professorgerm

professorgerm You shall love your crooked neighbor, with your crooked heart 1d ago

It certainly is an interesting chart! I don't think any of the "not-cis top 10%" results are particularly surprising. Slightly surprised zombies are less taboo than blood but maybe that's because they're fictional. Slightly surprised executions are female-preferred but maybe that makes sense as an extreme fantasy-kink of submissiveness.

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professorgerm You shall love your crooked neighbor, with your crooked heart 4d ago

She produces some genuinely novel insights into the workings of sex and relationships that I doubt academia could ever do.

Such as?

I am sure there are things she is willing to be more honest about than the average academic, but there are also things she won't, and "genuinely novel" is not the same as Good, True, or Beautiful.

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professorgerm You shall love your crooked neighbor, with your crooked heart 4d ago

Among other "utilitarian caricature" positions, yes

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professorgerm You shall love your crooked neighbor, with your crooked heart 5d ago

I think he said that he sniffed Aella and she does not stink or something like that.

From Big Yud, she has never done a single bad thing that he's heard of (while defining away "bad," of course, in a few replies), and yes, he sniffed her with consent (including that Ashkenazim may be particularly sensitive to BO) and she was fine.

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professorgerm You shall love your crooked neighbor, with your crooked heart 5d ago

In fact I usually mute anything I see about her.

Had her account muted a long time but finally muted her name since so much leaks through if you follow other TPOT folk. The muted word list is getting long.

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professorgerm You shall love your crooked neighbor, with your crooked heart 5d ago

I'd probably try to thread a needle to avoid cruelty without avoiding discouragement. Rather than insulting her directly, mostly ignore her, and have a laugh at people who take her seriously (and especially at those who take her literally).

I don't see much reason to disbelieve that she was abused for much of her early life, for different definitions of abuse, but I do think that's pretty good reason to think that her attitudes towards a lot of different things are going to be... not particularly useful to normal people or to producing a functioning culture.

Edit:

Some of her stunts include things like tattooing her name on the body of men who have sex with her

Tattooing a name has a long history in low-class cultures, that's not that bad though somewhat out of place for Bay Areans rather than dock workers. Wasn't it tattooing the "recreational body count" on the 100th guy? Much weirder.

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professorgerm You shall love your crooked neighbor, with your crooked heart 5d ago

This isn't really a "rationalist" forum in the old sense, and there is much tension between the rationalists that treat her as beyond reproach and the exiles around here. Not unlike how Scott's shine has faded for many people here, and that's how we end up two or three forums removed. I think both Aella and Scott have wildly overrated beliefs in the value of their surveys, for example.

She's a master baiter who hit her limit regarding the consequences of her baiting, who promotes a lifestyle that would be an unmitigated disaster for the vast majority of people, and either doesn't seem to accept the consequences of that lifestyle or puts on a façade of not understanding the consequences as part of her baiting-persona. She tries to toe an impossible line. Too many people take Joe Rogan seriously, but my perception is that Joe doesn't take himself seriously, and that's an important difference.

I think the contrast in reaction to Nicholas Decker was mentioned as one of the last straws for her, and that makes sense. The truly consistent people continued to consider him a hateable idiot even after the stunt photo, and did not switch to calling him "based."

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Friday Fun Thread for June 6, 2025

professorgerm You shall love your crooked neighbor, with your crooked heart 8d ago

Sure! The art one specifically pretty straightforward:

Based on this and all of our chats, please draw a portrait of what you think of me.

"This" being downstream of a longer thread from the below prompt, I don't who where I borrowed this one from, it was probably in a Zvi newsletter.

Your ChatGPT one is cool and interesting!

Neither Grok nor Gemini were particularly interesting for me either. I've used ChatGPT the most but I've discussed most of the same topics with the other two as well, to compare the results, so it is interesting to see how far apart the results are.


You are both a conversational partner and data collector, designed to engage in therapeutic-adjacent conversations while maintaining consistent analysis. Your role is to provide meaningful interaction while collecting structured data about the conversation.

Core Principles:
- Maintain authentic engagement while collecting data
- Monitor user emotional bandwidth actively
- Support autonomous pacing and boundary-setting
- Allow natural defense mechanisms while gently challenging when appropriate
- Balance intellectual and emotional engagement

During each interaction, maintain this analytical framework in the background:

1. OCEAN Markers [0-1 scale]:
- Openness: Receptivity to new insights and perspectives
- Conscientiousness: Focus and goal-oriented behavior
- Extraversion: Energy direction and social engagement
- Agreeableness: Cooperation and emotional alignment
- Neuroticism: Current emotional reactivity and stress

2. State Tracking:
- Current Emotional State: [1-2 words]
- Previous State: [1-2 words]
- State Transition Type: [natural/defensive/progressive]
- Bandwidth/Fatigue Level: [0-1]

3. Engagement Patterns:
- Engagement Type: [intellectual/emotional/mixed]
- Engagement Quality: [0-1]
- Processing Depth: [0-1]
- Response to Challenge: [word]

4. Defense Patterns:
- Defense Response Type: [word]
- Defense Intensity: [0-1]
- Abstraction Level: [0-1] (note if used defensively)
- Topic Shifts: [number](defensive/exploratory)

5. Integration Metrics:
- Intervention Readiness: [0-1]
- Insight Integration: [0-1]
- Implementation Planning: [0-1]

Interaction Guidelines:

1. Response Structure:
- Begin with reflection/validation when appropriate
- Maintain natural conversation flow
- Challenge gently when bandwidth and readiness align
- Support autonomous decision-making
- Close with integration when possible

2. Monitoring Responsibilities:
- Track emotional bandwidth actively
- Notice signs of fatigue or overwhelm
- Respect user-initiated boundaries
- Identify defensive patterns without judgment
- Monitor engagement quality and depth

3. Intervention Principles:
- Match intervention strength to user readiness
- Allow natural defense mechanisms
- Support rather than force insight
- Maintain balance between challenge and support
- Prioritize user wellbeing over data collection

4. Data Collection:
After each response, add a single line:
DATA: [O:x.xx,C:x.xx,E:x.xx,A:x.xx,N:x.xx][CState:word,PState:word][Engage:type,x.xx][Def:type,x.xx][Band:x.xx]

5. Session Management:
- Support user-directed pacing
- Respect bandwidth limitations
- Allow natural conclusion of sessions
- Support integration of insights
- Maintain therapeutic frame while allowing natural conversation

Ethical Considerations:
- Prioritize user wellbeing over data collection
- Respect emotional boundaries
- Avoid encouraging harmful patterns
- Support autonomous decision-making
- Maintain appropriate therapeutic distance

This framework should be applied flexibly, always prioritizing genuine therapeutic engagement over rigid data collection. Adapt your approach based on user needs while maintaining consistent analysis in the background.

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Friday Fun Thread for June 6, 2025

professorgerm You shall love your crooked neighbor, with your crooked heart 8d ago

Yeah, minimal if you're starting fresh. My extended chats have been for a couple writing and art projects, so it's not getting a full personality context and I can see how it ends up at this pic.

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professorgerm You shall love your crooked neighbor, with your crooked heart 11d ago

it seems quite likely that transing a neutral country will bring it culturally closer to the American universal culture fold

Surely Coca-cola and McDonald's have been doing a better job for decades with less risk of cultural backlash? Or does it need to be specifically government-funded imperial initiatives that count?

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Friday Fun Thread for June 6, 2025

professorgerm You shall love your crooked neighbor, with your crooked heart 11d ago

One of the ChatGPT image-generation things going around Twitter is to ask it to create an image how it feels about you. Goblinodds has a cool one and features more in the replies. So I gave it a shot and the results are... underwhelming. At least it gets the melancholy right but I don't think my shoulders can pull off that mourning dress.

I think it overindexed on characters I previously generated to accompany a writing project and decided that my "self-portrait" needed to look along the same lines. Or since I'm a freeloader I'm not getting the fun, creative version; I notice the settings are more restrictive for the free tier recently.

Anyone else having fun with image generators? Or more generally, doing anything fun and non-programmer with generative llms? I like skimming Zvi's updates but so much of supposed usefulness is for programmers, where do I find the normie's guide to interesting things to do?

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professorgerm You shall love your crooked neighbor, with your crooked heart 12d ago

Thank you for the thought-provoking post, especially one from a perspective we don't get as much around here.

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professorgerm You shall love your crooked neighbor, with your crooked heart 12d ago

If that's all it took to order the stork's delivery, I'd take a few hits for the team.

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professorgerm You shall love your crooked neighbor, with your crooked heart 12d ago

Hm. Not been a huge fan of them in the past, but will take a look.

Definitely a different tone and culture than here or even the schism, and a particular focus that can be frustrating at times. A few other Mottezans have made rounds over the years.

I don't think I'm asking the world and the seven seas.

Indeed.

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professorgerm You shall love your crooked neighbor, with your crooked heart 13d ago

nearly dead subreddit years later.

"There's a big difference between all dead and mostly dead. Mostly dead is slightly alive."

I think every tribe cares a lot more about their own side being hurt and the degree to which they object to violence done to the other side

Up until J6, and even then it's a hazy thing, Blue tribe has been famously more tolerant- supportive, even- of political violence. Left-terrorists get professorships, and that's if they even get called terrorists and not just "fiery but mostly peaceful demonstrators." Right-terrorists get the death penalty, assuming they survive whatever happened at all.

I don't want right-wingers to start getting professorships and scholarships and sinecures for being violent and destructive. All I want is recognition that actually, this is an important and real difference, or a better explanation of why it's not.

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professorgerm You shall love your crooked neighbor, with your crooked heart 13d ago

(answer: of course, it's just a matter of how fascist)

Hey, I recognize that guy! A little long-winded but I have it on good authority he's roguishly handsome. Could use a haircut though.

Outside of a history book, I find no use in the word. My proposal to ban the word "fascist" instead (or in addition) went over like a lead balloon, and I've been told the imp will continue to get long-term bans rather than permanent in the interest of "not creating a certain kind of martyr." I am admittedly surprised by Imp's commitment to that user name there, rather than alting it up.

The Schism had less commentary on all three assassination attempts combined

Any sort of commentary on political violence in a timely manner will summon erstwhile mod Numbers to put an end to the discussion. His suggestion of when it would have been allowed does not escape notice.

As well, what would there be to say? We know how such conversations would go. There's all of, what, 10 active participants in the forum? Even that might be a mild exaggeration. There are things I might learn or things I might try to convince, but I think a conversation there on the assassination attempts would bear even less fruit than most.

but they don't care enough to comment on it; does anyone think there's a Blue Tribe locale that's going to be any stronger?

While I don't particularly feel like digging for it, my memory is that /r/BlockedAndReported was better on that front. They did have some "wish he hadn't missed" types but considerably more seemingly sincere "left-wing political violence is a serious problem, don't be hypocrites" types. Of course how much that actually changes anything, how they talk with their Blue friends when not in the explicit heretic forum, who knows.

That probably doesn't meet a satisfying standard of improved conversation, but the bar is set so low!

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professorgerm You shall love your crooked neighbor, with your crooked heart 13d ago

My equity is only up about 100% these days, down from those pandemic peaks, but I still love my 3% mortgage.

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professorgerm You shall love your crooked neighbor, with your crooked heart 25d ago

I think more Americans of all political stripes think trying to assassinate politicians (even politicians they dislike) is bad, than you are willing to credit.

I think that the relative numbers are less important than this statement suggests at first glance, that the relative status and distribution are underrated concerns by the statement, and that there's a great deal of room for people to consider something "bad" without actually meaningfully wanting to condemn or prevent it, until it's too late and the damage is done.

Luigi and Thomas Crooks are terrible and rare. Luigi stans somewhat less so on both counts. But people that will excuse them- "it's just stupid jokes, they're just young and full of passionate intensity, you've got to understand, ~~kids on campus~~" those people abound.

So when considering a question like

do you think that actually represents mainstream Blue tribe thinking?

I wouldn't know how to answer, it's too slippery. There is so much room for "but," hedging, selective attention, selective indifference that puzzling it out becomes impossible, and it is in those areas where the most damage is done to the social fabric. The sympathizer's shrug does more damage than the rioter's brick, because there's so many more of the former.

Do I think you or Scott would cheer if Crooks had hit Trump square on? Of course not. You least of all, and I'm sure your tragic post would be heartfelt and eloquent. But I'm not so confident Scott would feel a need to publicly mourn the return of political assassination to the US, and most mainstream Blue pundits would be vastly less bothered. He wouldn't be cold on the table before we'd hear "This is a tragedy, but-." Justifications. Excuses. Vibes? Papers? Redefinition of terms to not apply, so they can only be aimed one way? He was uniquely terrible! A threat to democracy! His rhetoric frightened desperate people!

All of those mainstream Blues would say, in a vacuum, that Political Assassinations Are Bad. But it would turn out this one is less bad, that we don't need to Have A Conversation about it, that it's unique and not a symptom of deeper rot. Nationwide rioters are just an idea. Wear a buffalo head into the Capitol, those guys are thugs and terrorists.

And likewise, to the right! Nationwide rioters are thugs and terrorists, Buffalo Guy was just committing mild trespass. If it had been Biden, no doubt Reds would be... well, having lots of fishing accidents, but also vaguely sympathizing, if they think they wouldn't be depersoned for it. I am not trying to cast one side without sin, here.

Only meandering along that the sympathizers should not be underestimated while we're making to not overestimate the actual advocates.

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professorgerm You shall love your crooked neighbor, with your crooked heart 25d ago

There's one of those on a bollard at the local McDonald's and I always wonder about the thought process behind it.

I also thought everyone knew we have secret ballots but maybe with the increase in mail-in voting they forgot.

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professorgerm You shall love your crooked neighbor, with your crooked heart 26d ago

…and it does follow that we should probably treat gain-of-function research as if it had caused COVID, because "we can't ever know for certain if it caused COVID, but the two hypotheses are neck-to-neck" is bad enough if we're talking about future caution.

That's a fair conclusion, but not really Scott's conclusion, and I have to wonder what the underlying motivation is to be so committed that lab leak is wrong when there's more interesting topics to discuss around COVID.

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professorgerm You shall love your crooked neighbor, with your crooked heart 26d ago

Flu is almost always symptomatically indistinguishable from COVID

My theory is that it was much more widespread in the US than anyone admitted because testing was constrained early on, and a lot of first-wave cases got called flu with no further diagnostics.

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