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Moldbug on 'glasnost' and 'perestroika', because words and definitions aren't real (https://archive.is/xfypg)
28

Look, as an anti-fan of Moldbug, particularly in the old days, I have to say the following:

At one time this sub had a ban on SSC or maybe just the CWR sections. Because it was boring. Moldbug used to be this bizarre but literate guy who would make insane arguments (like, “America is a communist country” or something) and then quote Carlyle in defense of a weird techno-monarchism.

Now he’s just a guy who believes in italics, especially in defense against those who don’t believe in italics.

Moldbug has gone from being truly awful to being surreal. Observation of SSC and its offsprings make us ParlerWatch, they’re so far gone. Who are we left with to dunk on? Big Yud and Robin Hanson? Is this life?

e: you know what? I’m gonna come out and say it. There are fun sneers and vigilant/necessary sneers, and they’ve diverged so badly that I think the mods ought to give serious thought to splitting the sub. I would subscribe to both, but Yud tweets and hyperracists need their own focus, even if they’re linked.

There's definitely a strong "circling the drain" vibe
I wonder if this is the consequence of a fascist movement failing to win power in its main gambit, or if we’re still a ways away from the decision point on that.
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Yeah, I agree that republicans have gone fascist, but I don’t think people are reacting appropriately. I also think that word has been bandied about so much that by the time an honest to god fascist movement came, people had learned to tune it out as overheated rhetoric. Anyways, I’m worried.
Don't get it twisted, this is absolutely the start and not the end. Fascism doesn't fail, it just bides its time.
It’s too early to say for certain that fascism will never fall; it’s only a century old at this point. But certain fascist movements come and go. Fascism as a super category is here to stay, but things like Nazism are dead letters. So the question is, is the fascist party we’re seeing here still growing, or no?
> Nazism is dead Is it, though? This is my entire point: authoritarianism is *expressed* in sundry political movements but it's not contained or defined by the movements, which come and go, while the underlying gravity of power accumulating power is a fundamental law of governance. As long as there are governments, there will be fascists, or proto-fascists, or neo-fascists, or post-fascists. So, the question is: what mechanisms can be brought to bear to limit the ever-present influence of those who would wield the peoples' will against them.
First, I’d argue that every fascist movement is unique, since it’s heavily rooted in national myths. I’d also argue that Nazism is just German fascism, and Nazism as a coherent political force is dead. There are some hangers on, but it’s not gaining power. I’d argue that any fascist movement that crops up in America might have hints of Nazism, just like Nazism had hints of Italian Fascism, but it would be something else. That being said, while I agree that power collecting authoritarian instincts are an immutable part of human society, it’s not clear that Fascism is. Fascism isn’t that old; the fact that it cropped up so recently implies that it’s either driven by, or needs something else as a prerequisite. If that thing goes away, fascism might too. Similarly, other forms of authoritarian power accumulation have waned over time. Feudalism and monarchy (parliamentary & symbolic types excepted) used to be *the* form of government for thousands of years. The instinct to advocate for kings and queens appears to have largely been replaced by dictators and fascistic strong men. This implies that while authoritarianism isn’t going away, the form that it takes can change over time.
Yeah, unlike ideologies that require more complex restructuring of society, fascism is too stupid to truly fail. So long as you have an obediant military and police, a base of violent assholes, and a bunch of rich assholes to break the political system, you can do fascism.
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The edit was just a proposal, and you did nothing wrong. No criticism intended.
Also, moldbuggery sounds like something even rule 34 can't cover. e: fucking fun guys absolutely doesn't count.
He auto-flanderized
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A separate sub for sex abuse allegations would only really only be worthwhile IMO if it was led by the survivors and less of a place for outsiders to talk about how shitty their group was. A rationalist women's group is probably a good idea (and I think exists outside of reddit?) and would probably the best place for such discussions. It's also been floated before that there should be a separate sub for the reactionary content that's not weird or interesting, but places like /r/enoughidwspam exist and tend to be pretty boring. The reason most of us are here is to see the goofy galaxy brain takes, and while it's not a bad thing that the scope has expanded beyond that IMO it would be less helpful to split the community compared to directing the subreddit culture to accommodate the larger scope.
This sub also isn’t a place to persuade people. We all know that the rationalists are nutballs, and we want to revel together in our shared sneers. Sneering is entertaining, but it’s fundamentally opposed to informing and persuading (as you’ve hinted at). If Reddit is useful at such things, and I have my doubts, this isn’t the place for it.
> Now he's just a *guy* who believes in *italics*, especially in defense of *those* who don't *believe* in *italics*. This is just how \*silly cows\* let us know which words are \*fat\*. Don't be \*frumple\*. (If you use FORMATTING for *emphasis* more than once per 10,000 words, you need to work on your rhetorical skills, or you need to spend more time reading text that has passed through the hands of an editor.)
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*Agreed*. Especially since I REFUSE to use the sarcasm tag. Yes, *sometimes* it is useful to use **bold face** or italics to convey tonal shifts. **Sometimes**. Moldbug is simply a SHOCKINGLY bad writer. e: worst post of mine to read, including the one where I defended the use of chemical warfare against babies. That one...well, it left something to be desired.
Overuse of Random capitalization and WEIRD [E: just a random capitalization here btw, this was not related to the [bias](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychology#WEIRD_bias)] formatting usually shows you are dealing with a crazy person btw. An extreme example of this style is the timecube, who also uses non standard formatting (iirc every thing was aligned to center) and fontsize and color changes. (No comic sans though, using different fonts pushes it into poe territory).
these \*time jokes* are \*squishy*
What a great fucking game. The absolute best.
Don't look at them, the Androsynth looked too deep, and now there are no Androsynth, only Orz.
It reminds me of the G-Man from Half-Life who will put emphasis on random words.
Thanks for the cuts, really.