Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending 17th August 2025

https://awful.systems/post/5244605

Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending 17th August 2025 - awful.systems

Need to let loose a primal scream without collecting footnotes first? Have a sneer percolating in your system but not enough time/energy to make a whole post about it? Go forth and be mid: Welcome to the Stubsack, your first port of call for learning fresh Awful you’ll near-instantly regret. Any awful.systems sub may be subsneered in this subthread, techtakes or no. If your sneer seems higher quality than you thought, feel free to cut’n’paste it into its own post — there’s no quota for posting and the bar really isn’t that high. > The post Xitter web has spawned soo many “esoteric” right wing freaks, but there’s no appropriate sneer-space for them. I’m talking redscare-ish, reality challenged “culture critics” who write about everything but understand nothing. I’m talking about reply-guys who make the same 6 tweets about the same 3 subjects. They’re inescapable at this point, yet I don’t see them mocked (as much as they should be) > Like, there was one dude a while back who insisted that women couldn’t be surgeons because they didn’t believe in the moon or in stars? I think each and every one of these guys is uniquely fucked up and if I can’t escape them, I would love to sneer at them. Previous week [https://awful.systems/post/5168673]

Ed Zitron’s given his thoughts on GPT-5’s dumpster fire launch:

Personally, I can see his point - the Duke Nukem Forever levels of hype around GPT-5 set the promptfondlers up for Duke Nukem Forever levels of disappointment with GPT-5, and the “deaths” of their AI waifus/therapists this has killed whatever dopamine delivery mechanisms they’ve set up for themselves.

Ed Zitron (@edzitron.com)

I genuinely think GPT-5 may bring down generative AI. It broke the illusion with normies who thought ChatGPT was a friend or confidant or "brain storm machine," and I believe its new architecture is doing the very opposite of making it cheaper or more efficient.

Bluesky Social

@BlueMonday1984 @dgerard

Lol, Ed Zitron is a one person neo-luddite machine.
His entire website is one continuous anti AI spam.
Which is fine...but I was trying to find out why #chatgpt5 launch was a failure, according to him. But he fails at a "writer" to communicate that, so he's probably right that he fears he will be replaced by 2000 lines of code.

Can’t tell if you’re trolling or just willfully ignorant.

@BurgersMcSlopshot

Funny, that's what I think about folks who haven't touched AI since Eliza and somehow think their opinion about AI matters.

Intellectual (Non practicing, Lapsed)

indeed

not saying it’s always the supposed infosec instances, but

Tempted to make that my bio on some socmed site

@Self @awful.systems <- Mastodon's kiwifarms?

(Since we're taking potshots at supposed instances)

@awful.systems

ROFL accurate domain name...

Autodidact, Polymath

Why did you skip the funniest part?

as a treat for those who click through and share the pain!
Wulfy... saying someone cannot be right because they haven't agreed with you yet is an appeal to authority. People might be wrong, but they don't have to adopt AI in order to have an informed opinion.

If you're asking me how to design a prompt for a particular AI, then I don't know a single thing about it. If you're asking me whether AI is a good idea or not, I can be more sure of that answer. Feel free to prove me wrong, but don't say my opinion doesn't matter.

Have you seen the data centers being built just north of your house? No? Well it doesn't matter you still might have a point!

@cy

Oh. I totallly am on your side of the barricade.

I am just slightly ahead of the game (as usual). I have done all my anti-AI anxiety back in 2023.

People were literally laughing at me when I was talking about dangers of #AI

But since then I am actually doing something meaningful to mitigate AI impact (#RegulateAI).
Ai is a left vs righ issue and I am on the left of Trotsky.

I do not have much time for folks who are 'anti-ai' and yet know next to zero about how these systems work and what they can do. Though I do read their comments and occasionaly engage with them.

I was brouoght up in an occupied nation, and when I did not want to learn the language of the occupier, our teacher (bless her courageous heart) said "You need to know the language of your enemy".

Everyone needs to learn about #AI, as this is how they will lose their jobs, their democracy and possibly their lives...

... you need to learn MORE about AI if you hate AI. Because frankly, most neo-luddites do themselves disservice.
You need to sound credible to be impactful. Otherwise you are just yelling into the echo chamber.

Speaking of meaningful action...
(short of torching the data centres and I only see stupid anti-AI memes not angry mobs)... if you live in #Australia and #AIHate

The productivity commision is asking for public comments in the interim report: https://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/current/data-digital/interim

Scope:
💀 Enable AI's productivity potential

▶️ New pathways to expand data access

▶️ Supporting safe data access and use through outcomes-based privacy regulation

▶️ Enhance reporting efficiency, transparency and accuracy through digital financial reporting.

#AiSlop #airesistance #stochiasticparrot

Unlocking the benefits of AI and data to spark growth

In this interim report, the Commission presents its initial findings and draft recommendations and invites further information and feedback from interested people and organisations.

Worst thing about neo luddites is the Luddites weren't opposed to technology. They just didn't like how one guy got to own the whole factory. So I get why people don't want to risk learning about some stupid stuff, but they're not luddites.
Either way, they have been cordially directed to the egress.
Ooh, what a terrible fate! What horrid crimes you must have committed to make our beloved jannies punish you with admin bits! :D