General Discussion

This is the passage. I have thought about many times over the years - the creepy harmony not just of bots (followed by the thing in Guildea like* reactive aggression), but the humans of Si Valley. I guess the bots learn that from the humans building and training them:

“Even if I’m wrong”, Bobbie said with her mouth full, “even if there’s no chemical doing anything” - she swallowed -“is this where you really want to live? We’ve each got one friend now, you after two months, me after three.
Is that your idea of the ideal community? I went into Norwood to get my hair done for your party; I saw a dozen women who were rushed and sloppy and irritated and alive; I wanted to hug every one of them!”

Ira Levine is an excellent author for teachers trying to get students enthused about reading that cuts CreepGPT (I hate that thing) out of the loop in my humble opinion.

I love reading. It is my one solace that doesn’t involve intoxication or television.

Chuck Palahniuk of all people is apparently a fan of Ira Levine and of cozy mysteries (which I think are works like those of Agatha Christie, Georgette Heyer, Dorothy Sayers, Freeman Wills Croft - those are the four my mom and I have read..)

I think of my mom a lot. I miss discussing books with her more than anything else. But then I read this and felt disgust:
https://www.roughtype.com/?p=9100

I do not understand the appeal of those things. Usually I agree with Carr. But that thing’s writing is not touching. It is repellant.
I don’t understand the Eliza effect.

This is “How love came to Prof Guildea”. I have thought about it over the years as well. This part especially:
“Said something in the same dove-like, amorous voice full of sickly suggestion, and yet hard, even dangerous in its intonation.”

Uriah Heep come to life. No one could doubt Charles Dickens’ empathy for the embattled, but even he understood that Uriah Heep was not a sympathetic person. Usha Vance dislikes “Hard Times” and based on the Trump administration’s heartlessness towards the poor, that tells me all I need to know about her.
I see these overfed, parasitic Indian economists who live in the US and whine about “freebies for the poor” here in India.
But if such people had any embattled protege it would probably be Uriah Heep.

Too much is getting lost in communication I was thinking as I read this yesterday:
https://time.com/6290367/susan-neiman-tension-at-the-heart-of-wokeism/

Based on pretty much all my views I am woke and feminist, but I am careful in using the term “woke” thanks to the hatchet job by the right.

Somehow wokeness, feminism etc need to be communicated better. It is a communication problem not a policy issue and heavy handed robotic systems and social media built by these creeps exacerbate it. Entertainment giants will always dilute down the important parts of any message. I notice it all the time.

Nathan Robinson wasn’t huge on the Barbie movie I remember and he is pretty reliable whether it is about Yimbies or fluff in general. Here he is on books:
https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/youve-got-to-read-books

Well at least I can whine to DU. The last 6 years would have been way more hellish without DU, Current Affairs, Yasha Levine, Chris Ketcham, Ed Zitron etc. Most of the mainstream press os kinda depressing.