this post was submitted on 10 Feb 2025

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Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending 16th February 2025 (awful.systems)

submitted 1 week ago by BlueMonday1984@awful.systems to c/techtakes@awful.systems

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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.

(Taking over for Gerard this time. Special thanks to him for starting this.)

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[–] self@awful.systems 15 points 5 days ago (2 children)

so the nix devenv CLI tool that was gaining popularity around the time I left nix is now doing extremely invasive telemetry and quietly implemented a feature that exfiltrates your entire repo and all related files to their servers to feed into an LLM. if you’d like a reminder of the extreme bad faith the corporate assholes who own nixpkgs operate under, someone tried to add DO_NOT_TRACK to Nix’s wrapped version of devenv, and the devenv lead maintainer used their elevated privileges on the nixpkgs repo to revert that change instantly without following any existing processes or asking for the community’s consensus.

I ranted some time ago about how all these shit commercial tools are just ways to capture and monetize large parts of the nix ecosystem, and the bill has finally come due. lixpkgs can’t happen soon enough (and the nix infra people seem to agree — they’ve been using lix for a while now, cause the regular evaluator is too unstable for large-scale use)

[–] nightsky@awful.systems 8 points 4 days ago

someone tried to add DO_NOT_TRACK

Tangentially related, but I only just now learned about this env var, and the console do not track proposal. While it is a practical solution to the problem of many different env vars... I'm also so annoyed that it's necessary at all. That it's required to set some env var to opt-out, instead of being strictly opt-in which such things should always be. Maybe I would like the proposal more if they had called the env var DONT_BE_SPYWARE.

[–] froztbyte@awful.systems 5 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

fuck, I saw their "we added a LLM weeee" post, didn't realize it was this shittily implemented. not too surprised

the rest, ugh. fuck that implementation then

even just using this anywhere with a NDA becomes an instant violation. how little do these fucking dipshits think through their actions...

[–] swlabr@awful.systems 6 points 4 days ago

Got a jumpscare watching this.

[–] dgerard@awful.systems 22 points 5 days ago (1 children)

looks like our sneer comrade DisneylandDiplomat (disney6830 on discord), who did the Thinkateria rationalist-parody blog, died in Oct 2022. From Reddit Sneerclub:

Hello, I am writing since I saw this sub is a bit active again. I am wondering if anyone remembers the blog “thinkateria” or the reddit user DisneylandDiplomat who often posted links to promote it here. he was my little brother and he killed himself in October of 2022, after deleting the blog, and I only saw his reddit activity afterwards. I think it was satirical writing making fun of these other bloggers discussed here. He was very private and this sub is really the only insight into his state of mind at that time that I have. There’s no point to this post except I feel a need to share that he is gone and this is the only place I know he had any connections with. It must have been hard for everyone who talked about this so early on.

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[–] swlabr@awful.systems 6 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (3 children)

New elon allegedly spawned 5 months ago via MAGA columnist/influencer Ashley St. Clair

CW: Original source is the new york post, which I thought was an appropriate rag for this kind of news. Feel free to link a non NYP source.

https://archive.md/SY8LX

[–] sailor_sega_saturn@awful.systems 7 points 4 days ago

Relevant political cartoon (though I feel gross after looking at it)

[–] Soyweiser@awful.systems 7 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

E: no prob different person

E2: climbing on my hill See another recent kid from Musk, vs the relative lack of them before ~2018 (my rough estimate when his radicalization by weird twitter people began (I believe he isnt smart enough/has the attention span to be radicalized by moldbug sliding into his dms (also jock vs creep)) began), sure he had an above average amount of kids with his first wife but nothing like the wild secret seeding he does now. I really think he was a late concert to Nazism and not one always (he always was a racist piece of shit). See also how this man who has trouble shutting the fuck up was silent about gomergate1 and approved on hrt for his exdaughter (and due to trans people showing how gender isnt innate, quite performative, and poreus, nazis hate trans people). This is my hill! (Yeah, this doesn't really matter, neo-nazis delenda est no matter when they became one).

E3: the most divorced deadbeat dad

[–] YourNetworkIsHaunted@awful.systems 6 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Also, was the old messaging exchange that's been getting some attention sources to "MILO" as in Milo "maybe if I'm hateful enough they'll ignore that I'm gay" Yanniwhatever?

[–] Soyweiser@awful.systems 5 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Yes Nero is that Milo. The reactionary who tried the whole 'I'm going to troll the liberals by being gay and objectifying black men lol, ow god why are yall trying to eat my face' guy. Last I heard he is ex gay now. Massive pos, but also turns out that a lot of things he wrote in the before times were actually ghostwritten by others, others who he then didn't pay (because pos (Sidenote, but it amazes me how many of them simply don't pay employees/contractors (I assume their dealers do get paid))).

[–] YourNetworkIsHaunted@awful.systems 4 points 4 days ago (1 children)

You know, I feel like he's still breaking down barriers because I've never heard of a straight man being that much of a messy bitch.

But internalized homophobia aside the fact that they're so frequent in failing to pay their hired help really puts the lie to the libertarian side of their ideology. Even if you and I in particular have too much pride and sense to work with them they never seem to have issues finding someone to take the risk, meaning that *someone is getting exploited into make the lifestyles of the rich and famous possible.

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[–] froztbyte@awful.systems 6 points 4 days ago

MAGA columnist/influencer Ashley St. Clair

ah. earlier someone linked me screenshots of the tweets and I was trying to remember where I knew the name from.

[–] dgerard@awful.systems 12 points 5 days ago (6 children)

Original writing prompt: “Write a romantic comedy. Difficulty: both lovers are emotionally mature and have excellent communication skills.”

What our good friend Eliezer makes of it

Oscar Wilde's job is in no danger

[–] aio@awful.systems 6 points 4 days ago

Apparently "emotionally mature" means "blushing schoolgirl"

[–] YourNetworkIsHaunted@awful.systems 6 points 4 days ago

Ha! My Lemmy client is having trouble following that link! Safe again.

[–] blakestacey@awful.systems 13 points 5 days ago (1 children)

SHE is gowned in a black dress sewn with tiny emeralds, rubies, sapphires too small to detract from the darkness of her gown, instead giving it the illusion of a rainbow sheen.

Following "gowned" so closely with "dress" is awkward, because the latter is redundant. Consider, e.g., "She is gowned in black, the fabric sewn with..." Using both "gowned" and "gown" in the same sentence compounds the problem. Consider introducing further information about the fabric: e.g., "the darkness of the velvet" or "the darkness of the silk".

Whoof. Made it through the first sentence.

[–] dgerard@awful.systems 15 points 5 days ago

first thought: "she is gowned in old jeans and a Debian t-shirt"

[–] sinedpick@awful.systems 14 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Impressive how someone can be so bad at writing after writing so, so much.

[–] swlabr@awful.systems 12 points 5 days ago (1 children)

guy chooses never to take in feedback or think about how to git gud at writing so every time he spurts out more sludge it’s just more infinite degrees of fractal bad.

Why the fuck is it in bad script form? MAN: WOMAN: MAN: WOMAN: just fucking name them! There’s like ten names in the text, just fucking do it, you shit!

FWIW the only way to read yudkowskian dialogue is to imagine yud as each character wearing a different wig for that character. No distinctions in voice though, none are apparent in the text.

[–] sinedpick@awful.systems 13 points 5 days ago (2 children)

ah good point. He reads "mature and excellent at communication" as a self-description. After that, there's absolutely no way he can resist writing himself into both characters.

[–] blakestacey@awful.systems 13 points 5 days ago

The man is a hollow shell, and the woman is tripping over her own tongue in the least regal fashion imaginable. There's no emotional maturity because there's no interiority. There's no communication, just Yud doing Ready Player One with Nerd Culture(TM) references. Remember the Evil Overlord list? You do, don't you? Wasn't the Evil Overlord list funny? Now imagine if an Evil Overlord had, wait for it, read the Evil Overlord list. Wouldn't that be amazing?

(Yes, he did the same damn thing in HPMOR, too.)

[–] swlabr@awful.systems 9 points 5 days ago

all of his works are socrappy dialogues (crappy socratic dialogues). This one is an unsubtle exploration of his BDSM fetish

[–] froztbyte@awful.systems 11 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

yud, 15-year top of score chart of expert beginners

(e: s/p,/d,/ stupid phone)

[–] istewart@awful.systems 12 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Nice try, but you're going to have to work a lot harder if you want to trick me into clicking on that. I lived through browsing peak Slashdot at -1, you know

[–] Soyweiser@awful.systems 8 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Next time Gadget, next time!

[–] swlabr@awful.systems 10 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (2 children)

Also, shit writing prompt. I haven’t seen a writing prompt online that I didn’t hate. “Hey wouldn’t it be neat if someone wrote about this premise???”

Writing prompt: Day one at the dildo factory

shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up

[–] sailor_sega_saturn@awful.systems 13 points 5 days ago (4 children)

Writing Prompts:

Pokemon and Digimon are both real and they are at war.
Fractals are alive and they hate us
A woman explores beyond the event horizon of a black hole and it's just very hot and cramped and boring and not at all pleasant
A company starts a time mine where they mine causality but they didn't think about sustainability

OK OK you have a point, I hate all of these and I wrote them.

[–] dgerard@awful.systems 11 points 5 days ago

Fractals are alive and they hate us

comp.basilisk FAQ

[–] swlabr@awful.systems 12 points 5 days ago (1 children)

when I think about it more, what I don’t like is how insistent WPs are. Like what’s being communicated to me is “hey this is a good story idea, now you write it so you can prove my point!!!” You aren’t my editor, pal!

[–] sailor_sega_saturn@awful.systems 12 points 5 days ago

Yeah, it's a lot easier to think of a potentially interesting premise than it is to sit down and actually write it out. Also if I'm gonna write something it'll be something I think is interesting rather than a prompt.

[–] istewart@awful.systems 11 points 5 days ago (1 children)

• Diligent application of Bayesian reasoning finally gains you the ability to fly, propelled by your own farts

[–] froztbyte@awful.systems 10 points 5 days ago

would’ve thought that’s more a hot air balloon situation

[–] froztbyte@awful.systems 8 points 5 days ago

bullet 4 is almost the plot of the film In Time (2011)

[–] blakestacey@awful.systems 10 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

Writing prompt: Day one at the dildo factory

"Yarrgh. Another crew of bushy tails, more wet behind the ears than 'tween the legs. You've no idea what's in store for you, but these eyes, these old eyes have seen things. Like the great injector malfunction of aught-six..."

[–] Soyweiser@awful.systems 9 points 5 days ago

Writing prompt: Day one at the dildo factory

Dragon whats?

[–] sc_griffith@awful.systems 15 points 5 days ago (4 children)

canada has come up several times in the last several days and based on my small sample size, americans have no idea that the US government has been unsubtly threatening CA with annexation. these are not politically unconcerned or right wing people either

[–] ShakingMyHead@awful.systems 8 points 5 days ago (1 children)

"Unsubtlly" being him quite literally saying that he wants Canada to be the 51st state.
Not sure how much more unsubtle you can get there.

[–] YourNetworkIsHaunted@awful.systems 7 points 4 days ago

Also let's just acknowledge the concept of turning ALL of Canada into a single state.

Including Quebec.

[–] sailor_sega_saturn@awful.systems 12 points 5 days ago (1 children)

A lot of the reporting is using kids gloves instead of calling out the thinly veiled threats (god our media sucks), but anyone who can connect dots and read the tariffs + greenland + canada 51st state + panama + gulf of mexico news should be able to see Trump's hawkish expansionist dreams pretty easily.

Is this a matter of not following the news, poor critical thinking, or just so much stuff hitting the fan that it's hard to keep up?

[–] Soyweiser@awful.systems 10 points 5 days ago (1 children)

On the kid gloves, my bank keeps sending me updates on the state of the world economy and general big picture investment advice (and explaining their own actions). And between a lot of talk on AI, I saw they posted "we are going to take our profits on the usa investments, despite the tarifs being off the table". Which was, esp the first half, an interesting way to suggest to readers that they are pulling a lot of money out of the US and others might be wise to also do so. (Not that they would literally say the latter as 'not financial advice' etc). But yes worrying.

[–] sailor_sega_saturn@awful.systems 12 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

Yeah I already have a lot of non-US stocks, and next week I'm going to rebalance to make them the majority.

I'm not a finance person. My uncle who's in the world of international corporate law thinks things will be fine so maybe I'm being a bit cautious but the way I see it there are a few big issues:

The US government is trying it's best to implode itself.
There is a brain-drain effect (or heck, a worker-drain effect in general), it will pick up as things get worse.
The US government is becoming much more isolationist and detached from the global economy.
There is a small but real chance that the US government will start one or more major wars over the next decade

All of this also increases the risk of "black swan" events like pandemics, hacks, the US "investing" all the "savings" they "found" into cryptocurrency schemes, large-scale unrest, or god knows what else.

[–] skillissuer@discuss.tchncs.de 8 points 5 days ago (1 children)

There is a brain-drain effect (or heck, a worker-drain effect in general), it will pick up as things get worse.

speaking of, https://www.reddit.com/r/fednews/comments/1ipsasx/firing_the_next_generation_of_scientists_from_the/

[–] sailor_sega_saturn@awful.systems 14 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

Yeah just saw that. It's messed up.

I told my job a couple weeks ago that I'm planning to move out of the US. They need me more than I need them so they might actually help with that; but even if a transfer works out I intend to get out this year one way or another, even if it means a study visa instead of a job.

Even if things magically turn around like some people think my mind is set. Irreversable damage has already been done in my mind. I said in another comment that I feel like a stranger in America now (this is, in a weird sense, kind of a freeing feeling).

[–] froztbyte@awful.systems 6 points 5 days ago

this is, in a weird sense, kind of a freeing feeling

speaking from experience, yep. once you make your mind up on a gtfo intent re a bad situation, so much other shit just falls away

it’ll definitely have hard bits, but keep at it. worth it

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[–] dgerard@awful.systems 18 points 5 days ago (3 children)

from a discord. musk did not actually marry grimes, but apart from that my aplogies for mr beaning the whole america

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