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Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending 18th January 2026 (awful.systems)
submitted 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) by BlueMonday1984@awful.systems to c/techtakes@awful.systems
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Want to wade into the snowy surf of the abyss? Have a sneer percolating in your system but not enough time/energy to make a whole post about it? Go forth and be mid.

Welcome to the Stubsack, your first port of call for learning fresh Awful you’ll near-instantly regret.

Any awful.systems sub may be subsneered in this subthread, techtakes or no.

If your sneer seems higher quality than you thought, feel free to cut’n’paste it into its own post — there’s no quota for posting and the bar really isn’t that high.

The post Xitter web has spawned so many “esoteric” right wing freaks, but there’s no appropriate sneer-space for them. I’m talking redscare-ish, reality challenged “culture critics” who write about everything but understand nothing. I’m talking about reply-guys who make the same 6 tweets about the same 3 subjects. They’re inescapable at this point, yet I don’t see them mocked (as much as they should be)

Like, there was one dude a while back who insisted that women couldn’t be surgeons because they didn’t believe in the moon or in stars? I think each and every one of these guys is uniquely fucked up and if I can’t escape them, I would love to sneer at them.

(Credit and/or blame to David Gerard for starting this.)

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[-] CinnasVerses@awful.systems 11 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

"U" for "you" was when I became confident who "Nina" was. The blogger feels like yet another person who is caught up in intersecting subcultures of bad people but can't make herself leave. She takes a lot of deep lore like "what is Hereticon?" for granted and is still into crypto.

She links someone called Sonia Joseph who mentions "the consensual non-consensual (cnc) sex parties and heavy LSD use of some elite AI researchers ... leads (sic) to some of the most coercive and fucked up social dynamics that I have ever seen." Joseph says she is Canadian but worked in the Bay Area tech scene. Cursed phrase: agi cnc sex parties

I have never heard of a wing of these people in Canada. There are a few Effective Altruists in Toronto but I don't know if they are the LessWrong kind or the bednet kind. I thought this was basically a US and Oxford scene (plus Jaan Tallinn).

The Substack and a Rationalist web magazine are both called Asterisk.

[-] saucerwizard@awful.systems 8 points 2 weeks ago

I think theres a EA presence at the all the big universities now. Theres a rationalist meet up in Manitoba but nothing here thank god.

I noticed Sonia during the initial media coverage but didn’t know what to make of her. Theres another person on twitter alleging abuse at Aella’s cnc parties, I can dig them up at lunch if you want.

[-] swlabr@awful.systems 12 points 2 weeks ago

not to make light of abuse but I do just want to entertain the alternate world where people are holding CNC (computer numerical control) parties. I imagine they’d have a lot of caliper talk but since it isn’t about skull measurement it’s fine

[-] saucerwizard@awful.systems 7 points 2 weeks ago

That would be a much better world (btw ironworkers are great if you ever get to use one).

[-] swlabr@awful.systems 7 points 2 weeks ago

Manifesting a more ironworker forward 2026 bless 🙏🙏🙏

[-] saucerwizard@awful.systems 6 points 2 weeks ago
[-] blakestacey@awful.systems 6 points 2 weeks ago

Transcribing (the nested blockquote is a self-quote-tweet):

Some day I'll be able to write about my experience with Aella's organizing/friend group who used their community power to slander me, bully me and ruin my life simply bc I told the truth and patiently sought understanding:

Idk what you're referring to but she/RMN team, when I brought up concern about my abuser, strung me along for months promising a conversation, then ultimately banned me, publicly slandered/victim blamed me, and continue to invite my abuser and his enablers to their events.

Note: after months being strung along w no clear answers/dialogue, one RMN organizer told me I was disinvited bc theyre "risk averse" w who gets invited.

Risk averse about... someone EXPERIENCING abuse/CVs/retaliation (not reporting it), but not about the ppl actually doing it.

I hope they understand how that's just not how you should be risk averse with your events... After experiencing the RMN team participation in the retaliation (again, all i did was talk about things that happened n correct lies), of course my disappointment & concern grew.

[-] blakestacey@awful.systems 7 points 2 weeks ago

That "Hereticon" link looks broken; I think it should point to this RationalWiki page.

[-] CinnasVerses@awful.systems 3 points 2 weeks ago

It looks like this site requites https:// or http;// to recognize a link as an external link, otherwise it prepends awful.systems/ and treats it as an internal link

[-] scruiser@awful.systems 4 points 2 weeks ago

he blogger feels like yet another person who is caught up in intersecting subcultures of bad people but can’t make herself leave. She takes a lot of deep lore like “what is Hereticon?” for granted and is still into crypto.

I missed that as I was reading, but yeah, the author has pretty progressive language, but totally fails to note all the other angles along which rational adjacent spaces are bad news, even though she is, as you note, deep enough into the space she should have seen a lot of it mask-off at this point.

this post was submitted on 12 Jan 2026
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