@tante

I really like and admire @pluralistic and have utmost respect for him, and that's why I'm totally baffled about why he is claiming "fruit of the poisoned tree" arguments as cause of LLM scepticism.

The objections to LLMs aren't about origins but about what they they are doing right now: destroying the planet, stealing labour, giving power over knowledge to LLM owners etc.

The objections are nothing to do with LLMs' origins, they're entirely about LLMs' effects in the here and now.

@FediThing @tante

Which parts of running a model on your own laptop are implicated in "destroying the planet?" How is checking punctuation "stealing labor?" Or, for that matter "giving power over knowledge to LLM owners?"

@pluralistic @tante

(Hello Mr Doctorow! Just want to make clear I admire you a great deal and this isn't intended as an attack on you!)

Running a local LLM with no connection to outside providers might be a way of avoiding bad stuff, but I am not clear on how this relates to discussing origins of technologies?

It seems like there's ambiguity in your post about whether it applies just to people with homelabs wondering if they should try offline LLMs, or whether you are discussing LLMs as a general technology?

Almost everyone using LLMs will use the online kind, so objections to LLMs are (reasonably IMHO) based on that scenario.

@FediThing @tante

> I am not clear on how this connects to discussing origins of technologies

Because the arguments against running an LLM on your own computer boil down to, "The LLM was made by bad people, or in bad ways."

This is a purity culture standard, a "fruit of the poisoned tree" argument, and while it is often dressed up in objectivity ("I don't use the fruit of the poisoned tree"), it is just special pleading ("the fruits of the poisoned tree that I use don't count, because __").

@pluralistic @tante

Thank you for the responses 🙏

"Because the arguments against running an LLM on your own computer"

...ahhh okay. So was this post aimed more at a very narrow homelab kind of audience?

It's just, as a reader, the article's emphasis on examples of tech origins imply it's trying to defend LLMs in general? This probably is my ignorance as a reader, but it's how it came across to me, and led to bafflement.

@FediThing @tante This is the use-case that is under discussion.

https://pluralistic.net/2026/02/19/now-we-are-six/

@pluralistic @FediThing @tante you’re attempting to legitimize use of an unethical technology for something you don’t actually need a plausible-sounding-wall-of-text generator for

it goes beyond “it’s made by bad people in bad ways”. it’s a “”tool”” that actively causes cognitive decline and psychosis and sucks the soul out of everything it touches. and mind you promoting and legitimizing it is an act of support for those bad people and their bad ways. your deflection is a typical that of someone with no regard for ethics

“I installed Ollama” instantly gives a person away as a techbro

• your not-so-friendly not-so-neighborhood “””liberal”””