he's a little off though. almost no one in the present elite is "cynical" in this way. in fact almost no one at any point in history has ever been "cynical" in this way, elite or non-elites - it's extremely rare for humans to be genuinely "cynical"

the people in power really do believe the stuff they espouse, as weird as it may seem sometimes, and even when it's totally illogical and even when it's self-evidently contradictory. the system selects for this specific kind of person: those who are supremely confident in themselves and their own "beliefs," and who automatically absorb whatever "belief" happens to be the perceived consensus at a given time and place. these people have an enormous advantage in our current system in the struggle for status and socioeconomic success

the real axis is belief vs. sociopathy: the depth of one's beliefs, and the degree to which one is biologically programmed to follow the social consensus around them or not. the distinction between "cynicism" and sociopathy (used here without moral connotation) is very important. and frankly, one that i think that most non-sociopaths are literally incapable of understanding

btw i think you'd find this essay interesting, it touches on this topic somewhat: https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2014/02/20/the-cactus-and-the-weasel/

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5526823&forum_id=2#47648445)

twins (RIP, daddy abandoned us) used to mention him occasionally. briggs for example raped richard carrier for using bayes theorum incorrectly in his on the historicity of jesus

ty for the link. do you read Venkatesh Rao regularly? looks like he's still poasting a decade later. what do you like about him if you do read him regularly?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5526823&forum_id=2#47648732)

he eventually "came out" as a public intellectual and i discovered that he's a 5'2" hideous indian with one of the most effeminate eloi voices i've ever heard. then trump happened and overnight he morphed into the most completely deranged histrionic TDS lunatic (not exaggerating, you can go back and read for yourself if he hasn't deleted all of it, which i suspect he has). you know what they say about physiognomy....

i have since gone back and re-read some of his work that i liked before, and discovered that most of it wasn't actually very good and about some things he was just flat out totally wrong. i haven't looked at any of his more current work. i imagine it's totally bland and uninteresting parroting of the current silicon valley establishment party line, with a bit of token "edginess" for branding

i did just re-read the article i linked above to make sure it's still good (it is). although i'm sure you can find better work on this topic elsewhere if you look

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5526823&forum_id=2#47648772)