In Silicon Valley...
July 6, 2018 7:37 AM   Subscribe

 
Кирилл М: So, soon they'll invade Afghanistan and get monthly limits for buying sugar and socks?

Anton Troynikov: I don't want to alarm u but they've been in afghan for 17 years

posted by enn at 7:42 AM on July 6, 2018 [16 favorites]


@simontarr: Good lord, this thread is pretty much academia. Except for Kissinger.

@alledrive: Including Kissinger I'd say. He's def turned up in snobbier academic circles

@LennyLiebmann: He just did a gig at Yale on tech of all things.

posted by riruro at 7:54 AM on July 6, 2018 [1 favorite]


A non Twitter link
posted by k8t at 7:54 AM on July 6, 2018 [11 favorites]


The Soviets hid their homeless population better.
posted by gwint at 7:55 AM on July 6, 2018 [6 favorites]


Кирилл М: So, soon they'll invade Afghanistan and get monthly limits for buying sugar and socks?

And there is water rationing.
posted by tofu_crouton at 7:56 AM on July 6, 2018


I was unprepared for the level of engagement this is getting and I'm a little scared tbh

Right in feels, Anton.
posted by nikaspark at 7:59 AM on July 6, 2018 [5 favorites]


In SIlicon Valley, screen watches you.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 8:07 AM on July 6, 2018 [2 favorites]


His thread on the appeal of bitcoin is also really good.
posted by zjacreman at 8:09 AM on July 6, 2018 [12 favorites]


There's an old Soviet joke:

Q: What's the difference between a capitalist fairy tale and a Marxist fairy tale?
A: A capitalist fairy tale begins, "Once upon a time, there was....". A Marxist fairy tale begins, "Some day, there will be...."

I think you just swap them round now.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 8:24 AM on July 6, 2018 [53 favorites]


Love how we’ve managed to create the material conditions of the USSR right before collapse with no upsides.

Hey remember when officials demanding to see your papers was a trope in dystopian fiction and not just like, Daily life?
posted by The Whelk at 8:43 AM on July 6, 2018 [29 favorites]


His thread on the appeal of bitcoin is also really good.

I think this also explains the whole resurgence of witchcraft, or the emergence of a modern, sort of slapdash spirituality among young women (particularly queer identified young women).

I’m not talking about reading tarot as a spiritual practice, even. I’m talking about like classes and shit on what plants are best for what spells.

Through a series of misunderstandings I ended up at one of these events, slack-jawed as they talked about the “science” behind it (the “science” was literally that medieval belief that if a plant looks like a foot it’s probably good for your feet), and, in my STEM-trained horror, I tried to figure out what the actual fuck was going on.

All of these people seemed sort of bereft and at a loss. And if you feel totally powerless and you don’t have health insurance, spells and tinctures provide comfort. That’s not nothing.

And now I can’t go on a goddamn tinder date without someone asking for my fucking chart, but that is a rant for another time.
posted by schadenfrau at 8:50 AM on July 6, 2018 [34 favorites]


My own contribution:

- people are forced to agree to lengthy, inscrutable legal documents that they don't even bother to read just to go about their daily business
posted by AlSweigart at 8:55 AM on July 6, 2018 [42 favorites]


I am unprepared for people who don't understand jokes


It's funny because it's true!
posted by chavenet at 9:01 AM on July 6, 2018 [2 favorites]


mandatory workplace political education. . . the United States as a whole is depicted as evil by default. . . deviation from mainstream narrative carries heavy social and political consequences
It takes real skill to simultaneously make me genuinely giggle and also make me side with SV business executives. Points for skill.

something something stopped clock something something
posted by eotvos at 9:20 AM on July 6, 2018 [6 favorites]


All of these people seemed sort of bereft and at a loss. And if you feel totally powerless and you don’t have health insurance, spells and tinctures provide comfort. That’s not nothing.

As mentioned before, looking around my peer group “I’m not surprised we’re all commies but I am surprised we’re all witches.”
posted by The Whelk at 12:32 PM on July 6, 2018 [17 favorites]


I've said before that I realized long ago that "Communist States" were more like Corporate Monopolies of Everything, therefore "USSR Inc." Now we have something more like "USSFacebook"and "USSAmazon".
posted by oneswellfoop at 1:27 PM on July 6, 2018 [3 favorites]


Soylent beige grule food replacement is healthier than decadent fruit and vegetables.
posted by Damienmce at 1:40 PM on July 6, 2018 [5 favorites]


y'know...I was kinda hoping this would be a fun thread to watch. Summer can be so doldrummy on metafilter. I guess all my tech overlords are on summer vacation with the kids they can afford.
posted by es_de_bah at 1:55 PM on July 6, 2018 [1 favorite]


I've said before that I realized long ago that "Communist States" were more like Corporate Monopolies of Everything, therefore "USSR Inc." Now we have something more like "USSFacebook"and "USSAmazon".

China's post-Mao evolutions are certainly suggestive on this point, yeah.
posted by tobascodagama at 1:57 PM on July 6, 2018 [3 favorites]


All of these people seemed sort of bereft and at a loss. And if you feel totally powerless and you don’t have health insurance, spells and tinctures provide comfort. That’s not nothing.
As mentioned before, looking around my peer group “I’m not surprised we’re all commies but I am surprised we’re all witches.”

The heart of a heartless world, indeed. It feels like an expression of the human religious urge in a world where people have realised you can't trust basically any religion, on account of the fact that they're nearly all male dominated power structures. But the religious urge in most people is pretty simple: something to cling to say things make sense. So you end up with a mishmash of the rituals and trappings of a number of already syncretic new age belief systems. I'm really not suggesting that's there's anything wrong with it; it's absolutely equivalent to the religious practice of most people, no matter what their faith. But it just looks odd, I guess. And can be kind of annoying sometimes, although that's true of all religions.
posted by howfar at 2:03 PM on July 6, 2018


I guess all my tech overlords are on summer vacation with the kids they can afford.

Also, World Cup.
posted by zjacreman at 2:05 PM on July 6, 2018 [1 favorite]


But mostly I think the thread is quiet because the thesis is so incontrovertible.
posted by zjacreman at 2:36 PM on July 6, 2018 [4 favorites]


If you want a picture of the future, imagine the IOC stamping on a human face — forever.
posted by blue_beetle at 2:59 PM on July 6, 2018


zjacreman: But mostly I think the thread is quiet because the thesis is so incontrovertible.

Or because we don't want to do the James Damore debate again.
posted by clawsoon at 4:01 PM on July 6, 2018 [2 favorites]


As a silicon valley resident I'm torn between chuckling at being able to pull together so many good ones and my dislike of the self-pitying highly paid engineer. Opening with the guy-waiting-for-their-Tesla complaint made me picture a google type for the rest of them, who is also complaining about "mandatory political re-education" and how their non-mainstream hot takes will get them punished . . . . meh.
posted by mark k at 5:35 PM on July 6, 2018 [4 favorites]



I've said before that I realized long ago that "Communist States" were more like Corporate Monopolies of Everything, therefore "USSR Inc." Now we have something more like "USSFacebook"and "USSAmazon".
posted by oneswellfoop at 1:27 PM on July 6 [2 favorites −] Favorite added! [!]


centrally planned economy, meet centrally planned economy
posted by eustatic at 7:50 PM on July 6, 2018


Neoliberals, libertarians and other free market types don't care too much about centrally-managed insanity if the insanity isn't managed by a nation-state.
posted by Yakuman at 8:54 PM on July 6, 2018 [1 favorite]


HOW SILICON VALLEY FUELS AN INFORMAL CASTE SYSTEM - "Mobility among the castes seems minimal. An Outer Party member could reach the Inner Party by chancing into an early job at a lottery-ticket company (such as a Facebook or Google) or by becoming a successful entrepreneur. But that’s rare; most of the Outer Party prefers working for the Inner Party, gradually accumulating equity through stock grants and appreciating real estate."
posted by the man of twists and turns at 9:15 AM on July 9, 2018 [2 favorites]


HOW SILICON VALLEY FUELS AN INFORMAL CASTE SYSTEM
If there’s any nonviolent political hope here, it’s probably to be found among the Outer Party. The Inner Party lives estranged from reality. But the Outer Party still has to teach their kids not to pick up street needles and occasionally feels the depredations of crime to person or property (our household has experienced both within the past few months). Though the Outer Party has little collective identity, they have common interests around street cleanliness, crime, schools, and transit. Those interests expressed themselves in the recent mayoral election, where pro-development, pro-techie London Breed, a favorite among the tech Outer Party, narrowly defeated two mutually endorsing candidates in an electoral nail-biter. Breed broke from typical San Francisco progressive politics, arguing against rent control and proposing to eliminate homeless camps via government conservatorship (essentially forced institutionalization). Perhaps a city founded in a literal gold rush can foster a newfound civic spirit, at least among the gold miners, while in the midst of a figurative gold rush.
Wait... so the guy who's going to eliminate rent control and institutionalize the homeless is the "nonviolent political hope" who might "foster a newfound civic spirit"? I'm not sure if I'm quite wrapping my head around this paragraph.
posted by clawsoon at 9:43 AM on July 9, 2018 [1 favorite]


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