Huh, they updated https://america.gov at least. Last time he was ranting about this, that site had not yet been updated, which was comically stupid. Now demanding people use the wrong term is comically stupid on its own.
- The AI companies came to the White House to ask for legal protections and concessions, expecting a fight
- The Trump administration rolled over completely and wholeheartedly, and the companies were surprised how easily he did it and what (to them) sane positions he took
- Trump's earnest enthusiasm for AI looks really bad by association
- AI insiders are now seeding him with increasingly insane ideas in order to create distance from the "sane" positions the industry is taking
It made me wonder, however: SI instead of AI brands you a follower of Trump. Does Grokking/Drinking instead of Understanding mark you as a follower of Heinlein?
I'd much rather follow Heinlein's free thinking instead of Trump's dictatorialism, and Heinlein never requested followers, but there is a similar mechanism going on nevertheless.
It marks you as wanting to belong to a certain tribe for sure, even if the definition of that tribe has been excised from the originator of the term: people use it because they see people that they admire or want to be like using it. In trump's case the tribe is about trump, in Heinlein's case the tribe isn't about Heinlein.
Like people walk around with their pants around their knees because they see that thugs wear them like that and they dream about being thugs. Or people who call each other "bro".
These are also normally people who weight the style more than the substance.
I wouldn't call myself a Heinlein fan. He was sometimes interesting, but was all over the map and had some pretty messed up ideas. I can't think of any particular tribe or style I'd like to adhere to, and I'm not about to change myself to fit in.
Save reactions like this for users of incel-speak like *maxxing.
I found Heinlein's works to be the full gamut of interesting and disgusting. That one word was amusing enough for me to use, and somehow that paints my entire character? It was one of the more innocuous things that could be lifted from his writing. You're trying to extrapolate far too much from that.
No you see this is my entire point. It's not that you read Heilein and you liked this word and so you started using it, that's bullshit. People very very rarely do something unusual like this, like using a weird word that they know nobody will understand.
In reality what happened is that you saw other people, people that you like and admire, saying grok and you copied them. You're copying the superficialities thinking that makes you closer in substance. It's cargo cult science for people.
I feel his aides are trying to distract him with nonsense like this to stop him from saying something so stupid it will sink the Republicans even further in the polls.
I recall reading that totalitarian states did this kind of thing - they forced people to say lies and absurd things, as a way of demonstrating power over them (and also as a way of destroying their ability to tell true from false and right from wrong).
Well, this isn't a dictatorship, and I ain't playing along. I'll call it what I choose, not what I'm told.
I'm observing the same tactic in the gangster series Mobland.
When pressuring a witness, etc, the gangster will always end the intimidation with making the victim repeat whatever humiliating or farcical line the gangster wants to be the new reality. It's forcing a visible submission.
"DOUBLETHINK lies at the very heart of Ingsoc, since the essential act of the Party is to use conscious deception while retaining the firmness of purpose that goes with complete honesty. To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality and all the while to take account of the reality which one denies—all this is indispensably necessary. Even in using the word DOUBLETHINK it is necessary to exercise DOUBLETHINK. For by using the word one admits that one is tampering with reality; by a fresh act of DOUBLETHINK one erases this knowledge; and so on indefinitely, with the lie always one leap ahead of the truth."
— Emmanuel Goldstein, The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism
I could not care less about a single thing that the current admin thinks or feels. The quality of those opinions are the same for the local crackheads in my community. There is not a single topic, idea or concept that Donald Trump has the capacity to be an authority of.
I wanted to give the propensity of gathering sycophants to you, as that is key to him skirting the law, but I don't think he can even be given that attribute. Being a useful idiot to the real powers may augment reach and impact, but only so long as that power values what the useful idiot makes possible, be it through policy, idiocy, or anywhere in between.
The money finds him useful, and that manifests as plot armor essentially as the puppeteers exert their will on society.
I want to touch on the for decades thing too, but I think I'm at my run-on sentence limit. Hard agree, though. John Trump had his hands up the right asses to make that a reality. It's never been Don. He's a child king.
I remember an article about how his own lawyers refused to be alone in a room with him without the other attorney present because he just continuously lied to all of them constantly.
consider that this impacts every company applying for or fulfilling a contract with the federal government that uses AI. Failure to comply in their advertising, communications, or business materials could be asserted as grounds for terminating the contract. Sure, they could win in litigation but how many companies literally want to make a federal case out of it vs complying for the sake of not rocking the boat?
Trump is currently in the phase where he is desperately trying to build a legacy. Hence all the trivial bullshit with monuments, renaming stuff, and what have you. He's terrified that once he's gone, he'll be gone and forgotten. Even said it himself - that if he doesn't do it now, nobody else will when he's gone.
Expect more of this. Wouldn't put it past him if he in Nov 2028 decides to rename a state after himself.
> Trump is currently in the phase where he is desperately trying to build a legacy
He probably knows he'll be quickly forgotten once people wake up and stop giving him oxygen. And how sad is it that he still has to work overtime at his age.
Nobody's going to care to name anything after him once he's gone. For a public figure of his stature, that's an incredible admission of failure. And of knowing he failed.
He won't be forgotten. He'll be studied in political science, psychology, criminal studies, history, economics, forever. His legacy will be simply be to join the list of people with narcissistic tendencies that should have never been given power.
The man is in his 80s. He doesn't look too healthy. The mind rots. They spent a lot of time pointing at Biden about this, but tbh they both belong in a care home.
I still think they should have duked it out behind the bleachers or whatever it was those geezer were rambling about one election cycle. I'd have bought the PPV even.
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[ 5.0 ms ] story [ 50.4 ms ] thread- The AI companies came to the White House to ask for legal protections and concessions, expecting a fight
- The Trump administration rolled over completely and wholeheartedly, and the companies were surprised how easily he did it and what (to them) sane positions he took
- Trump's earnest enthusiasm for AI looks really bad by association
- AI insiders are now seeding him with increasingly insane ideas in order to create distance from the "sane" positions the industry is taking
I'd much rather follow Heinlein's free thinking instead of Trump's dictatorialism, and Heinlein never requested followers, but there is a similar mechanism going on nevertheless.
Like people walk around with their pants around their knees because they see that thugs wear them like that and they dream about being thugs. Or people who call each other "bro".
These are also normally people who weight the style more than the substance.
Save reactions like this for users of incel-speak like *maxxing.
In reality what happened is that you saw other people, people that you like and admire, saying grok and you copied them. You're copying the superficialities thinking that makes you closer in substance. It's cargo cult science for people.
You have absolutely no way of knowing this.
> You're copying the superficialities thinking that makes you closer in substance.
Classic strawman.
> It's cargo cult science for people.
It could be, but it very well might not be.
We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50013882.
But OpenAI is the worst enemy because it's in their name. I would liken them to Iran or Cuba.
Well, this isn't a dictatorship, and I ain't playing along. I'll call it what I choose, not what I'm told.
When pressuring a witness, etc, the gangster will always end the intimidation with making the victim repeat whatever humiliating or farcical line the gangster wants to be the new reality. It's forcing a visible submission.
— Emmanuel Goldstein, The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism
The money finds him useful, and that manifests as plot armor essentially as the puppeteers exert their will on society.
I want to touch on the for decades thing too, but I think I'm at my run-on sentence limit. Hard agree, though. John Trump had his hands up the right asses to make that a reality. It's never been Don. He's a child king.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/kendalltaggart/trumps-l...
If that makes me his enemy, well, that's his choice.
Freedom is slavery.
And the self proclaimed free speech absolutist can’t brownnose fast enough.
Expect more of this. Wouldn't put it past him if he in Nov 2028 decides to rename a state after himself.
He probably knows he'll be quickly forgotten once people wake up and stop giving him oxygen. And how sad is it that he still has to work overtime at his age.
I still think they should have duked it out behind the bleachers or whatever it was those geezer were rambling about one election cycle. I'd have bought the PPV even.
October 4, 2026
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