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Culture War Roundup for the week of October 5, 2026

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Mathematicians are big mad. View the relevant subreddit on our progenitor site.

I did. Most of the top comments do not have an angry tone. It's more like, a mix of resignation and excitement. With some mad mixed into it.

Anyway and more importantly, it might be time to start thinking harder about the key question of our time: is it over for humancels?

Not any time soon, I think, but I tell you this: social positions in which being human is an inherent part of the value proposition are starting to seem like much more appealing things to devote one's time to than STEMing it up.

I'm thinking positions like prostitute, politician, athlete, stage actor, bartender, socialite, rock star, cult leader, man who makes money by befriending rich people, or man who makes money for taking the fall when an organization gets in trouble.

If y'all got any other ideas, share 'em. Cause it's time to strategize. Unless you're rich already, in which case: all good. Unless Skynet scenario.

I hope the AI-boosted productivity gains soon outstrip the job losses and we get the utopian diseases-cured Star Trek scenario instead of the Great Depression or Skynet ones.

If y'all got any other ideas, share 'em. Cause it's time to strategize. Unless you're rich already, in which case: all good. Unless Skynet scenario.

I'm lucky enough to have had a career in STEM, so I'm rich already, but I'm not confident that's going to "matter" in the long run. Where the long run might be, uh, a few years. In an economy where all real work is done by AI, are we even going to honour the increasingly-fake number that is the size of your bank account? In an AI world, does it make sense for me to be able to commandeer 1000x the resources of my never-working friends?

You might say that this would cause upheaval, but there are an awful lot more poor people who'd be in favour of this upheaval than rich people who'd be against it.

You might say that this would cause upheaval, but there are an awful lot more poor people who'd be in favour of this upheaval than rich people who'd be against it.

Middle income families likely disagree, it is a dice roll not in their flavor, they can still go with their snp500 index fund and command the poor people, then you got the historical interesting norm where most successful revolutions were started by nobles or individual with higher wealth, they certainly aren't lossing in the current capitalism system

where most successful revolutions were started by nobles or individual with higher wealth, they certainly aren't lossing in the current capitalism system

A lot of the big successful revolutions were started off by the downwardly mobile and/or somewhat relatively-unsuccessful children of nobles, merchants and landlords. They had the education and the resources to dedicate themselves beyond subsistence, but also the motivation to take shots at the established order.

Suddenly the world has a lot of those.

Education I agree, but I disagree on resources. If they have the required resources to take a shot, isn't it better to just invest in a diversified index fund like SPY or VOO, compare to shooting the shot and gamble?

Well most historical communist revolutions predate access to index funds, and 'My rich parents/family paid for my education but I'm one of many children and I'm going to have to wait for 40-50 years old to get my inheritance isn't uncommon'

I agree with you on this, my comment on index fund is focus on modern time, where normal rich people rarely have more than 3-4 children, and index fund is a thing.

My disagreement is that given the 2026 circumstances, it is a lot harder to convince these people to break the current system

I think there's plenty of people in the spot where their parents are solid upper-middle/lower-upper class in 2026 and they're despairing of getting access to a meaningful inheritance in any time period that'll let them meaningfully change their own life circumstances.

If you're the only child of a Doctor or two (in their 30s at the time) in the mid 90s, most of their say 5-10M net worth is tied up between retirement accounts and their PPOR and they're from a culture of self-reliance then you're likely going to have had access to a great education but you're not going to be able to meaningfully touch an inheritance until your 50s or 60s and you're dealing with the employment market of today...

And I'm sure the above describes a lot of Mottizens and the current dissatisifed, especially those who took that great education and turned it into something other than skills or connections that the market values.

I agree that this is a common demographic and a revolutionary one, but also your two doctor parents can usually make a pretty generous contribution to a house, for example.

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