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that time Scott Alexander (squid314) donated money to sterilise drug users (https://i.redd.it/tzgno225aud51.png)
122

The key to avoiding a retread of Brave New World or Morlocks / Eloi

Holy hell - every time I think I’m being uncharitable about the rationalist skull-measurer set by summing up their philosophy as “armchair philosophy + cozy genre fiction = accelerated fascism”, I get another example like this.

Yes, let’s avoid another “retread” of two 100-year-old novels.

I’m getting a tattoo of this line from the original post. Though I’d feel better if it were something more reversible.

But then when real people try to think up ideas, they come up with fascinating things like prediction markets and seasteading and Mormonism. Or as some sci-fi author once put it, “the average fictional alien race is less genuinely foreign than the average Chinese person”.

what the fuck. *what the fuck.*
I mean, kinda true. Space aliens in fiction are always just bland abstractions of how humanity thinks about itself. Whiel an individual chinese person has genuinely rich history and a connection to a massive set of diverse cultures and subcultures. Scifi sadly rarely manages to reach that level.
Hmm! That's a better way to put it. I'm wary of rationalists playing up differences between people, for obvious reasons. Smacks of "the inscrutable Orient" and whatnot: bland negations of how people think of their own ways of living.
This could be a turning point where you reflect on the fact that you have a tendency to get outraged by things you don't even understand, and a tendency to read everything written by people you don't like, in the worst possible interpretation. In fact, that's pretty much this whole sub.
Or as some sci-fi author once put it, "the average fictional alien race is less genuinely foreign than the average high-decoupler".
The benign eugenics explainer has logged on
jesus christ.. eugenics explainer? That's a bit extreme, isn't it? I'll say it again: >and a tendency to read everything written by people you don't like, in the worst possible interpretation
You said > that's pretty much this whole sub. In the context of an eugenics post.
that is still a huge leap. I have no favorable feelings towards eugenics and here I am being accused of sympathy for basically suggesting somebody should do a double-take on their assumptions. If this subreddit didn't have the characteristics I described, it would look more like /r/iamverysmart but it doesn't.. There are a few people that are disliked here, and seemingly everything they say is viewed with the most pernicious interpretation. Often making huge stretches of imagination just to achieve it. I lurk here because sometimes people actually explain their views and make good arguments that I can get behind, and I enjoy snarky humour in general, but there is *a whole lot* of slander that goes on here unfairly also.
Slander? In sneerclub, well I never... E: also spookyvision said 'benign eugenics' not 'eugenics' don't read the worst in what people said, or you will be outraged by things you don't really understand. ;)
benign eugenics is a subset of eugenics
Is it? Im not the expert.
Sure. Chinese food -> still food. Benign eugenics -> still eugenics Functional Illiteracy -> still illiteracy
Ah, so plastic food -> food, got it.
Well yes, more or less. If it's not food, then it's not plastic food either.

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Benign eugenics program you say? What could possibly go wrong?
Yeah those two words go together like anarcho-capitalism. Or onion toothpaste.
Onion toothpaste might be okay, but Ancap is a contradiction in terms.
Time for someone to look up the *other* Kzinti lesson.

…this man is responsible for medical care.

forgive my ignorance but isnt it a myth to imply people with Aspergers literally lack the ability to empathize / emotions

Some people with autism in fact feel empathy so strongly that it is debilitating.
Can confirm. Source: my childhood
Overwhelming emotion yes but afaik almost all asd includes significant difficulty estimating the actual thoughts/feelings/perspectives of others
that one goes both ways; neurotypicals are also pretty bad at estimating the actual thoughts/feelings/perspectives of people with autism and on the high-functioning end, people who choose train this end up learning to use their more analytical thinking to frequently sub in for, or even surpass, much of the emotional reasoning nuerotypicals would have as instinct
The difference is between cognitive empathy, which is colloquially called empathy, and affective empathy, which is colloquially called sympathy. Cognitive empathy is the ability to understand why people feel a certain way, while affective empathy is the ability to tune into the emotions of others when realizing what they are feeling. Autism generally makes one less cognitively empathetic, while a lack of affective empathy is called psychopathy. Autism might also make one less capable of realizing what kinds of emotions people around them are experiencing based on nonverbal cues.
lmao can’t believe u subjected urself to digging thru his livejournal?? to find this,, thank you for your service

I’ve looked up this Project Prevention thing. It’s a wild ride for sure.

> Project Prevention UK will not be paying for sterilization procedures. The BMA just makes that too difficult. If you disagree with this decision please contact the BMA with your opinion. We will only be paying addicts and alcoholics to use long term birth control until further notice. http://www.projectprevention.org/united-kingdom/
Excellent idea to have every eugenics enthusiast spamming the BMA about sterilising the unworthy.

Jesus fucking Christ, this is disgusting.

wonder why that guy doesn't want his patients knowing his pen name
Probably because he divulges many of his patients' private information, and information protected by HIPAA, all over the same blog that he welcomes race and IQ realists to comment on.

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> environmental influence > incentives Does it say r/neoliberalism in your browser bar?
please post this again on your main account instead