this post was submitted on 29 Apr 2025
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Late Stage Capitalism
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That's a lot of nasty words that have absolutely nothing to do with me. Not even really sure what to say. It's mostly a pile of anger vent at tech bros and I'm far from that.
I don't really want to try to engage with the argument about when something is harm reduction and when it's boxing yourself in out of a misguided sense of idealism, with someone who thinks the world is devils and angels, and that I'm a devil.
It is anger. It's justifiable anger. I'm not sure about the nasty words part, but ok.
No the world isn't devils and angels; it's devils. Attempting to not be less devilish is the point.
Misguided idealism... now that's funny. Oh no I want things to be fair and good for the majority of all living things without it being taken off the backs of others! Yeah I'm the bad guy in this one all right.
I think you misunderstand what I mean about the possibility of misguided idealism (which is just a possibility, not a personal attack accusation). I think it's safe to say something that everyone in this community you're posting in shares, is a strong belief in wanting "things to be fair and good for the majority of all living things without it being taken off the backs of others". It's not about whether you are personally the "good guy" or the "bad guy".
The question is persistently: How do we get from where we are now to "things are fair and good for the majority of all living things without it being taken off the backs of others"? The idealistic view might suggest that if we all just choose to behave better as individuals, the problems will be solved. Another form of idealistic view might suggest that we can force things to immediately be fixed with enough organized willpower, without any sort of transition period.
So what I am talking about there, is whether boycotting of AI constitutes something that is worth the promoting of, especially on an individualist level. Or if doing so is more just an idealistic notion that it'll have some power to affect change that it won't have, born of a desire for a sense of purity. If you want some more perspective on what I'm getting at when I say purity, I recommend this piece: https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/Library:Western_Marxism,_the_fetish_for_defeat,_and_Christian_culture