Elon Musk: The Reichest Man Alive

IQ and EQ are imperfect classifications. However, I don’t think it makes sense to say someone is smart or not without defining what you mean. Lots of tech bros (I include Boree in this) have some traits of intelligence but are often seriously lacking a social intelligence that causes them to misunderstand the political world and misalign their incentives.

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Being good at tests, word games, visual puzzles etc (IQ tests) surely correlates some with being good at other mental tasks and having good judgement, just not very much.

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we are so close to presenting irrefutable evidence to Elon stans that their guy is a nazi

they’ll flip any day now

we just need one more good argument bro trust me

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This entire board is preaching to the choir mental masturbation. Why stop now. :grinning:

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The IQ model of human cognition posits that high IQ people are better equipped to develop any cognitive skill, that the entire basis of the term. If you have a high IQ you are more likely to be good at math, puzzles and spatial reasoning and you re more likely to be good at interpersonal skills, talking about your feelings, the art of seduction, learning a new language, painting a picture of a dog, interpreting modernist poetry, throwing a curveball, oral sex, etc. Making a distinction for “EQ” implicitly rejects the IQ model. Nothing wrong with that btw, imo just bears mentioning in the wake of what I presume to be a second great awakening of eugenics discourse.

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As I mentioned the IQ EQ language was maybe poorly chosen. I just don’t have better easy ways to differentiate the kind of intelligence that would award someone a degree in astrophysics while making it hard for them to understand why making billionaires the peak of the political system is a bad idea.

It’s people confusing being smart with being a caring, empathetic person.

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if she really thinks elon didnt do a nazi salute “troll” on purpose she’s dumb, regardless of her abilities to solve puzzles

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That’s not really how it works. Smart people are still humans who can be wrong about a lot of things, especially when it personally suits them.

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She is a conventionally attractive woman living in male dominated spaces for decades.

If for no other reason than that, she will be a reflection of her dipshit dominated surroundings AND very insulated as something of a token.

Her life is being wealthy, flying around, gambling with other people’s money, and taking pictures. What part of that makes you think this is a curious person? What part of her gravy train would prompt her to ask hard questions about anything ever?

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Oh good, I’ve been meaning to read that Shockley biography.

The Elon / Trump meltdown is going to be fantastic.

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https://x.com/mjfree/status/1881894912603615235?s=46&t=hUTQWHj9NQWf8Y8RgMv1TA

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I’ve been reflecting on this over the past day or so, and I’ve come to a realization.

Many of my friends on the center-right who are upset with me for making what I believe to be very obvious observations aren’t necessarily angry at me—they’re angry at the implications of what I’m saying.

The idea that neo-Nazism has entered the mainstream, potentially influencing the White House, is so alarming and existentially terrifying that it’s easier to lash out at the messenger than confront the reality.

If they accept this, it means that the political home they’ve invested so much of their identity in, the movement they’ve championed for years, has become something so morally repugnant that accepting it feels like breaking their own brain.

The cognitive dissonance is overwhelming.

What’s striking to me is the selective outrage. Many of these same people are quick to call everyone communists, often with little more than circumstantial evidence.

Yet, when it comes to countless instances of glaringly obvious signs of fascism in their own movement, they either look away or attack those pointing it out.

https://x.com/JoshEakle/status/1881836750076551241

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Regarding Liv Boree, I haven’t followed her closely, but whenever I see someone talk about AI, Bayesianism, crypto futurism, ACism, I just assume they aren’t very smart. I mean, they know how to signal a certain type of “smartness” in the current environment (happily form them, the kind that going all in on would have gotten you very rich over the last decade). However, if they are an attractive English lady and hang out with rich people from Silicon Valley, I just assume they have been ideologically captured and are not independent thinkers (or are thought-leading such rich people, in the manner of very smart English person Nick Bostrom). This is kind of broad strokes, eg, I think Nate Silver is actually very smart, despite his dumb recent book, but I just have this heuristic that folks who parrot the latest silicon valley bro speak are below, say, your average med student in intelligence. If Curtis Yarvin is your guide in the world of ideas, you are lost.

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She was on Sean Carroll’s podcast some time ago. I was not all convinced she understood what she was talking about.

lol no, the overwhelming majority of Trump voters are a ok with the Nazi shit because they’re a ok with nazis

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We’re 10+ years in Trumpism and people can’t wrap their heads around the idea that Nazis exist.

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yeah yeah david frum argle bargle but this is actually correct and i don’t know of any way to get around it.

This is why the “resistance” garbage from last time didn’t work, and the fact we’re seeing less of it now is a good thing. Gotta let them learn without us being the ones to make them feel dumb.

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Because the WW2 generation is dying off. My 90 year old aunt just passed a few months ago and she vaguely remembered it as a kid. All the generals (worldwide) that were still around in the 50s and 60s were able to keep the militaries at the time in check. There no safe guard to any of this now. Humanity is going to learn the hard way again. And this time we have nuclear weapons. :person_shrugging: