2026-08-24 21:11 UTC
Replies (4)
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@mxchara@cyberpunk.lol 2026-08-24 21:13
Maybe I've talked myself into having a peep. Not sure yet. I hope the fediverse will forgive me for using it as a sounding-board. It's a heck of a lot more rewarding than "debate" with Joe Rogan or Lex Fridman. (Gawd just what is it with Lex Fridman. Has he taken human life or something?? He's spectacularly creepy even for a right-wing creep.) ~Chara of Pnictogen
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@SomeVeganCheeseIsOk@mastodon.social 2026-08-24 21:16
@mxchara@cyberpunk.lol you have absolutely no duty to read anything you don't want to. I will fight anyone who says you have to read something. Unless it's the legal terms for something, do read those please. Don't sweat not reading it if you find it pretentious. Like I said, later middle bits were quite boring. Beginning was very fun. Ending was ok, probably an improvement over the original. Characters were wildly not acting their ages.
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@individeweal@mas.to 2026-08-25 07:42
@mxchara@cyberpunk.lol Your assessment of Yudkowsky and his followers is spot on, thank you for setting it out so compellingly. I have read _Methods of Rationality_ but it didn't recruit me to the Effective Altruism cult. It has some good points, reasonable criticism of JKR from the right, and a surprisingly good exploration of the Dark Lord being part of Harry in a way that the originals just handwaved. It also has a lot of self-indulgent monologue exactly as you predicted. It's not great literature but it's by no means _Mein Kampf_. I don't think anyone has a duty to read anything, but there is more to it than just the title.
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@mscibing@hachyderm.io 2026-08-31 16:31
@mxchara@cyberpunk.lol The first half is a bit like if Conan Doyle thought the Sherlock Holmes stories were actual detective manuals rather than entertaining stories: it does not hold up well. The back half is probably more important to understanding the cult, which is unfortunate if you're not enjoying the read; there is a lot to wade through. It is oddly obsessed with mortality, and there is something very strange going on with the Harry Potter self-insert character that I don't understand. (I was unaware of EY as a cult leader when I read HPMOR, but it wasn't a surprise when I heard.)