this post was submitted on 26 May 2024
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SneerClub

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Hurling ordure at the TREACLES, especially those closely related to LessWrong.

AI-Industrial-Complex grift is fine as long as it sufficiently relates to the AI doom from the TREACLES. (Though TechTakes may be more suitable.)

This is sneer club, not debate club. Unless it's amusing debate.

[Especially don't debate the race scientists, if any sneak in - we ban and delete them as unsuitable for the server.]

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[–] [email protected] 32 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (5 children)

There's an actual explanation in the original article about some of the wardrobe choices. It's even dumber, and it involves effective altruism.

It is a very cold home. It’s early March, and within 20 minutes of being here the tips of some of my fingers have turned white. This, they explain, is part of living their values: as effective altruists, they give everything they can spare to charity (their charities). “Any pointless indulgence, like heating the house in the winter, we try to avoid if we can find other solutions,” says Malcolm. This explains Simone’s clothing: her normal winterwear is cheap, high-quality snowsuits she buys online from Russia, but she can’t fit into them now, so she’s currently dressing in the clothes pregnant women wore in a time before central heating: a drawstring-necked chemise on top of warm underlayers, a thick black apron, and a modified corset she found on Etsy. She assures me she is not a tradwife. “I’m not dressing trad now because we’re into trad, because before I was dressing like a Russian Bond villain. We do what’s practical.”

[–] [email protected] 55 points 7 months ago (7 children)

Yes and that’s obviously lies, as anyone who has grown up with limited income in a cold area can tell them. Cheap, warm clothing is not bought online (in the US) from Russia, and never from Etsy. In the US it’s bought — if you’re buying new at all! — from Target or Kohl’s or some other big chain. You get layers, you get things used when you can, and the cheapest way to dress warmly is the most normie, uninteresting clothes that are mass produced and sold in low end department stores.

Nothing they describe is practical or cheap. It’s cosplay Kinder, Küche, Kirche, and the journalist repeated it verbatim because she’s a chump.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 7 months ago

Kinder, Küche, Kosplay?

[–] [email protected] 14 points 7 months ago

But a tie is so cheap and keeps you warm!1!!.

They reek evil impersonators who'll try to rip people off. Rip vulnerable off.

And I don't even know who they are.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Grew up in fairly rural upstate New York, where you can expect lots of snow and you can unironically envy neighbors who have working Franklin stoves when the power goes out.

I can confirm all of the above, plus: if you are lucky enough to have an Army-Navy surplus store around, one of your handmedowns is likely to be an N3B parka. Definitely not Russian or German or stylish. But it will keep everything above your thighs warm, except your hands. The pockets are uninsulated.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 7 months ago

Oh man, I once bought the most glorious winter coat at an army-navy store. Lightweight, cheap, and so warm.

Once I had money I discovered the glory of high-quality thermals, but if you don't have money and live in a cold house, you try to keep at least one room warm with a lot of closed doors, plastic on the windows and draft stopper door snakes if the house is drafty, warm socks, layers. Nobody without money is buying pregnancy corsets from Etsy to stay warm, what the shit is that.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago

@gnomicutterance @Architeuthis
When I wanted to know about cold-weather clothing, I asked someone from ND via Minnesota.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (2 children)

@gnomicutterance @Architeuthis

Sorry, what is the context of this comment?

Mastodon separated it from whatever it was you are replying to and your words caught my curiosity.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago (1 children)

@Architeuthis

Thanks!

The context thread has now magically appeared above the post, so I don't know what the heck is happening in the pipes. Maybe just a really long delay loading, but I ain't no expert.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

yeah, delay-loads in fedi are a thing occasionally

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (2 children)

@Phosphenes @gnomicutterance @Architeuthis I had no problem finding the context by clicking on the post. Mastodon web interface. What client are you using?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

@gerikson @Phosphenes @gnomicutterance @Architeuthis I too can't see the context. Mastodon default UI on techhub.social.

If I copy the post link and open in a new tab I see this is hosted on a very different looking UI, with a 'show context ->' link which does what it says on the tin.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

@gerikson @Phosphenes @gnomicutterance @Architeuthis Oh and *now* if I look at what *was* the top-level toot I could see here I can see the actual context.

Just Mastodon/fediverse being itself I guess ?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

@AthanSpod @gerikson @gnomicutterance @Architeuthis

No all software is infallible and you and I are the only crazy ones. 😉

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

@gnomicutterance @Architeuthis dude find the second hand store the snow birds and skiers dump their shit at and you're frickin golden for life.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Warm clothes instead of heating is great, but they manage to subvert it in a very EA way. The way they talk about it sounds almost Calvinist. I wonder if they have some equivalent of the secret TV in the attic.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

There’s no reason to believe they live this way in reality. None of these profiles do any actual journalism. None of them investigate whether their claims about their childhood are true. This one doesn’t even talk to the neighbors who theoretically live next door for free (and do the unpaid childcare). This is stenography of neo-fash influencers self-described life and there’s no reason to believe any of it.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

@Architeuthis

" buys online from Russia"

but why

(I know why)

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

It's just practical, don't worry about it.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago

have they never heard of this miraculous material called styrofoam

[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago

that gives a whole new facet to the meaning of “cold upbringing”.