this post was submitted on 15 May 2026
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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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Thanks so much for telling your story.
Having substance testing and trained medics is definitely important at an event where people want to alter their consciousness. GHB is a new name to me but you definitely need educated staff and clear rules at sexually charged events with substance use. It sounds like these spaces are starting to bring in some harm-reduction practices but terrible things still happen at their events and many leaders still try to cover up and blame victims.
Substance use is hard for me to understand since I have not met these people in person, but some Bay Area Rationalists seemed to think that LSD contributed to some bad situations, and reporters talk about workers and executives using ketamine.
GHB is one of many date rape drugs that people also consume recreationally, and yeah i'm not sure why they love it!
ket is definitely the drug of choice in the SF social scene, and wrt psychedelics I think there is not a lot of care put into them / some really childish perceptions of them, the Michael Vassar / Leverage situation is a whole thing but assuming it's as described, ie he was encouraging people to use drugs to 'hack' their own brains it creates a really bad situation wrt consent
honestly i think there's just a lot of untreated mental illness which gets idealized, adding psychedelics on top of that is not a great idea
random memory time!
I recall one of the people from the original rave generation here (ZA) once telling me about them taking GHB in combination with something else (I forget what), with a positively-framed comment of “it makes you feel like your eyes are aflame” — never understood the appeal, especially for that. so much so I’ve never even wanted to look the compound up on psychonautwiki
the rest of your remarks wrt goings on over in the bay area echo impressions I’ve gotten from things. kinda surprised to hear ket is that big - any idea how recent it is? I wonder whether it came about following from the findings around ket as a positive treatment for depression?
I think it's definitely downstream of SV's brief love affair with psychedelics (publicly), ket clinics for depression, etc.
I didn't really start attending parties there until 2022 but I think it's been the nose candy of choice for that set for a while.