this post was submitted on 22 Aug 2025
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Fuck AI
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I wonder about Musk sometimes. He often sounds downright deranged, but so does Trump and Trump has actually been very successful at using social media to spread his message and win over supporters. I know I'm in a bubble where people don't respect behavior like theirs, but what if outside this bubble their behavior is actually a winning political strategy?
It’s because people don’t see it as affecting their lives, they view politics the same way they view reality television. They want entertainment, not realizing that what makes a good entertainer or TV show makes a terrible government or business.
My own hypothesis is different. People do view politics as affecting their lives, but many of them view intellectuals as out of touch, uninterested, or even hostile and they want someone in charge who isn't one of those people. It's the "good guy to have a beer with" sentiment which helped elect GWB but taken to an extreme. In this extreme, "owning the libs" is inherently good, not just a means to an end.
I'm not sure "intellectuals" is the right word here. The people I have in mind are college-educated but that's not all there is to it. They are the the sort of people who Trump calls the "deep state" but they're not just government employees - they're judges who say that something is unconstitutional, but they're also HR heads that say something is racist or scientists who say something is harmful to the environment. Large parts of the public now don't just lack respect for them but actively hate them.