Cursed Political Content

[TexRex]

Is that the problem with it?

Are you sure?

 

[Blitz24]

Is that the problem with it?

Are you sure?

I really need to have these "correct" discussions with my people more often.

 

[UKMikey]

Just a super creepy fake photo.

I hope they take it away soon.

 

[Populuxe]

Just a super creepy fake photo.

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I hope they take it away soon.

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No matter where I look, it’s horrifying. It’s like demons pretending to be human.

 

[Shaun]

Google says that quiet quitting is doing your job to the minimum contractual requirement and no more.

If that's what it truly means I've been doing that for around 30 years now. The key though to being successful and a valued employee is to do it at a high standard.
I know all jobs are different, but I don't get rewarded for doing any more so that's all they get.

Plan on 80 hour weeks, guys.

No chance here, that's closer to a fortnight for me.
Y'know OH&S rules and unions.

Just a super creepy fake photo.

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I hope they take it away soon.

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Looks like a really really close knit family.

 

[Famine]

Just a super creepy fake photo.

Could be rampant inbreeding too; they're fans of that sort of thing.

 

[MIE1992]

Just a super creepy fake photo.

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I hope they take it away soon.

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Back in my day, shapeshifters actually put a sincere effort into impersonating the human race.

 

[GBO Possum]

They're trying to take away the American flag with hundreds of stars? The one that has vertical stripes?

 

[TheCracker]

Just a super creepy fake photo.

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I just hear the first few chords of dueling banjos when i look at this picture.

 

[HenrySwanson]

 

[UKMikey]

I just hear the first few chords of dueling banjos when i look at this picture.

Username checks out.

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

This isn't a soundbite type tweet or anything, but it is certainly cursed...

The Silicon Valley big brain kool-aide is a hell of a drug.

The Tech Baron Seeking to “Ethnically Cleanse” San Francisco

“What I’m really calling for is something like tech Zionism,” he said, after comparing his movement to those started by the biblical Abraham, Jesus Christ, Joseph Smith (founder of Mormonism), Theodor Herzl (“spiritual father” of the state of Israel), and Lee Kuan Yew (former authoritarian ruler of Singapore). Balaji then revealed his shocking ideas for a tech-governed city where citizens loyal to tech companies would form a new political tribe clad in gray t-shirts. “And if you see another Gray on the street … you do the nod,” he said, during a four-hour talk on the Moment of Zen podcast. “You’re a fellow Gray.

The Grays’ shirts would feature “Bitcoin or Elon or other kinds of logos … Y Combinator is a good one for the city of San Francisco in particular.” Grays would also receive special ID cards providing access to exclusive, Gray-controlled sectors of the city. In addition, the Grays would make an alliance with the police department, funding weekly “policeman’s banquets” to win them over.
“Grays should embrace the police, okay? All-in on the police,” said Srinivasan. “What does that mean? That’s, as I said, banquets. That means every policeman’s son, daughter, wife, cousin, you know, sibling, whatever, should get a job at a tech company in security.”

In exchange for extra food and jobs, cops would pledge loyalty to the Grays. Srinivasan recommends asking officers a series of questions to ascertain their political leanings. For example: “Did you want to take the sign off of Elon’s building?”

This refers to the August 2023 incident in which Elon Musk illegally installed a large flashing X logo atop Twitter headquarters, in violation of building safety codes. City inspectors forced him to remove it. This was the second time Musk had run afoul of the city in his desire to refurbish his headquarters: In July, police briefly halted his attempt to pry the “Twitter” signage from the building’s exterior. But in Balaji’s dystopia, he implies that officers loyal to the Grays would let Musk do as he pleases (democratically inclined officers, he suggests, can be paid to retire).

Simply put, there is a ton of fascist-chic cosplay involved. Once an officer joins the Grays, they get a special uniform designed by their tech overlords. The Grays will also donate heavily to police charities and “merge the Gray and police social networks.” Then, in a show of force, they’ll march through the city together.

“A huge win would be a Gray Pride parade with 50,000 Grays,” said Srinivasan. “That would start to say: ‘Whose streets? Our streets!’ You have the A.I. Flying Spaghetti Monster. You have the Bitcoin parade. You have the drones flying overhead in formation.... You have bubbling genetic experiments on beakers.… You have the police at the Gray Pride parade. They’re flying the Anduril drones …”

Everyone would be welcome at the Gray Pride march—everyone, that is, except the Blues. Srinivasan defines the Blue political tribe as the liberal voters he implies are responsible for the city’s problems. Blues will be banned from the Gray-controlled zones, said Balaji, unlike Republicans (“Reds”).

“Reds should be welcomed there, and people should wear their tribal colors,” said Srinivasan, who compared his color-coded apartheid system to the Bloods vs. Crips gang rivalry. “No Blues should be welcomed there.”

While the Blues would be excluded, they would not be forgotten. Srinivasan imagines public screenings of anti-Blue propaganda films: “In addition to celebrating Gray and celebrating Red, you should have movies shown about Blue abuses.… There should be lots of stories about what Blues are doing that is bad.”

Balaji goes on—and on. The Grays will rename city streets after tech figures and erect public monuments to memorialize the alleged horrors of progressive Democratic governance. Corporate logos and signs will fill the skyline to signify Gray dominance of the city. “Ethnically cleanse,” he said at one point, summing up his idea for a city purged of Blues (this, he says, will prevent Blues from ethnically cleansing the Grays first). The idea, he said, is to do to San Francisco what Musk did to Twitter.

“Elon, in sort of classic Gray fashion ... captures Twitter and then, at one stroke, wipes out millions of Blues’ status by wiping out the Blue Checks,” he said. “Another stroke … [he] renames Twitter as X, showing that he has true control, and it’s his vehicle, and that the old regime isn’t going to be restored.”

Just imagine Mussolini's Italy or Hitler's German but with tech bros in charge. At the start of the post-pandemic bay area exodus, I thought - oh no, losing tech is going to be bad. Now I'm at...somebody please take them.

 

[sw3g005]

What. The **** is this And what has any of this anything to do with Lee Kuan Yew and Theodor Herzl??? I'm aware that LKY ruled Singapore in an authoritarian manner, but AFAIK he was no Hitler. And if you know Altneuland, you'd know that Herzl was exactly against this sort of thing.

...and don't get me started on the whole "Gray Pride" thing. Nevermind the cringeworthy gay equivocation, imagine being proud of wearing grey. Like cement grey.

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

What. The **** is this And what has any of this anything to do with Lee Kuan Yew and Theodor Herzl??? I'm aware that LKY ruled Singapore in an authoritarian manner, but AFAIK he was no Hitler. And if you know Altneuland, you'd know that Herzl was exactly against this sort of thing.

...and don't get me started on the whole "Gray Pride" thing. Nevermind the cringeworthy gay equivocation, imagine being proud of wearing grey. Like cement grey.

It's what happens when you equate huge financial success derived from the free money period (2012-2020, RIP) with societal importance. I bet this guy doesn't even know enough political philosophy / history to understand that he's promoting fascism - pretty explicitly. Tells me that STEM curricula have pretty big humanities blind spots.

I should also note that the "Greys" are actually pretty few and far between in San Francisco proper. They all dwell in hacker hostels down near San Jose. I'm not sure why San Francisco itself is the goal considering they don't seem to want to be here in the first place. San Francisco is dominated by finance bros, a group far more interested in...hitting the gym or hitting the beach....or hitting the bars. Thank god for finance bros.

 

[sw3g005]

It's what happens when you equate huge financial success derived from the free money period (2012-2020, RIP) with societal importance. I bet this guy doesn't even know enough political philosophy / history to understand that he's promoting fascism - pretty explicitly. Tells me that STEM curricula have pretty big humanities blind spots.

Something tells me he actually knows - maybe not that he's promoting fascism but that he's promoting a kind of authoritarian hellhole - he just doesn't care. In fact, would not be surprised if the moment he looks up fascism, he goes "oh, this is just what I've wanted all along" and openly embraces the title like any neo-nazi would.

I should also note that the "Greys" are actually pretty few and far between in San Francisco proper. They all dwell in hacker hostels down near San Jose. I'm not sure why San Francisco itself is the goal considering they don't seem to want to be here in the first place. San Francisco is dominated by finance bros, a group far more interested in...hitting the gym or hitting the beach....or hitting the bars. Thank god for finance bros.

It's possible that he's targeting SF partially cuz of its historical role in liberal activism, and partially cuz he wishes to convert it into a "Greys" area. Well, no wonder he's calling it "tech zionism" then if he wants to displace and replace SF inhabitants with people of his ilk...
Or perhaps it should be called GreyReich™? As I said, his ideas are not doing Herzl any justice whatsoever.

 

[GBO Possum]

What. The **** is this And what has any of this anything to do with Lee Kuan Yew and Theodor Herzl??? I'm aware that LKY ruled Singapore in an authoritarian manner, but AFAIK he was no Hitler. And if you know Altneuland, you'd know that Herzl was exactly against this sort of thing.

...and don't get me started on the whole "Gray Pride" thing. Nevermind the cringeworthy gay equivocation, imagine being proud of wearing grey. Like cement grey.

I saw at first hand the transformation of Singapore. In the 1960s, Australians with a lot of money would fly to Singapore for cheap shopping. Twenty years later and it was Singaporeans who were flying to Perth for the cheap shopping.

I'll admit that LKY was a bit tough on drug dealers, long hair and chewing gum over those years.

 

[UKMikey]

...and don't get me started on the whole "Gray Pride" thing. Nevermind the cringeworthy gay equivocation, imagine being proud of wearing grey. Like cement grey.

Isn't the grey versus blue thing some kind of Civil War reference? Although I thought the greys were the bad guys (don't ask me about US history).

 

[UKMikey]

I saw at first hand the transformation of Singapore. In the 1960s, Australians with a lot of money would fly to Singapore for cheap shopping. Twenty years later and it was Singaporeans who were flying to Perth for the cheap shopping.

I'll admit that LKY was a bit tough on drug dealers, long hair and chewing gum over those years.

He's revered in Singapore for lifting the island out of the economic mire and establishing a post colonial meritocracy as I understand it. Although Generalissimo Franco was still beloved by many of the Spaniards I met in Madrid also.

 

[Populuxe]

“Another stroke … [he] renames Twitter as X, showing that he has true control, and it’s his vehicle, and that the old regime isn’t going to be restored.”

He destroyed one of the best known brand names in the world. That doesn't sound very alpha male to me. It sounds like something a very insecure person would do to prove to themselves they are in charge.

 

[Danoff]

a very insecure person would do to prove to themselves they are in charge.

That's basically what "alpha male" means.

 

[UKMikey]

Jerry Seinfeld has joined the anti woke mob. Didn't he date a 17-year old when he was 38? What's the deal with that?

Jerry Seinfeld Says TV Comedy Is Being Killed By the ‘Extreme Left and P.C. Crap and People Worrying So Much About Offending Other People’

Jerry Seinfeld says TV comedy is being hurt by the "extreme left."

variety.com

I figured it was streaming that killed TV comedy, not woke. Media companies putting everything behind paywalls, then cutting its funding when nobody watches it as a result like Zaslav's WB/Discovery pivoting to no-budget unscripted reality shows.

 

[eran0004]

That's basically what "alpha male" means.

Riddled with bugs and glitches and incomplete features.

Edit: As for Seinfeld and the P.C. stuff, he was successful because he understood his own time and what was good comedy back in the 1990’s. Some of that material is still good today, but there’s also a lot of things that hasn’t aged well and that people just don’t find funny anymore. In short: Don’t blame the audience for not laughing at your jokes - go write better jokes instead.

 

[TheCracker]

Riddled with bugs and glitches and incomplete features.

Edit: As for Seinfeld and the P.C. stuff, he was successful because he understood his own time and what was good comedy back in the 1990’s. Some of that material is still good today, but there’s also a lot of things that hasn’t aged well and that people just don’t find funny anymore. In short: Don’t blame the audience for not laughing at your jokes - go write better jokes instead.

Exactly.

"Old man in failing to realise time has moved on shocker."

The world, as it was when he was in his prime, is a different place now. Just as it was for his father and his grandfather etc etc.

No doubt he also doesn't understand the appeal of 'today's music' and 'today's fashions'.

 

[Liquid]

Costanza leering at a 15 year-old's cleavage has aged spectacularly badly.

Didn't he date a 17-year old when he was 38?

Huh.

 

[UKMikey]

Hat tip Ron Filipkowski.

How it started:

How it's going:

 

[Danoff]

Jerry Seinfeld has joined the anti woke mob. Didn't he date a 17-year old when he was 38? What's the deal with that?

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Jerry Seinfeld Says TV Comedy Is Being Killed By the ‘Extreme Left and P.C. Crap and People Worrying So Much About Offending Other People’

Jerry Seinfeld says TV comedy is being hurt by the "extreme left."

variety.com

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I figured it was streaming that killed TV comedy, not woke. Media companies putting everything behind paywalls, then cutting its funding when nobody watches it as a result like Zaslav's WB/Discovery pivoting to no-budget unscripted reality shows.

He's not totally wrong about the conflict between PC attitude and comedy. Many comedians have complained about it. He's wrong to direct it at why sitcoms don't exist in the same manner anymore. They have run their course. Generally, the complaint about comedy by committee, and PC stifling of jokes is an old one that predates "woke" terminology.

I'm not assuming Seinfeld is a terrible person based on these comments.

 

[UKMikey]

He's not totally wrong about the conflict between PC attitude and comedy. Many comedians have complained about it. He's wrong to direct it at why sitcoms don't exist in the same manner anymore. They have run their course. Generally, the complaint about comedy by committee, and PC stifling of jokes is an old one that predates "woke" terminology.

I'm not assuming Seinfeld is a terrible person based on these comments.

Maybe I'm biased. British television comedy in the early eighties saw a huge wave of successful new comedians who rejected comedy based on othering racial and gay stereotypes and did pretty well out of it.

Jerry can complain about committee based programming all he wants but perhaps he should tone down the dogwhistle "extreme left" language. It's not like the moral majority influencing Standards & Practices committees back then were raving communists.

If he can make a case that audiences want a return of abusive comedy to the mainstream, perhaps broadcasters will listen but using the comparatively minuscule size of live comedy enthusiasts as a counterpoint sounds kind of unconvincing and "Musk saved comedy" to me.

 

[Danoff]

Maybe I'm biased. British television comedy in the early eighties saw a huge wave of successful new comedians who rejected comedy based on othering racial and gay stereotypes and did pretty well out of it.

Jerry can complain about committee based programming all he wants but perhaps he should tone down the dogwhistle "extreme left" language. It's not like the moral majority influencing Standards & Practices committees back then were raving communists.

If he can make a case that audiences want a return of abusive comedy to the mainstream, perhaps broadcasters will listen but using the comparatively minuscule size of live comedy enthusiasts as a counterpoint sounds kind of unconvincing and "Musk saved comedy" to me.

I've never thought of Jerry as an "abusive" or "othering" comedian, and I don't take his complaint as a desire for that kind of comedy. Definitely abusive comedy is a thing, but I don't think that's what he's advocating for.

Probably the closest you get is the "not that there's anything wrong with that" routine. But I haven't watched Seinfeld in a long time, so maybe I'm not remembering it accurately.

 

[UKMikey]

I've never thought of Jerry as an "abusive" or "othering" comedian, and I don't take his complaint as a desire for that kind of comedy. Definitely abusive comedy is a thing, but I don't think that's what he's advocating for.

Probably the closest you get is the "not that there's anything wrong with that" routine. But I haven't watched Seinfeld in a long time, so maybe I'm not remembering it accurately.

I've never watched the show and can only base my impression on what he said in Variety but it's kind of telling that the kind of people siding with him are the likes of Musk. Guess that's what happens when one politicises one's opinion so overtly.

If there is a neutering of comedy it seems to me that it's more of a consequence of it being aimed at mass audiences than evidence of an outright political agenda as his comments heavily imply. South Park is wildly popular but it's never disguised what it is and audiences know what to expect from the initial disclaimer.

 

[Danoff]

I've never watched the show and can only base my impression on what he said in Variety but it's kind of telling that the kind of people siding with him are the likes of Musk. Guess that's what happens when one politicises one's opinion so overtly.

I don't get the sense that you have the right impression. I could be wrong, maybe I'm not remembering everything accurately. If you want to get a better sense of it, watch his standup routine. "I'm telling you for the last time" is probably a good one to use.

If there is a neutering of comedy it seems to me that it's more of a consequence of it being aimed at mass audiences than evidence of an outright political agenda as his comments heavily imply. South Park is wildly popular but it's never disguised what it is and audiences know what to expect from the initial disclaimer.

I think this is his complaint, roughly. South Park is not written by committee. So it actually seems to fit with his complaint - which is that the industry is attempting to produce comedy by committee and with kid gloves on, and that this doesn't generally produce funny results.

The phrase "neutering of comedy" strikes me as an example of one which might not survive a committee that is overly concerned with PC statements.