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Marco's avatar

What the fuck, Curtis; this isn't even 100,000 words. I barely started lubing up. Are you ok? Are those polyps serious?

Best regards

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Luke Reeshus's avatar

That Wilkinson piece (his Substack is called Model Citizen, ffs) really is something:

"Well, suppose you’re a journalist in the corporate media and Scott Siskind and his vast network of followers did deal with you in an extremely unfriendly way when you proposed to say something he didn’t want said about him. Are you going to see this as irrelevant to an accurate understanding of the character of Siskind and the SSC community? Of course you won’t.

I want to urge Siskind’s irked supporters to consider that when Metz brings up Charles Murray, Voldemort feminists, unusually collegial engagement with neo-reactionary thought, and speculation about tech being male-heavy because women for some reason just get bored by numbers and gadgets, it’s not because he’s writing a hit job — it’s because these are the sort of thing Siskind was terrified his employer and patients would connect to him. Huh? Why would you aim directly at the realization of Siskind’s fears if not out of spite and malice? Well, the most interesting things about Slate Star Codex, from an outside perspective, are (1) that it’s influential in Silicon Valley, and its enthusiastic fans include incredibly rich and powerful people whose technologies and businesses affect all our lives; (2) one day Siskind burnt it all down and summoned a vengeful horde to attack an innocent reporter and assail America’s best newspaper."

I've read this multiple times in an effort to parse its logic as sympathetically as possible. But all I keep getting are scenes from Salem:

"Why do this mean old woman's family members get so defensive every time we bring up demons? Why are they so insistent she's never in the woods cavorting with them? She *has* been spotted going into the woods, after all.

"We're just doing our job keeping the community safe against curses and blights. I understand their loyalty, but that's no reason to be mean to one of our noble witch investigators!"

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