this post was submitted on 02 Feb 2026
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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.

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Want to wade into the snowy surf of the abyss? Have a sneer percolating in your system but not enough time/energy to make a whole post about it? Go forth and be mid.

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The post Xitter web has spawned so 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. A lot of people didn't survive January, but at least we did. This also ended up going up on my account's cake day, too, so that's cool.)

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[–] gerikson@awful.systems 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 17 hours ago) (6 children)

Enjoy sneering at this LWer tackling Proust

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/j3ZtsYBYBcTTFXH5S/in-search-of-lost-time-a-review

Edit it has garnered one comment so far

Thank you for the service you have valiantly rendered to us all, by making our own reading of these books unnecessary.

You know what? I don't think Proust would have disagreed with having rats avoid his novel.

[–] Soyweiser@awful.systems 4 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago)

The comment, see my prediction that when a movement runs out of idea they inevitably start a dating site for the in crowd, and 'lets do book summaries so we can all read faster'. Esp vague self help style places do this all the time.

In Search of Lost Time, by Marcel Proust, is one of those books that people like to claim to have read but never did.

First I heard of this.

[–] mawhrin@awful.systems 3 points 17 hours ago (1 children)
[–] froztbyte@awful.systems 1 points 3 hours ago

Intellectual: e-lite, the mass produced promo type handed out with sherbet packets in primary school

[–] gerikson@awful.systems 7 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

I happen to know there are multiple translations of the novel into English, and I'm confused as to why the reviewer refers to

My copy was the 2016 Moncrieff/Schiff English translation

which doesn't really mesh with anything here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Search_of_Lost_Time#English-language_translations

Not that it matters much in the end.

[–] swlabr@awful.systems 7 points 21 hours ago

I’d chalk it up to the LWer inability to a) summarise and/or summarise accurately, and/or LLM usage.

[–] Amoeba_Girl@awful.systems 5 points 21 hours ago (1 children)
[–] Amoeba_Girl@awful.systems 9 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

warming up on philosophy with Simulacra and Simulation

oh no baby what are you doing

[–] Amoeba_Girl@awful.systems 14 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago) (1 children)

some important characters in the narrative I've completely skipped over, mostly to do with the Nature of Art (in society) subplot, because nothing actually happens in them and it's all social parties and talking

you ... mother ... fucker ... so not only did you manage to miss the fact that this is a gay book, you completely skipped past one if not the most important theme in the novel which is language and the way people talk and write and the various ways they conduct themselves in different times and places, but oh nothing happens it's just people talking aaaaaaaaaa

also this is a funny book! it's funny! it's not all maudlin meditations upon time and memory! fuck you!

[–] BlueMonday1984@awful.systems 4 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

you completely skipped past one if not the most important theme in the novel which is language and the way people talk and write and the various ways they conduct themselves in different times and places

I don't think the LWer even realised those themes were there. This whole review screams "failed high school English" to me.

[–] Amoeba_Girl@awful.systems 6 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

yup this is pretty much what happens when you grind books for xp instead of actually reading them

[–] gerikson@awful.systems 1 points 2 hours ago

Such a great description

[–] mirrorwitch@awful.systems 7 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

I feel like I just read someone reviewing Toccata and Fugue in D Minor by complaining that there's no upbeat sections and no overall chorus and the song isn't about anything, that we're just "tossed about on the storms of emotion that by the end we are all seasick to"

[–] swlabr@awful.systems 6 points 19 hours ago

I liked the part where the reviewer is mysteriously compelled to visit France while reading this novel, which is notably set in France.

[–] swlabr@awful.systems 2 points 21 hours ago

Username is one “t” off from being an anagram for enteritis