this post was submitted on 12 Apr 2026
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Big brain tech dude got yet another clueless take over at HackerNews etc? Here's the place to vent. Orange site, VC foolishness, all welcome.

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Want to wade into the sandy surf of the abyss? 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 for starting this.)

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[–] gerikson@awful.systems 8 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (3 children)

There's a pretty wide divide between the speculations of the motives of the alleged arsonist of Sam Altman's SF residence last week.

LW has handled the issue obliquely, but the main concern seems to be that they are pretty convinced the dude acted out of fear of AI-induced x-risk. The optics is that his actions would paint EA in a bad light.

HN (based on this big heap of comments https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47724921) is more focused on the idea that Altman and co. are fomenting class hatred and the attack is more akin to Luigi Mangione's attack on a health insurance CEO. (Searching for "exinction" and "doom" in the threads doesn't throw up much)

Neither forum links to the dude's alleged slobslack.

My conclusion is that "AGI-driven X-risk" is a position too extreme at the moment for HN.

Also I believe the alleged attacker is not an avatar of a popular movement but a confused individual self-radicalized online.

Edit It's good to know that if you are a radicalized person thinking about committing violence against people or property, LW will be happy to provide you with a safe space to vent, with guarantees on your anonymity. C.f. habryka's comment here https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/igEogGD9TAgAeAM7u/jimrandomh-s-shortform?commentId=zdMRHRqWDcjswhA3i

[–] Soyweiser@awful.systems 2 points 37 minutes ago

more akin to Luigi Mangione’s

Didnt he also have sort of links to the LW idea space?

[–] BlueMonday1984@awful.systems 4 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

The optics is that his actions would paint EA in a bad light.

I think SBF's Scamfest Spectacular did a good enough job of that already :P

HN is more focused on the idea that Altman and co. are fomenting class hatred and the attack is more akin to Luigi Mangione’s attack on a health insurance CEO.

Altman and co's antics have repeatedly shafted the working class to billionaires' direct benefit, so I'll give the orange site that on the "fomenting class hatred" part. Thinking his actions are any way related to Luigi Mangione nailing the healthcare billionaire's fucking wild, though

[–] Architeuthis@awful.systems 4 points 3 hours ago

I think SBF’s Scamfest Spectacular did a good enough job of that already :P

Still, being a possible hotbed for domestic terrorism is a whole different ballpark of having the authorities meddle into your day-to-day.

[–] dgerard@awful.systems 9 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

writing this up for today, will be mentioning Ziz

[–] gerikson@awful.systems 4 points 9 hours ago

Looking forward to it!