Do you have absolutely no empathy for someone in west Africa dying of malaria?
In all honesty, no. I can't say I do without severely watering down the meaning of the word empathy. If I felt a non zero unit of empathy for every dying child in this world I'd be emotionally crippled by the weight of the world's suffering.
EA is trying to save lives in the most cost effective way possible, and last I checked the most effective way to save lives was buying bed nets to prevent malaria.
EA stopped being about malaria nets a long time ago when they started putting funding into political campaign donations into "their" candidates into the Democratic Party primaries in Oregon (he lost anyways lmao). Scott Alexander and Big Yud shilling for this loser is a big jumping the shark moment for EA. Shoveling money into the black hole that is politics is the exact opposite of effective or altruism.
Anyway, I don't think we're looking at anything more or less than a polycule of stim-abusing rationalists with a gambling problem, good PR, and access to several billion dollars with which to gamble.
There's a LOT more to it than that. His extensive anti DeFi lobbying and his donation history (donating money he didn't have) point to a much deeper rabbit hole than a Bernie Madoff situation. Between this and the possibly related murder of Nikolai Mushegian, it's a very strange time to be in the DeFi sphere. This is like our Epstein.
I know this sounds like a "just trust me bro" post but there isn't a lot written about it that's up to date that I can reference and it's unlikely the media will ever dig deeper.
It is not that the movement was exploited, it is that the organizations around EA were almost entirely funded by this Sam Bankman Fried, who seems to be as true believer as it gets, despite having highly unethical and illegal business practices. It was effectively HIS movement after he bankrolled it and everyone else was a useful idiot who gladly took paychecks from a billionaire.
suy
1yr ago
https://youtube.com/watch?v=WHgGSeNY7Dw
Here's a good recap of it so far. There's a lot more that has happened since but it's not settled yet.
The main person behind the FTX situation is Sam Bankman Fried, a very influential donor and prominent figure within the Effective Altruism movement. His exchange blew open due to his financial crimes and the movement he is tied to is taking heat. He allocated millions into Effective Altruism while embezzling from his exchange. What is currently happening is a Bernie Madoff level collapse. A company that had ads with Larry Davis on the Super Bowl this year is imploding overnight and all it's customers are turbo fucked.
suy
1yr ago
I was looking forward to seeing twitter explode because I hate what that site does to society and people in general regardless of politics but I've been disappointed by how weak the pushback has been. Was hoping for a more spectacular meltdown than the usual weeping and gnashing of teeth from blue checks. How many people of any note actually left?
suy
1yr ago
There are many bona-fide black muslims in the United States originating from eastern and northern Africa. Also, Hoteps don't present as muslim and are distinct from NOI folks.
DeSantis should ignore Trump and continue to quietly court the Powers That Be within the Red Team to come to his side while Trump takes the heat from the Blue Team for another year.
In a perfect DeSantis scenario, a couple months before the 2024 RNC primaries start, all the remnants of (R) QAnon type guys still in office are brought into a smoky room meeting with their sponsors and told to knock it off because there's an election to win and Trump is quietly blackballed from the party during the primaries like Sanders was in 2020.
Somehow I doubt it will end this cleanly for him.
suy
1yr ago
@OracleOutlook Any updates on that Potato/potassium supplementation diet thing from last month? Curious to see if anyone here has seen any results.
suy
1yr ago
Indeed. My fairly well to do Red friends from PN were horrified at the prospect of having to vote for another TV charlatan despite being ambivalent to Trump. "We just want someone normal" is the big sentiment for them (former reluctant Trump guys big on DeSantis).
suy
1yr ago
Also I gave a beer away from my six pack to a homeless guy in front of Walmart. Nothing makes a beggar light up more than a cold one. Not even money.
suy
1yr ago
This is normal for PredictIt. If you use the site a lot you'll notice the heavy Red bias before the mass of normie users fill up the volume to something more realistic right before the election starts.
suy
1yr ago
"In LSD veritas" was the CIA's motto in the 60s. They tried with alcohol, but determined that alcohol wasn't good enough to be used to determine anyone's true sentiments. (neither was LSD)
People react very differently to drunkeness. Some get sad, violent, horny, lethargic, delusional or paranoid. Not all drunk behavior can be interpreted as uninhibited desire.
suy
1yr ago
I'm not an expert in shop, but what's stopping people from publishing digital, open source schematics for using more traditional metalworking to make firearms?
Nothing. It's easily accessable. You can just search "AR lower CNC file" and it should show up as the first result.
Building a gun from entirely from scratch is extremely difficult and costly for one person, but most of these files assume you're only interested in making the part that's actually regulated (the lower reciever).
suy
1yr ago
No, but it is a funny word that evokes an image of contempt from the people who feed it to you, like a pig farmer or a school lunch lady.
suy
1yr ago
That's a nice analogy but should it also apply to people who think there are demons living in their walls after they smoke crack or any other psychoactive drug. Very compulsive and out of character behavior isn't even that uncommon among drunks. I doubt it has that much to do with one's "true character".
suy
1yr ago
Blue team is on sale on the senate market. Only 21 cents. Very tempted to buy. I believe 79/21 is not realistic odds.
suy
1yr ago
All my Red Team friends are praying he's announcing he will back down and endorse DeSantis. Maybe a little too optimistic.
suy
1yr ago
It does happen on occasion but it tends to be mentally ill schizos rather than any serious attempt to delegitimize the process
suy
1yr ago
The easiest way to get the results you want is to get a photograph of your musicians and run it through a free online style transfer app with keywords like cubism and picasso.
suy
1yr ago
Those who remain should be, and I would wager are, confident that they are not also on the verge of being laidoff.
I don't think it actually works like that because there's no guarantee there won't be further decimations in the near future as new loyal (to Musk) engineers are brought in to replace the old guard. If your company fired half the staff overnight, it would be a bit early to feel secure in your job.
...why tho
Getting emotional over people I don't know is irrational and makes you easy to manipulate. Not opening my wallet for a charity just because they will ostensibly reduce suffering somewhere I have never seen that I will never go to. People should look out for the ones they have direct responsibility for first. How about helping a friend out first? Everyone has a friend that's struggling these days.
One can improve the lives of those around them with great precision and far greater cost efficiency than unknown strangers.
Real Effective Altruism is giving a beer to the bum in front of Walmart. I don't expect him to get any better and he will almost certainly die in a ditch in ten years, but at least I know my money is being converted directly into utility (beer == smiles) and not wasted on high overhead charity making political or economic changes with uncertain second order consequences.
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