Topping off two days of migraines with part two of #BehindTheBastards Left off with the Powell memorandum, picking up with trickle down economics. I'm sure this will help.
Somehat hilariously I'm simultaneously having a conversation about I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison and that exact story just came up in the latest episode of #BehindTheBastards.
And I'm tickled that Robert Evans brought up Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, the famously insufferable fanfic that's like Atlas Shrugged in that it's way too long, the main character is a complete Gary Stu, most of the story consists of him lecturing the reader about how much smarter he is, and it's a favorite story of the worst people you know.
I am not shocked to find out the author of the former is an AI researcher.
It's also very funny that Robert explicitly brought up the Adeptus Mechanicus from Warhammer 40k because I couldn't stop thinking about it as they were talking.
I feel like we're only one or two steps from "Praise the Omnissiah!"
I am having a bad time. I am ruining my own weekend listening to this! I mean, it’s excellent—it’s Robert Evans + #TheDollop guys—and I’m learning a lot and I hate it.
On a walk while listening to a #BehindTheBastards episode about horrible radiation "medicine" sold by William Bailey and the story of the #RadiumGirls and I fittingly crossed this bridge.
The recent #BehindTheBastards episode on the book Going Infinite and #SBF was great. I found it particularly hilarious that Athe author #MichaelLewis thought SBF was an extra special boy because he played #MagicTheGathering.
As a former Magic player I feel equipped to state that this is not the case. I do think it might have appealed to SBF because his parents seem to be the type to buy endless cards for him.
In case there's anyone wondering why so many people are talking about the death of one of history's most prolific death-dealers, here is a six-part history podcast on #HenryKissinger.
#BehindTheBastards is a podcast hosted by #RobertEvans, looking at the lives and context of some of history's most awful individuals. One of his most popular subjects was #kissinger
I'm listening to the latest #BehindTheBastards on Sam Bankman-Fried (aka the guy who is now in prison for money laundering through FTX) and it turns out he was basically trying to become VaultTech.
He and his brother were talking about buying the island of Nauru to make it an apocalypse shelter for Effective Altruists.
I am not kidding. This came out in court documents.
The latest #BehindTheBastards mentions that Julius Streicher married a woman named Kunigunde which Robert mentions he had never heard before, and that's actually the name of a character in the #Voltaire novel Candide. Although in that book it's spelled Cunégonde and being Voltaire might have been a really crude pun.
I'm not sure I have fully quantified my thoughts here but the latest episodes from #BehindTheBastards on kidnappings and how the memetic and viral nature of kidnapping content have broken our collective ape brains is so damn good.
Like this is a conversation I have with people constantly in a lot of contexts but definitely intersects strongly with #urbanism.
Constant misunderstanding of fear and crime politics leads to people making bad choices! And there are people out there who get rich off of this stuff! (Surprise: this is a post about car companies too).
There's a real insidious thread on how we treat each other and how misunderstanding of crime (and in particular certain crimes) becomes the kind of brain worm that eats at us all from the inside.
I wish I could collect this thought better but honestly this is one of those "once you see it you see it everywhere" kind of things and it is very exhausting to explain.
E.g. "how do you feel safe taking transit with all the homeless people" -> bro, these are not the people who are likely to kidnap you. They are more likely to be kidnapped! Transit is incredibly safe, and most of the danger in my life is, you guessed it, jackasses in their SUVs and big lifted trucks!
Listen to this episode from Behind the Bastards on Spotify. Robert is joined again by cartoonist Randy Milholland to continue to discuss Scott Adams. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Listen to this episode from Behind the Bastards on Spotify. Robert sits down with cartoonist Randy Milholland to discuss Scott Adams and the secret of his madness. (2 Part Series)...
Listen to this episode from Behind the Bastards on Spotify. Robert, Katy and Cody read a Proud Boys manual that was recently released as part of a sedition case. (1 part) See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
I'm listening to the #BehindTheBastards episodes on Qaddafi and Robert Evans mentions this moment.
Being a fluff piece this article fails to mention that when he did this with the bulldozer the wall collapsed outwards onto the crowd that was watching. Which the show compares to something Homer Simpson would do.
I'm seeing where Far Cry 4 got a lot of Pagan Min from.
Listen to this episode from Behind the Bastards on Spotify. Robert sits down with Ben Bowlin to talk about the flood of AI-generated children's books con-artists are putting on Kindle. Not only are they off-putting and bad, they might represent a serious threat to literacy itself.
