Very eloquently stated. There's a popular fallacy that *everything* could be easy if only the 1% cared to make it so and while things could certainly be a lot easier for a lot of people were there the political will, it doesn't mean that a world without labor is within our grasp or even desirable.

"you can't willpower your way out of anxiety/depression" is both true and capitulating to them. My social anxiety is honestly pretty bad, but I also know that if I'm faced with new situations I have to try my best to push through it. Over time that (and the ssri) have made it more manageable too

Moral issues aside, it seems pragmatically stupid to base your identity on being miserable and suffering oppression, as it turns any attempt to make your life better into a threat to your identity.

Not just deep, but intrinsic. It's become a cliche, but it's correct: AI is a plausible sentence machine. Truth is not a concern, and it's not made to be accurate. It's made to create text that sounds like it's probably true to people who don't know the topic.

This is key. LLMs will always do their best to *simulate* a correct response. This is all they can do. Sometimes that simulation is identical to an actual correct response, and sometimes it isn’t. The LLM is unaware of the difference. Well…it’s more accurate to say it’s just generally unaware.

Also worth noting that Google vs AI is a false dichotomy. Google is itself now poisoned with AI, often offering paragraphs of false or hallucinatory information before you get to the first link. And then you get a bunch of useless, repetitive slop links all generated in the last seven days.

There are few practices on our side of the aisle I find as contemptible as being a primary dead-ender.

I think recognizing whether or not you are the right person to contribute to a discourse is very important. I respect YouTube essayists who recognize that, rather than hopping on every bandwagon topic.

your readers might be interested in the (somewhat uneven) DAMNATION DECADE, an RPG with the conceit that all 70s woo is true and the heroes are working for Leonard Nimoy to battle various supernational threats.

When I was on Zepbound for ~1.5mo (all I could trick HMO into covering), I found I didn’t get side effects w/ my usual low-ish carb diet (38-50+g fiber, protein 20-35%/fat 50-60%, lazy paleo, helps control hunger/heartburn). Tried upping carbs/sugar to test hunger, and suddenly so many side effects.

the result of the last two decades plus of rural areas developing a massive drug problem while quality of life substantially improved in urban areas was to make people in rural areas believe that if they had it bad, the cities, by definition, must be hellholes

People have no clue how much rural life is subsidized by the pentagon budget.

You think gasoline is 3 dollars a gallon? LOL no. The other 7 dollars per gallon is just wrapped up in aircraft carriers floating around the Persian gulf.

I’ve found my people. Love gardening, but influencers promoting food subsistence on suburban lots is MAHA arrogant. Love, respect and gratitude to farmers! Frustrated food hobbyists, pivot to low water, fire wise, pollinator gardens. I did and LOVE it. So much more biodiversity. Nature is cool.

And to the extent ag still employs people in rural areas, that employment depends on industry! Fucking nobody around here knows how to do sustainable organic agriculture *except* as part of a vigorous industrial sector. You don't get fresher tomatoes by killing Big Ag, you get no tomatoes