Tegmark responds on his offer to fund Nazis! and makes it worse

Tegmark responds on his offer to fund Nazis! and makes it worse (https://www.reddit.com/r/SneerClub/comments/10cwr63/tegmark_responds_on_his_offer_to_fund_nazis_and/)

posted on January 15, 2023 10:18 PM by u/dgerard

previously

The Effective Altruists, fresh off being punched repeatedly in the head by the collapse of the FTX crypto grifters, noticed Max Tegmark - who has been deep in the rationalist bros for a decade or more - messing with the Nazis, offering money to the Nazis from his 501(c)3, and going on a podcast for this particular group of Nazis.

Tegmark has posted his response. It makes it worse.

Tegmark commented:

The Future of Life Institute makes no apologies for engaging with many people across the immensely diverse political spectrum, because our mission is so important that it needs broad support from all sectors of society.

let me remind you we’re talking about actual neo-Nazis here.

He also denies the neo-Nazis in question are neo-Nazis, though other commenters note Nya Dagbladet’s articles promoting holocaust revisionism, vaccine denial, and the campaign to “defend ethnic rights”.

Max Tegmark’s brother writes for Nya Dagbladet. Tegmark’s reply when questioned on this in particular: “My brother never worked there. He published some articles there, but they’ve never paid him anything.” WELL I GUESS THAT’S FINE THEN

u/garnet420 20 points at 1673823919.000000

I don’t think Sweden is one of the European countries that bans Nazism and hate speech outright; I’m kind of curious about this though:

former Swedish government, which not only certified the Foundation as charitable but granted 0,000 in government funding and support to Nya Dagbladet in 2021

I’m guessing being certified as charitable is easy, the grant is interesting, albeit not very relevant.

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u/muffinpercent 18 points at 1673824548.000000

Commenters on the EA forum claim this is a form of journalism support that's designed to be given to everyone without regard to political views.

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u/Citrakayah 24 points at 1673829469.000000

I would like to see some Swedish anarchists suggesting violently overthrowing the Swedish capitalist state get it, then. Since, you know. They're so even-handed.

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u/gerikson 17 points at 1673889423.000000

FWIW, the newspaper for the Communist Party *Proletären* gets presstöd: https://proletaren.se/inrikes/minister-ifragasatter-regler-presstod

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u/khayandhi 15 points at 1673903683.000000

There's a list of everything they've granted support to [here](https://www.mprt.se/stod-till-medier/beviljade-stod/) — the majority of what they pay for is tiny little local papers, but indeed, they do support several papers that explicitly publish material relating to the overthrow of the Swedish capitalist state (*Offensiv*, *Proletär* ...). I can't find any evidence that they continued to support *Nya Dagbladet.*

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u/gerikson 4 points at 1673957385.000000

Thanks a lot for this info! * Insikt24 is far-right, 1.7M SEK in driftsstöd * M-L Proletären (Marxist-Leninistiska Proletären), already mentioned, far-left, 3.0M SEK * Nya Tider, far-right, 5.5M SEK * Offensiv, left to far-left, 1.7M SEK

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u/khayandhi 3 points at 1673958999.000000

Thanks for going through them, I didn't follow up to see which ones were far-right though I expected a few! (My favourite one on the list was the mysteriously-named TTELA, 'nyheter från Trollhättan, Vänersborg, Lilla Edet och Mellerud'.)

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u/gerikson 5 points at 1673965270.000000

Easiest to find the far-right stuff is to see if Expo.se has mentioned them. TTELA is formerly "Trollhättans Tidning och Elfsborgs Läns Allehanda" (https://www.ttela.se/). Classic regional paper. "Elfsborg" is the former spelling of [Älvsborg](https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%84lvsborgs_l%C3%A4n), a former county. Part of the reason for presstöd is to help small papers like this to survive.

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u/khayandhi 2 points at 1673975672.000000

Thanks for the tip, didn't know about expo.se which looks really useful. Yeah, I really like presstöd and other such policies — as a recent immigrant to Sweden, it's one of the most noticeable differences from my home country.

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u/muffinpercent 11 points at 1673857157.000000

My complete lack of knowledge about this means I can't rule out that that's already happened

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u/AllNewTypeFace 32 points at 1673824548.000000

Sweden now has Nazis in its actual government (they call themselves “Sweden Democrats” and assert that they’ve reformed since the party was founded by actual SS volunteers, but if it quacks like a duck…)

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u/Vuxul 6 points at 1673882751.000000

The grant was an innovation media subsidy, to assist in moving to a digital platform. Its an editorial neutral grant in any case.

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u/DELETED 7 points at 1673883092.000000

[deleted]

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u/Vuxul 6 points at 1673883243.000000

Essentially yes, if the paper fullfils X critera, then they have a right to it. Though, does not seem they got full support, only the digital support grant. Whether they lacked something or didn't apply for it, i cannot say.

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u/DELETED 5 points at 1673883578.000000

[deleted]

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u/garnet420 9 points at 1673888602.000000

Yes, I think it's also kind of relying on an inaccurate preconception that European countries are tough on Nazism. While hate speech is outlawed in a few places in Europe, I think it's not generally the case. Additionally, even in places where that *is* true, Nazis and fascists do exist legally, they just figure out ways to skirt the system.

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u/pakap 12 points at 1673892909.000000

Here in France, hate speech ("incitation to hatred") is indeed illegal, as is Holocaust denial among other things. Doesn't stop us from having dozens of fascist groups. What did put a damper on them in earlier decades was a very militant and popular antifascist movement, using tactics up to and including street violence. The movement is still there, but it doesn't get any support from most "respectable" parties, even the one who are nominally far-left and antifascist.

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u/relightit 19 points at 1673845074.000000

they don’t mind being “naughty” and snickers at the normies who don’t get that fascism/a monarchy would be the best political position to meet their “charity” needs.

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u/relightit 9 points at 1673883960.000000

to no fault of their own: they are just being "rational" , amirite... they just follow "logic"... i remember when they started to take interest in that yarvin character; i thought wow no wonder why the progressive faction of those futurist-types didn't take off, for some reason they are just more at ease with the extreme reactionary type.

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u/birdcontent 40 points at 1673826685.000000

Max Tegmark’s brother writes for Nya Bagdlet. Tegmark’s reply when questioned on this in particular: “My brother never worked there. He published some articles there, but they’ve never paid him anything.”

so… his brother believed in their cause so much he was willing to work for free?

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u/ahopefullycuterrobot 30 points at 1673839439.000000

Strong 'You do get how that's worse, right?' energy there. I'm actually not sure it's worse to do it for free vs. getting paid, but I'm pretty sure it's not better in any relevant sense.

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u/muffinpercent 5 points at 1673880255.000000

IDK, I guess from the point of view of a conspiracist anti-vaxxer, you just want to get published and you can't pick and choose where to do it because everyone is out to get you anyway or something.

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u/blakestaceyprime 15 points at 1673898553.000000

The Future of Life Institute makes no apologies for engaging with many people across the immensely diverse political spectrum

and in the next breath

the Future of Life Institute stands and will always stand emphatically against racism, bigotry, bias, injustice and discrimination at all times and in all forms

10/10 Janus face, no notes

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u/RainbowwDash 9 points at 1674096702.000000

They should just do it in the same breath for once "the future of life institute stands and will always stand empathically against the people it makes no apologies for engaging with", or something.

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u/muffinpercent 9 points at 1673824586.000000

Is the misspelling of the neo-Nazi group’s name intentional?

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u/dgerard 9 points at 1673826862.000000

oww fixed

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u/CowardlyChicken 10 points at 1673821633.000000

Oh Max, such potential… I guess even actual geniuses are not immune from becoming shitheads.

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u/htiafon 12 points at 1673875732.000000

Isn't that essentially the entire thesis of this sub? Smart people overextending like crazy by hias and ego?

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u/CowardlyChicken 6 points at 1673880210.000000

Yes, but sometimes it hits more on the disappointing rather than sneerful side

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u/pusillanimouslist 4 points at 1674467745.000000

That and “self identified smart people resorting to reactionary politics to compensate for why their ‘intelligence’ didn’t bring them the wealth and happiness they thought it would”.

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