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.
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 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.)
https://x.com/MrinankSharma/status/2020881722003583421
Anthropic safety research lead quits the field entirely to write poetry with a somewhat cryptic note. Trying to read between the lines here, the most likely explanation (IMO) is that he developed a guilty conscience and anthropic doesn't actually give a shit about any of the human harms created by the technology. Ah well, nevertheless they persisted.
It’s always been like that
but yeah it sounds like they got overwhelmed by all the shit happening in the world (there is a lot of shit happening in the world, especially in America) and left for their own mental health’s sake
Especially for a guy named Sharma living in the US. It doesn't take too many footsteps outside the Bay area for him to be in literal physical danger right now.
~~He also less cryptically posted his plans and resignation letter.~~ (Edit: memory lapse) xcancel version of resignation letter post. Tl;dr moving to the UK (understandably) and doing a poetry degree (I didn't accidentally critique someone into quitting, did I?)
Honestly, I hope he finds both what he's looking for and also what he's not looking for but still equally needs. For example, a personal perspective not entrenched in institutional ontological frameworks.
Yeah, I can't hold it against anyone for feeling scared and overwhelmed with what's happening in America right now and fleeing. Hope he finds happiness soon