this post was submitted on 02 Dec 2024
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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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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.

(Semi-obligatory thanks to @dgerard for starting this - gonna try posting last week's thread a different way this time)

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[–] swlabr@awful.systems 13 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (4 children)

Sorry about more insta content. Saw this today and it tickled me:

Left: pinker

Right: Yeonmi Park, who is known for defecting from north korea and speaking about it. That should be enough if she just told the truth, but for one reason or another (grifting dosh) she has started just making shit up, which I recommend you research for yourself if you are interested.

Anyway the above picture probably doesn’t come as a surprise when you consider her current tack: saying that “woke” and “cancel culture” are the first steps in a country becoming like North Korea. She’s been on JRE (where she memeably claimed that there is only one train in NK that often requires people to push it). She has a book with her anti-woke thesis with opening shit-volley by old mate JBP.

[–] Amoeba_Girl@awful.systems 13 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Man that page has got some really wild sentences.

Park's claims that human corpses commonly float down North Korean rivers were criticized by Swiss businessman Felix Abt, who lived and worked in the DPRK for seven years.

Now I don't know if there's any validity to her claim, but love the expert testimony from Swiss entrepreneur who's been allowed to tour Pyongyang for a bit.

It's frustrating because there is plenty of real evidence that North Korea is in a bad way. That satellite image is stark and the volume of reports claiming food shortages and lack of basic services are hard to dispute, as is the sheer obsessive control exercised by the government to avoid the depictions of it. You don't need to make up stories about using human corpses to fertilize your fields or whatever.

[–] swlabr@awful.systems 13 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

Ah, yes. In case you were wondering about said Swiss businessman and whether or not his actions in the DPRK were morally sound, once again, Wikipedia has something to say.

[–] Soyweiser@awful.systems 16 points 3 weeks ago

Dont think that anybody involved in this is going to be a good person. Of all the people mentioned, Pinker is prob the least worse here. And that is saying much.

[–] skillissuer@discuss.tchncs.de 10 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Somehow not the most horrific thing Swiss did just by trading (that would be war profiteering during Iran-Iraq war, when they sold chemical weapons precursors to one side and gas masks to other)

[–] swlabr@awful.systems 11 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

it's almost as if international trade of weapons creates perverse incentives

[–] skillissuer@discuss.tchncs.de 8 points 3 weeks ago

Gets easier if you want both sides to lose

Abt deflects questions of human rights by claiming that he is neither a human rights expert nor a politician.

And I'm not a proctologist but I still know an asshole when I see one.

[–] slopjockey@awful.systems 11 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

That's what she said? That's literally so much funnier than any of the memes

[–] swlabr@awful.systems 7 points 3 weeks ago

Yeah in terms of the meme mutation timeline, I believe the initial use would have been from leftists to mock outrageous/outlandishly false claims, in line with Park saying the trains thing. Since then the format has been mutated to also include “thing that exists in culture that is then exaggerated to be construed as dystopian” (see the example that soyweiser posted) and also “thing that is straight up dystopian but it’s something from the west”. So I think the only things that would approach the level of humor/absurdity of the original would have to be something else crazy out of YP’s mouth.

[–] gerikson@awful.systems 11 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

LOL @ North Korea being "woke". If they are, why are they assisting Russia, the Right's Great White Hope, in a war against a country that these people also denigrate as "woke"? But hey, never let facts or logic get in the way of a good grift.

[–] YourNetworkIsHaunted@awful.systems 11 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I mean, with how young she is there's absolutely no credibility she can offer on how a country becomes like the "D""P""R"K. But I can see the superficial similarities between the right-wing griftoverse's depiction of cancel culture and the kind of cultural authority that gets exercised. That Bogeyman is why they use that fanciful description, after all. I can see how easily she could get radicalized from there, not that it justified any of the lies she's believed and passed on or invented outright.

[–] gerikson@awful.systems 12 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

And right now South Korea's president has declared martial law and banned all political activity, I guess she'll be just fine with that.

[–] swlabr@awful.systems 11 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Martial law and free speech restrictions are only bad if the bad guys do it, also we get to decide who the bad guys are

[–] skillissuer@discuss.tchncs.de 9 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Yeah, i wonder how laughably terribad takes she will try to spin for her grifting gig out of this situstion

[–] Soyweiser@awful.systems 10 points 3 weeks ago

I was curious so looked her up. I discovered that there is no rule of law in Chicago and you can just murder people in the streets. And unrelated she did a colab with Gad Saad about her failing dating in the USA or something. Didn't watch the vid, just saw she had a few vids with Saad. (Vids from a year ago which almost nobody watched 35k/15k views. Sad!). On her twitter she has said nothing about SK, but apparently is upset about cancel culture and DEI. The grift is strong with this one.

[–] Soyweiser@awful.systems 8 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

Wait is that the woman from that meme? E: Yes she is I didnt know that image was from JRE.

[–] swlabr@awful.systems 11 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I’m just hoping that i get a plaque or something 1000 years from now in the Harvard meme archaeology department or similar

[–] Soyweiser@awful.systems 10 points 3 weeks ago

meme archaeology

Finally a job im qualified for.