You are aware that proof doesnt get more solid than repeated, collectively witnessed, action, right? A direct testament from Putin would be less significant than the current record of military intervention.

If the current trajectory of russian aggression has not yet convinced you, if Georgia’s annexation has not yet convinced you, if Transnistria has not convinced you, if Donetsk, Luhansk, and Kherson have not convinced you (despite pro-russian separatists in the region serving as erstwhile justification for annexation) then I do not know what to tell you.

I used to work in academic physics, and I currently work in data science. I am deeply familiar with both ends of the subject in question. LLMs are useful research tools because they speed up the reference finding and literature review process, not because they synthesize new information that does not need to be independently verified.

In the context of medical research, they could absolutely use LLMs to facilitate a literature search. What LLMs cannot do is hand researchers a proposed cure that they could sell to people. You still need to do the leg work of synthesizing the molecules, standardizing the process, industrializing it, patenting it, multiple rounds of testing on increasingly complex animals and eventually people, and then going through the drug approval process with the FDA and others. LLMs speed up the CHEAPEST and EASIEST part of the research process. That is why LLMs will not be handing us the cure for cancer.

I appreciate your capacity for giving people the benefit of the doubt. It is an honorable quality…but you have some context - these are the private chats of conservative staffers communicating in private. I can tell you, as someone who has been in private work chats, that there is room for irony but these chats are not using gas chamber imagery because they really believe in the intrinsic dignity of minority groups.

Crimea and eastern Ukraine would like to have a word with you as of 4 years ago.

Mobilization is not organization. Those in power already know the people are dissatisfied. They dont care. None of us are doing enough to make it their problem. We do not have the spaces to organize the kinds of actions that would be effective. Even this platform is not safe enough to talk about what needs to be done. It is too late. They won.

The guy to whom you are responding is deeply unserious. Look at their comments here and elsewhere. Dont waste your time more than I already have.

There is no way to exclude rhetoric from any discussion. That’s what a discussion is - a rhetorical exercise. Also, none of what I said was opinion. The GOP is the party of bigots and reactionaries. When neo-nazis and religious extremists vote, they vote for the GOP. That is not really up for debate. Im sorry I triggered you by reference to objective reality.

Right, that is why I originally said there is no money in a cancer cure invented by LLM. It’s just not a serious possibility.

I, too, was interested to find out. I hope they reply to you with more courtesy than they showed me.

Sure…but thats not what is happening in these text threads. Ive made lots of egregiously politically incorrect jokes among friends before but we are always careful to stay on this side of the line of maniacally endorsing genocide via gas chamber.

How is the game played? In what world is eager collaboration with aggressively bigoted and reactionary opponents a pragmatic political strategy?

The article you link quotes Putin claiming that he has never opposed Ukraine joining NATO. That is not only demonstrably false but also just a misuse of the article that muddies the water.

Putin has absolutely opposed Ukraine joining NATO (on the basis that he has always planned on annexing Ukraine in whole or in part) and has used his power to materially prohibit their membership. Ukraine’s nuclear disarmament was part of this plan.

Yes, selling the actual cure would be profitable…but an LLM would only ever provide the text for synthesizing it but none of the extensive testing, licensing, or manufacturing, etc… An existing pharmaceutical company would have to believe the LLM and then front the costs for the development, testing, and manufacture…which constitutes a large proportion of the costs of bringing a treatment to market. Burning compute time on that is a waste of resources, especially when fleecing horny losers is available right now. It is just business.

No money in curing cancer with an LLM. Heaps of money taking advantage if increasingly alienated and repressed people.

Impeach? Like they already did twice? They are warning us because they know the mechanisms of accountability are not within their reach.

She has a record of making statements that bear a profound stupidity that attracts attention. She is the originator of the “jewish space laser” meme. She is also on a weird redemption arc (it wont work) but she seems to be more reasonable and is acting more professionally since Trump took office.

I hear you, and I can take your criticism that my statement about black male voters was miscalibrated. I looked it up and they were like 76% in favor of Harris, which is leagues better than white men or women. So, point taken.

I still think that the economic essentialist approach has a better shot at moving the needle, but maybe this is just where we disagree.

He can drink a cup of my pre-cum.

It is definitely hard to thread the needle of being aware of american history and also having enough optimism left over to be motivated to affect change, I will grant you that. Your pessimism is well warranted.

Respectfully, I will point out that your view is, in a way, kind of paradoxical. You are right to say that white people in this country cannot be trusted to improve the lives of non-whites however, this phenomenon is not unique to the white community - it is mostly just amplified by their disproportionate power in society. That in mind, consider what this implies in relief: the myriad constituencies of the oppressed minorities in this countries will be able to, in a coordinated way, set aside their own priorities to mutually advance the causes of other non-hegemonic groups in a way that is separable from the economic conversation while overcoming white hegemony WITHOUT white participation.

Looking at the way the latino community voted in 2024, and black men’s feelings about gay and trans people, and the complete implosion of solidarity among women as a voting block…this doesnt seem like a winning strategy, nor is it clear that this coalition can ever surmount the white hegemony. The only group that ever seems to participate in politics in this way reliably are black women, and god bless them for it.

On the other hand, rewind the clock to 2016 and 2020 and you see that movements around economic issues like universal healthcare have a ton of steam given the support for Sanders and AOC, among others. I want to be clear, fuck the dems, but these are illustrative examples.

All I am saying is that the most annoying white people you know have been saying for years that they are deeply reactionary to racially specific policies while also communicating clearly that they are also fucking morons. TRICK THEM. Advance policies that are nominally race/gender/sex/etc. neutral but would disproportionately work to fix racial/gendered/sexual/etc. disparities…like universal healthcare, like rent controls, like public works projects (trains, housing, etc.). You are bound to get a few of them onboard and motivate fewer of them to oppose you. The combined effect might be enough. God knows the current strategy is doing the opposite of working.