The Anthropic situation with the Department of Defense is the clearest example of the application of 'Everything within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state', a doctrine that is explicitly fascist.
So if people are still not convinced it might be a good time to reconsider, maybe read a history book or two.
To add some context that I learned recently, the fascist project was specifically anti-liberal in the sense that it rejected the conception of universal natural inalienable rights as its ideology base.
Rights, when universal and natural are inalienable, while rights when derived from the state are alienable. The ability of a state to make anyone a non-person is, and should continue to be, a horrific thought to entertain.
That is precisely the key and you can already see many examples of this in the last 12 months. One group after another is stripped of their rights and mistreated and yet nobody actually does anything other than some protests. I wonder how this sort of thing would go down in France or Germany, for Germany of course the track record is sub-optimal but I would hope that they had at least learned their lessons well enough to avoid a repetition of the blackest chapters in our history.
What puzzles me is how for many years it was predicted that this was going to happen and that in spite of the warnings it still did. I just don't get it.
>What puzzles me is how for many years it was predicted that this was going to happen and that in spite of the warnings it still did. I just don't get it.
Let's say that there are twelve doughnuts in the box. You see someone eat one, and there are 11, 10, 9... and when there are six, you make a prediction: we're going to run out of doughnuts.
A few minutes later, after a late burst of doughnut-grabbing (putting the exhaustion of the box ahead of schedule), it happens. What's the best way to understand this experience?
A) People were removing doughnuts from the box without knowing what would happen. You were the only one who understood how to count in reverse (a skill not ordinarily taught in public schools), and revealed a truth they might not have even understood - until it occurred before their eyes.
B) You revealed a consistent desire to eat doughnuts and a social norm that permitted it, which held true minute after minute, both before and after you published. That's excellent science. They knew they were eating doughnuts, and they wanted them. Their knowledge of the running-out effect, possibly discovered earlier in internal studies, drove them to accelerate the process at the end, rushing to grab the last one before the competition did.
I took it as more of correctly making the prediction and not being taken seriously either when it was made nor when it was fulfilled.
We've seen responses ranging from "You're overreacting. That won't happen," to "It's not going to get worse." Somehow it does and yet they continue the same lines.
There's obviously something else going on, perspective-wise or psychologically. I've always wanted to follow with them and understand what exactly the dynamic is.
This is why the UK stripping Shamima Begum - a British citizen by birth - of her citizenship always concerned me. Effectively leaving her stateless. She was an easy target for this. Perhaps it feels like some form of justice or punishment. So people just nod along.
But what precedent does that set? A very dangerous one imo
It seems to be a much better example of cronyism being used to oust a competitor to OpenAI at the direct incitement of Altman. I have no doubt that the Trump admin and people like Miller, Hegseth et al dream of ruling with an iron fist... they're just too incompetent to pull it off.
They couldn't even pull it off when they had a mandate and some people with actual talent in the first admin.
It's fascism. A shakedown to place private corporate power under state control. Consider that the people dreaming of ruling with an iron fist are currently in charge, shooting citizens in the street, and shaking down billion dollar companies aren't so incompetent that we need not worry.
What do you mean, "they couldn't pull it off?" They have already accomplished half of what they set out to do [1], a quarter of the way through Trump's term.
As incompetent and stupid as they are, the dunking just never seems to stop. Nobody with the power to do anything about it cares, and nobody who cares has any power.
So if people are still not convinced it might be a good time to reconsider, maybe read a history book or two.