Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending 9th August 2026 - awful.systems
awful.systems
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. Nearly forgot to put this up, whoops)

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. Also just came back from Spider-Man: Brand New Day, movie was awesome)

  • jaschop@awful.systemsEnglish
    11·
    3 days ago

    I regret to inform you, that this garbage was run by The Register a while ago.

    It shouts out several friends of the sub, including @[email protected], PivotToAI, OpenSlopware, Robert Kingett & Ludicity.

    The point of the piece is that all anti-AI folks should just get along, and if we are to stand a chance against corporate AI we need to get over our petty grievances and reach out a hand to the racists, homophobes and crypto-bros and work together in the spirit of Open Source!

    • self@awful.systemsEnglish
      3·
      9 hours ago

      I wrote a reply to this article where I thanked Liam for the shoutout and sincerely hoped that next time he writes on this subject, he has reason to come to a different conclusion

    • Amoeba_Girl@awful.systemsEnglish
      10·
      2 days ago

      Urbit’s original creator, Curtis Yarvin, has reportedly espoused some extreme beliefs

      bro why do you write like this

        • froztbyte@awful.systemsEnglish
          5·
          2 days ago

          side observation: I’m constantly finding myself being both 2051 and 1053 about this sorta thing

          it feels like table stakes that anyone writing about this shit these days knows, and yet…

          • Amoeba_Girl@awful.systemsEnglish
            7·
            2 days ago

            I mean I’m more than happy to extend grace to randos, but if you’re doing journalism, come on. He’s not just a guy with opinions! He’s a leading far right intellectual!

            His Wikipedia intro tells you more than enough with no “allegedly” in sight.

            • froztbyte@awful.systemsEnglish
              5·
              2 days ago

              yeah, that’s about where I land usually too

              I guess the thing is that I know how much “shithead with a column” has become possible so I don’t really, off the cuff, know how journo most journos are

              (I shall leave aside for the moment the entire tirade this makes me want to go on)

    • corbin@awful.systemsEnglish
      10·
      3 days ago

      Liam’s here, for what it’s worth.

      Torvalds’ position is pragmatic: his interest is in whether it works or not.

      But, of course, the chatbots do not work. In a pragmatic sense, they do not produce maintainable integrated code changes with low defect rates. In a societal sense, they do not replace human laborers, despite the delusions of management.

      One of the most original and innovative OS development projects of the 21st century so far was Urbit, but it is closely entwined with cryptocurrencies. Urbit’s original creator, Curtis Yarvin, has reportedly espoused some extreme beliefs; The Nation called him The Reactionary Prophet of Silicon Valley.

      Wild way to admit no knowledge of Arcan, Fuchsia, etc. Honestly, even a basic overlay network like Yggdrasil can win an apples-to-apples comparison with Urbit. I feel like this is an instance of critihype for fascist weirdos; similar stuff gets said about Justine Tunney, another cryptofascist developer whose projects are sometimes silly and weird. Doubly weird for those of us who know about Urbit’s internals; Urbit originally was not a cryptocurrency project and it used to have non-Yarvin/Tlon forks.

      It’s an overly simplistic way to reduce a complex and nuanced situation, but one way to consider this is in terms of pro-AI and anti-AI, versus “woke” and “anti-woke.”

      More seriously, add a third dimension, a Butlerian dimension, to the political compass: to what degree may your automated devices appear to be human? One extreme is Asimov-style transhumanism and the other extreme is Luddite loom-smashing. However, recognition of this dimension doesn’t negate the other dimensions and we shouldn’t work in cooperation with fascists.

      • fnix@awful.systemsEnglish
        7·
        2 days ago

        More seriously, add a third dimension, a Butlerian dimension, to the political compass: to what degree may your automated devices appear to be human? One extreme is Asimov-style transhumanism and the other extreme is Luddite loom-smashing.

        The luddites smashed looms not because they were inherently anti-technology, but as a means of industrial action in a time when labour held no formal power at all. As you say yourself, the issue with AI is that it doesn’t even work as advertised; industrial looms worked fine. «AI»'s biggest problems are the enormous waste, ecological damage, enshittification and labour discipline that it incurs. If Silicon Valley was actually building Data, the debate would be different, but this dimension seems mostly theoretical for now.

      • jaschop@awful.systemsEnglish
        5·
        3 days ago

        Liam’s here, for what it’s worth.

        I almost wrote down, it sounded like it was written by a lurker on techtakes. The overlap of takes was just so damn high.

      • froztbyte@awful.systemsEnglish
        7·
        2 days ago

        you made me look

        But I feel that as time moves on, the level of future shock will subside

        fuck of a thing to “just” shrug all the criticism off simply as future shock