this post was submitted on 23 Aug 2026
18 points (90.9% liked)

SneerClub

1301 readers
101 users here now

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.]

See our twin at Reddit

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
all 19 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] blakestacey@awful.systems 16 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

I have an ATProto login and am skimming the threads before I have to go and do other stuff for a few hours. I came across a link to this podcast, which looks interesting. The transcript of the first episode (I'm more of a reader than a listener) barely gets going before (content warning for sexual assault by intoxication) this:

E: ... right after I graduated from undergrad, I went on a date in San Francisco with a Harvey Mudd alum who revealed to me over the course of the date, which is at like a fancy prohibition style whiskey bar. That part was cool. You had to make a reservation. So I thought that was, I was like, that's a good sign. That's really that's cool of him. He revealed that he and his friend had written a musical based on Harry Potter and the methods of rationality. And I said, Oh, well, I don't want to brag, but I've written a pretty highly acclaimed The Dark Knight Rises fanfic, and he broke in and said, It's not a fanfic.

A: Were they saying their musical wasn't a fanfic, or that rationality wasn't a fanfic?

E: The musical was not a fanfic. And I didn't know what to say to that. [...] And then he also, this is the guy who he tried to get me drunk when I didn't want to. Uh, super rational. Very rational. Yeah, rational. I want to have sex with this girl and she doesn't want to have sex with me. The rational thing to do is to change one of those conditions, and I can't not want to have sex with her. Um, and told me that he did not ask his female friends for dating advice because if you're a hunter, you ask a hunter and not a deer. These were the same guys. He was the same guy.

[–] zogwarg@awful.systems 9 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

you ask a hunter and not a deer.

The sad lens into their prevalent relationship with "correcting biases" being more about dominance in "trickery" rather than becoming better people. (and also entrenched misogyny.)

[–] blakestacey@awful.systems 7 points 3 weeks ago

Yep. Cf. the pervasive idea that the true fundamental purpose of intelligence is casting Persuasion spells.

[–] lurker@awful.systems 7 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

He revealed that he and his friend had written a musical based on Harry Potter and the methods of rationality.

Dear God

[–] istewart@awful.systems 4 points 3 weeks ago

I will have you know that fartwave is a legitimate musical genre. The normies might not be ready for a full-length, full-production stage musical, BUT

[–] maol@awful.systems 2 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

One of the members of a "wizard rock" band later went on to be in an actually good band. But as far as I am aware, this has only happened once.

[–] deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz 15 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Wait until they discover the trash that Rowling wrote.

[–] mawhrin@awful.systems 15 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

oh, that they're fully aware of. (and other weird jkr-related fandoms, like “snapewives” (don't look)).

[–] BurgersMcSlopshot@awful.systems 12 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

"snapewives"

I'm sorry, whatwives now?

[–] dgerard@awful.systems 12 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

fwiw, that HP cult doesn't have a body count (that I know of)

[–] scruiser@awful.systems 12 points 3 weeks ago

Well that sent me on a dark rabbit hole...

(For those that didn't know, The author of Dumbledore's Army and the Year of Darkness is a scam artist and a cult leader. I knew that part already, but what I didn't knowwas how big the cult was at it's peak or that it was tied to a murder-suicide in 2011...)

https://fanlore.org/wiki/Dumbledore%27s_Army_and_the_Year_of_Darkness

And of course, sneerclubbers should know by now about the HPMOR to Lesswrong to Cult pipeline. (With MAPLE, Zizians and Leverage Research as most clearly cult examples. Dragon Army and Vassar's circle as cult-adjacent).

[–] mawhrin@awful.systems 8 points 3 weeks ago
[–] LostWanderer@fedia.io 2 points 3 weeks ago

I know of this horror and it was incredibly unhinged by leaps and bounds. It confused me such a milquetoast character...Had that kind of thing grow around them. ROFL

[–] lurker@awful.systems 11 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

Telling people that the AI superintelligence guy also posted a Harry Potter self-insert fanfic to push his beliefs and recruit people to his ideology is a huge bombshell to drop on someone

[–] Soyweiser@awful.systems 9 points 3 weeks ago

There are so many connections between all these people and big events/culture war stuff that I jokingly start calling myself a conspiracy theorist when I start explaining these things.

(See how you can go from Jason Arday to LW in 3 steps. Arday to the racist Cofnas, who is in a picture with Moldbug who was popularized using lesswrong).

[–] CallMeAl@piefed.zip 7 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Don't have bsky, can I get a summary?

[–] mawhrin@awful.systems 11 points 3 weeks ago

our agents there responded to the threads already, sharing the pain of knowledge.