since appearing on Piers Morgan’s show, Eric Weinstein has taken to expounding additional theories about physics. Peer review was created by the government, working with Ghislaine Maxwell’s father, to control science, he said on “Diary of a CEO,” one of the world’s most popular podcasts. Jeffrey Epstein was sent by an intelligence agency to throw physics off track and discourage space exploration, keeping humanity trapped in “the prison built by Einstein.”

Heartbreaking! Weinstein isn't fully wrong. Maxwell's daddy was Robert Maxwell, who did indeed have a major role in making Springer big and kickstarting the publish-or-perish model, in addition to having incredibly tight Mossad ties; the corresponding Behind the Bastards episodes are subtitled "how Ghislane Maxwell's dad ruined science." Epstein has been accused of being a Mossad asset tasked with seeking out influential scientists like Marvin Minsky to secure evidence for blackmail and damage their reputations. As they say on Reddit, everybody sucks here.

[–] bitofhope@awful.systems 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

First domino: US government invents peer review

Last domino: Richard Stallman successfully kamikazes his reputation for good after multiple close attempts over the years

[–] BlueMonday1984@awful.systems -3 points 23 hours ago (3 children)

Richard Stallman successfully kamikazes his reputation for good after multiple close attempts over the years

He still maintains a solid reputation with FOSS freaks, fascists and pedophiles to this day. Given the Venn diagram of these three groups is a circle, this isn't particularly shocking.

[–] bitofhope@awful.systems 7 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Thanks man, I love being lumped in with fascists and pedos.

[–] froztbyte@awful.systems 1 points 10 hours ago

I asked the other day whether they've actually spoken with these people that they keep posting such takes about, and thus far my presumption is "they haven't". posts like the above reinforce that view

[–] corbin@awful.systems 6 points 22 hours ago

Fuck, your lack of history is depressing sometimes. That Venn diagram is well-pointed, even among people who have met RMS, and the various factions do not get along with each other. For a taste, previously on Lobsters you can see an avowed FLOSS communist ripping the mask off of a Suckless cryptofascist in response to a video posted by a recently-banned alt-right debate-starter.

[–] o7___o7@awful.systems 5 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago)

I often love your stuff, but this ain't it.

[–] blakestacey@awful.systems 8 points 1 day ago

That's just yer bog-standard "the best lie has a seed of truth", ainnit?

(Peer review in its modern form was adopted gradually, with a recognizable example in 1831 from the same William Whewell who coined the word scientist. It displaced the tradition of having the editor of a journal decide everything himself, so whatever its flaws, it has broadened the diversity of voices that influence what gets officially published.)

[–] swlabr@awful.systems 5 points 1 day ago

Epstein was a sophon controlled trisolaran asset working to prevent crucial development of physics!!! j/k