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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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Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending 30th August 2026 - awful.systems (awful.systems)

submitted 1 week ago by BlueMonday1984@awful.systems to c/techtakes@awful.systems

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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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[–] e8d79@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago) (3 children)

I don't really agree with the second part, but the first part rings true. It seems to me that most software devs are arrogant assholes who think they are the shit because they know some javascript. As it stands now, I would have to think for a long time about whether I consider the collective work of my profession in the last few years a net positive for the world.

[–] schnoopy@awful.systems 6 points 13 hours ago

Class consciousness in software is in the abyss, I have worked with people who didn't know that sick leave was won through the labour movement and not something that "just made sense" to do.

That doesn't change their class interests, it just means they behave ignorantly (in a way that hurts other workers but that's why they need education, not isolation).

[–] BlueMonday1984@awful.systems 1 points 11 hours ago

It seems to me that most software devs are arrogant assholes who think they are the shit because they know some javascript.

Tying back to the original point of this thread, that's probably a side-effect of the "acculturation of software developers generally towards the ownership class" istewart mentioned. Beyond promising them an easy ticket to Bourgeois Street, making them feel more Important And Special™ than the average prole helps keep class consciousness to a minimum.

As it stands now, I would have to think for a long time about whether I consider the collective work of my profession in the last few years a net positive for the world.

From what I can see, things are tipping towards "no". The fact Anubis, Nepenthes, Iocaine Glaze/Nightshade and other such shit exists at all speaks volumes about the negative impact of LLMs.

[–] mawhrin@awful.systems 4 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

i'm not a fan of military industry, but that doesn't make me claim the workers there are not proletariat.

[–] e8d79@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

I really don't get that angle by the original poster. Plenty of people who are firmly in their worker category are genuinely awful people who vote against their collective interests as if it where their religion.

[–] mawhrin@awful.systems 7 points 18 hours ago

the reasons he thinks programmers aren't workers seem to be threefold (a) they earn too much, (b) they don't sweat enough and (c) they align with their bosses. and – to me at least – is obvious, that he only deigns to use the word “worker” for people who do (hard enough) manual labour.

this – from a dude who has a baccalaureate in italianistics, magisterium in linguistics and studies for phd in history – is an obvious intelligentsja stereotyping. lad thinks he's punching up, and in reality he's punching down.