Want to wade into the sandy 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 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.)

  • o7___o7@awful.systemsEnglish
    7·
    2 hours ago

    There’s a Charles Stross novel from 2018 where cultists take over the US government and begin a project to build enough computational capacity to summon horrors from beyond space-time (in space). It’s called The Labyrinth Index and it’s very good!

    So anyway, this happened:

    https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/openai-isnt-yet-working-toward-an-ipo-cfo-says-58037472

    Also, this:

    https://bsky.app/profile/edzitron.com/post/3m4wrv2xak22x

    • Architeuthis@awful.systemsEnglish
      5·
      8 hours ago

      What’s a government backstop, and does it happen often? It sounds like they’re asking for a preemptive bail-out.

      I checked the rest of Zitron’s feed before posting and its weirder in context:

      Interview:

      She also hinted at a role for the US government “to backstop the guarantee that allows the financing to happen”, but did not elaborate on how this would work.

      Later at the jobsite:

      I want to clarify my comments earlier today. OpenAI is not seeking a government backstop for our infrastructure commitments. I used the word “backstop” and it mudlled the point.

      She then proceeds to explain she just meant that the government ‘should play its part’.

      Zitron says she might have been testing the waters, or its just the cherry on top of an interview where she said plenty of bizzare shit

      • o7___o7@awful.systemsEnglish
        1·
        2 hours ago

        Every horrible person in my life “tests the waters” like that before going mask-off 100% asshole.

        It gives that feeling, doesn’t it?

      • BlueMonday1984@awful.systemsOPEnglish
        2·
        4 hours ago

        What’s a government backstop, and does it happen often? It sounds like they’re asking for a preemptive bail-out.

        Zitron’s stated multiple times a bailout isn’t coming, but I’m not ruling it out myself - AI has proven highly useful as a propaganda tool and an accountability sink, the oligarchs in office have good reason to keep it alive.

      • Soyweiser@awful.systemsEnglish
        2·
        4 hours ago

        exuberance

        Truly a rightwing tech, after getting all the attention, money and data they now are mad people dont love it enough.