Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending 10th May 2026 - awful.systems
awful.systems
Want to wade into the sandy surf of the abyss? Have a sneer percolating in your system but not enough time/energy to make a whole post about it? Go forth and be mid. Welcome to the Stubsack, your first port of call for learning fresh Awful you’ll near-instantly regret. Any awful.systems sub may be subsneered in this subthread, techtakes or no. If your sneer seems higher quality than you thought, feel free to cut’n’paste it into its own post — there’s no quota for posting and the bar really isn’t that high. > The post Xitter web has spawned so many “esoteric” right wing freaks, but there’s no appropriate sneer-space for them. I’m talking redscare-ish, reality challenged “culture critics” who write about everything but understand nothing. I’m talking about reply-guys who make the same 6 tweets about the same 3 subjects. They’re inescapable at this point, yet I don’t see them mocked (as much as they should be) > > Like, there was one dude a while back who insisted that women couldn’t be surgeons because they didn’t believe in the moon or in stars? I think each and every one of these guys is uniquely fucked up and if I can’t escape them, I would love to sneer at them. (Credit and/or blame to David Gerard for starting this.)

Want to wade into the sandy surf of the abyss? Have a sneer percolating in your system but not enough time/energy to make a whole post about it? Go forth and be mid.

Welcome to the Stubsack, your first port of call for learning fresh Awful you’ll near-instantly regret.

Any awful.systems sub may be subsneered in this subthread, techtakes or no.

If your sneer seems higher quality than you thought, feel free to cut’n’paste it into its own post — there’s no quota for posting and the bar really isn’t that high.

The post Xitter web has spawned so many “esoteric” right wing freaks, but there’s no appropriate sneer-space for them. I’m talking redscare-ish, reality challenged “culture critics” who write about everything but understand nothing. I’m talking about reply-guys who make the same 6 tweets about the same 3 subjects. They’re inescapable at this point, yet I don’t see them mocked (as much as they should be)

Like, there was one dude a while back who insisted that women couldn’t be surgeons because they didn’t believe in the moon or in stars? I think each and every one of these guys is uniquely fucked up and if I can’t escape them, I would love to sneer at them.

(Credit and/or blame to David Gerard for starting this.)

  • nfultz@awful.systemsEnglish
    9·
    3 days ago

    Galloway closes with a pretty strong sneer: Apocalypse No

    AI’s popularity is correlated to wealth, with only those earning more than $200,000 per year viewing AI as a net positive. That’s not a reflection on AI, but yet another signal that the incumbents (the old and the wealthy) have successfully hoarded opportunity. In other words, the AI jobs freak-out is the latest act in America’s ongoing wealth inequality drama. The Gini coefficient is how economists measure inequality: Zero indicates everyone has exactly the same wealth; a score of 1.0 means one individual owns everything. In the U.S., we’re higher than 0.8 — about the level seen when the French began separating people from their heads. The real disruption won’t come from AI, but from the public watching arsonists sell smoke detectors and call it innovation.

    The AI job apocalypse isn’t an economic forecast — it’s a marketing strategy. We’re not witnessing the end of work. We’re watching the monetization of fear.

    Seems like he’s getting back to his pre-crypto / we-wtf style. But when did podcasters start charging $53 (EDIT: $86.50 for floor) / seat at the Wiltern, that place is huge. And no Swisher either, it’s his other one.

    • Anisette [any/all]@quokk.auEnglish
      8·
      2 days ago

      the AI job apocalypse isn’t an economic forecast – it’s a marketing strategy.

      Am I being paranoid or is that a very LLM phrase?

      • sus@programming.devEnglish
        6·
        2 days ago

        Doesn’t end there

        The AI job apocalypse isn’t data-driven — it’s narrative-driven, engineered by people who profit when you’re scared. Fear is the product. Capital is the outcome.

        When a resource becomes dramatically cheaper to use, we don’t use less of it — we find a million new uses for it. If that sounds painless, keep reading.

        and that quote gets even more LLM when expanded

        The AI job apocalypse isn’t an economic forecast — it’s a marketing strategy. We’re not witnessing the end of work. We’re watching the monetization of fear.

        It’s two not X it’s Ys in a row!

        Galloway has always been a prolific em-dash user But pre-2023 phrases that strike on the same severity are hard to find ——mildly LLM at best.

        2022

        TikTok has 1.6 billion monthly active users — more than Twitter, Snapchat, and LinkedIn combined.
        The new occupant’s ascent to the Iron Throne was financed with a different currency — not monthly subscriptions or cable packages, but attention. Specifically, our youth’s attention.
        Competition depends on rules, and rules depend on umpires. We should fight to protect competition — not winners. Because winners subvert the process

    • istewart@awful.systemsEnglish
      8·
      3 days ago

      I started to smell something funny about Galloway when I heard an ad for his podcast in a prime drive-time slot on the local country music station, of all places

        • nfultz@awful.systemsEnglish
          4·
          1 day ago

          I usually think of it as Pivot : All In :: Ted Turner : Rupert Murdoch. Hoping he can grow out of his Bill Maher phase, but at least he’s been pretty generous to my dumb State U in the meantime. And if he wants to rack up listeners/ad dollars by doing chatgpt boycotts, by all means.