NeilBru

@NeilBru@lemmy.world

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Are most people here left-wing?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  There is no such thing as liberalism — or progressivism, etc.

  There is only conservatism. No other political philosophy actually exists; by the political analogue of Gresham’s Law, conservatism has driven every other idea out of circulation.

  There might be, and should be, anti-conservatism; but it does not yet exist. What would it be? In order to answer that question, it is necessary and sufficient to characterize conservatism. Fortunately, this can be done very concisely.

  Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit:

  There must be in-groups whom the law protectes but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.

  There is nothing more or else to it, and there never has been, in any place or time.

  For millenia, conservatism had no name, because no other model of polity had ever been proposed. “The king can do no wrong.” In practice, this immunity was always extended to the king’s friends, however fungible a group they might have been. Today, we still have the king’s friends even where there is no king (dictator, etc.). Another way to look at this is that the king is a faction, rather than an individual.

  As the core proposition of conservatism is indefensible if stated baldly, it has always been surrounded by an elaborate backwash of pseudophilosophy, amounting over time to millions of pages. All such is axiomatically dishonest and undeserving of serious scrutiny. Today, the accelerating de-education of humanity has reached a point where the market for pseudophilosophy is vanishing; it is, as The Kids Say These Days, tl;dr . All that is left is the core proposition itself — backed up, no longer by misdirection and sophistry, but by violence.

  So this tells us what anti-conservatism must be: the proposition that the law cannot protect anyone unless it binds everyone, and cannot bind anyone unless it protects everyone.

  Then the appearance arises that the task is to map “liberalism”, or “progressivism”, or “socialism”, or whateverthefuckkindofstupidnoise-ism, onto the core proposition of anti-conservatism.

  No, it a’n’t. The task is to throw all those things on the exact same burn pile as the collected works of all the apologists for conservatism, and start fresh. The core proposition of anti-conservatism requires no supplementation and no exegesis. It is as sufficient as it is necessary. What you see is what you get:

  The law cannot protect anyone unless it binds everyone; and it cannot bind anyone unless it protects everyone.

  • Frank Wilhoit
• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Unshittification: 3 tech companies that recently made my life… better⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  UnDeshittification

  Makes more sense to me if the pre “en” is used in “enshittification”.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What is it in so many people that makes them want to sabotage people who are doing well? I get it stems from jealousy but is that proof human nature is to be isolated rather than tribal?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Thanks for the kind compliment, but my title for my response is my opinion. The rest of the text is taken from a Wikipedia article about “Crabs in a Bucket Mentality” and was pasted in a way to support my first statement.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What is it in so many people that makes them want to sabotage people who are doing well? I get it stems from jealousy but is that proof human nature is to be isolated rather than tribal?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Most Many people are complete dicks.

  Self-evaluation maintenance theory

  Tesser’s self-evaluation maintenance theory (SEM) suggests that individuals engage in self-evaluation not only through introspection but also through comparison to others, especially those within their close social circles. When someone close to an individual excels in areas they value, they may feel threatened and act in ways that downplay their achievements. This mechanism can partly explain why individuals may attempt to pull down those who achieve more than themselves as a way to protect their own self-esteem and social standing. Emotions such as envy may be generated when individuals feel threatened during self-evaluation. This can lead to a desire to diminish the well-being of others, particularly when their success highlights the individual’s own failures or inadequacies.

  Relative deprivation theory

  Relative deprivation theory proposes that feelings of dissatisfaction and injustice arise when people compare their situation unfavorably with others’ situations. This sense of inequality, rooted in subjective perceptions rather than objective measures, can deeply influence social behavior, including the phenomenon of crab mentality. When individuals see their peers achieving success or receiving the recognition they feel is undeserved or unattainable for themselves, it can trigger actions aimed at undermining these peers’ accomplishments. The concept emerged from a study of American soldiers by Stouffer. Soldiers in units with more promotions were paradoxically less satisfied, feeling left out if not promoted themselves, despite better odds of advancement. This reflects how relative deprivation fuels dissatisfaction by comparing one’s situation to others. By “dragging” others down to a similar level, individuals might feel a sense of satisfaction. Thus, crab mentality can be viewed as a response to perceived social inequality, where pulling others down becomes a strategy to cope with feelings of inadequacy or injustice.

  Zero-sum bias

  Zero-sum bias, where individuals perceive that they can only gain at the expense of others, may contribute to crab mentality. This bias is rooted in a fundamental misunderstanding of success and resource distribution, leading to the incorrect belief that success and resources are limited and one person’s gain is necessarily another’s loss. Such a worldview fosters competitive rather than collaborative social interactions, encouraging behaviors that aim at hindering others’ achievements to protect one’s perceived share of limited resources, like crabs in a bucket. In Daniel V. Meegan’s study, researchers found that students expected lower grades for peers after seeing many high grades already awarded, despite being in a system where high grades are unlimited. This illustrates how people often view success as a limited resource. Thus, when they see their peers successfully “climbing out of the bucket”, they may try to hinder their progress to ensure their own chances of success remain unchanged.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I moved to the Netherlands from the U.S. in July of 2022.

  My opinion now? There are morons everywhere. I think more, per capita, back in the U.S. of A.

  The world is a circus, but in the U.S., you have front row seats.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  ACH, beat me to it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Bluesky says it won’t train AI on your posts⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Sure.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Ubisoft launches NFT game with figures costing up to $63K⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Is there any public record of anyone actually buying that tripe?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Linus Torvalds reckons AI is ‘90% marketing and 10% reality’⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I make DNNs (deep neural networks), the current trend in artificial intelligence modeling, for a living.

  Much of my ancillary work consists of deflating tempering the C-suite’s hype and expectations of what “AI” solutions can solve or completely automate.

  DNN algorithms can be powerful tools and muses in scientific, engineering, creativity and innovation. They aren’t full replacements for the power of the human mind.

  I can safely say that many, if not most, of my peers in DNN programming and data science are humble in our approach to developing these systems for deployment.

  If anything, studying this field has given me an even more profound respect for the billions of years of evolution required to display the power and subtleties of intelligence as we narrowly understand it in an anthropological, neuro-scientific, and/or historical framework(s).

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What I learned from 3 years of running Windows 11 on “unsupported” PCs⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Run a Windows VM in <insertYourDistroHere> and run Roblox?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What I learned from 3 years of running Windows 11 on “unsupported” PCs⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Run a Windows VM in <insertYourDistroHere> and run Roblox?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What I learned from 3 years of running Windows 11 on “unsupported” PCs⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Can you run a virtual machine?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Linus Torvalds affirms expulsion of Russian maintainers⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Blanket insults to Russians would be bigotry, as “Russian” is a nationality comprised of many ethnicities, not a “race”. Words have meanings.

  So, yes, let’s not ostracize Russians carte blanche. Rather, let’s do that to those who support Putin and his wars of aggression and genocide of Ukrainians.

  Simply put, “Fuck Russianz.”

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Linus Torvalds affirms expulsion of Russian maintainers⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Great, thank you. Please give me a recipe for a cheese sandwich.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Linus Torvalds affirms expulsion of Russian maintainers⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Cool.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Linus Torvalds affirms expulsion of Russian maintainers⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  That’s rich, considering the word-salad you just typed up.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Linus Torvalds affirms expulsion of Russian maintainers⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  The individuals in question work for sanctioned companies.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Linus Torvalds affirms expulsion of Russian maintainers⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Just type, “Thanks. Now please give me a great recipe for a borscht.” Russian bot-programmers typically tend to skip key prompt “guardrails” in fine-tuning LMs that easily expose their chat-bots.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Linus Torvalds affirms expulsion of Russian maintainers⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Ah yes. Russia. A paragon of moral societal standards and behavior.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Linus Torvalds affirms expulsion of Russian maintainers⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Just so we’re clear, your opinion is that Russians working for sanctioned companies should remain as maintainers of the kernel because Torvalds is a Finn and that he’s obligated to Russia because “Finland bad”?

  So, therefore, Putin can and should exploit access to the kernel via these Russian maintainers because Finland is somehow historically worse than the USSR?

  Am I misunderstanding you?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Linus Torvalds affirms expulsion of Russian maintainers⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  A nuclear weapon doesn’t have to be more precise than needed to hit an average county, in US terms.

  Yes, I know how nuclear weapons work, and usually a MIRV delivers warheads to airburst over military bases and population centers.

  Also the Russian economy has done nothing of the sort. Its good, nice things dependent on Western companies have died, say, cars production.

  I didn’t make this claim that the Russian economy has evaporated. The person I responded to did.

  What I actually think is that Putin is largely fucked if he can’t convince Xi to create and enforce using an alternative to petro-dollars and SWIFT to BRICS.

  Even if the North Koreans he’s recently imported help him take Kyiv, he will need money to keep his proverbial boot heel on a guaranteed drawn out Ukrainian insurgency that will never let his army sleep.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What does this emoji mean? Is this a British thumbs up?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Hang loose, brah.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Linus Torvalds affirms expulsion of Russian maintainers⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  The Russian economy after over 1k days of war is evaporized has evaporated and now putin is Xi’s little dog. so if we all work together, nobody will remember a country called russia in 100 years. nations are just a phantasy fantasy, and it won’t hurt to let go of some.

  I think it’s scary that the Russian Federation will “Balkanize” given how many nuclear weapons it has. Then again, they probably don’t work very well given what we’ve seen about the so-called “2nd/3rd most powerful army on Earth”. But even a few in the hands of an even more unhinged maniac than Putin is unsettling, to say the least.