Very good piece! I kinda lost you a couple of months ago when the writing became extremely long and self referential, but your latest pieces are 🔥
Very recognizable btw - for me it was Middle Eastern girls. However, this combined with a genuine interest in ME cultures, being able to cook the food well, having lived in Dubai and KSA just made me legible as the “Middle East guy”, which also lowkey made me get away with tax evasion, working in oil and gas and espousing reactionary politics.
Comes with a price though, cause after October 7 I sort of had to become Pro-Palestine to make the story work. That was not cynical, but a semi-conscious attractor.
I'd always thought that people tended to pick status (and romance) contests they could win--but you turned that observation into art.
(I would add with the East Asian nerd wives there was a cultural valuing of scholarship that doesn't exist in the West and probably stems (hah) from the examination system.)
And the ultimate test is, of course, is the cope adaptive or maladaptive--motion or decay, as you put it?
I'd be interested to hear you speculate about the impact of transformative AI on status economics. How much of the chiliasty do you buy, and how do you see it all shaking out? If a superintelligence were to try to settle everyone's status hunger at the same time in a way aesthetically and morally acceptable to all, would that be possible even in principle?
Disgustingly high IQ writing.
Very good piece! I kinda lost you a couple of months ago when the writing became extremely long and self referential, but your latest pieces are 🔥
Very recognizable btw - for me it was Middle Eastern girls. However, this combined with a genuine interest in ME cultures, being able to cook the food well, having lived in Dubai and KSA just made me legible as the “Middle East guy”, which also lowkey made me get away with tax evasion, working in oil and gas and espousing reactionary politics.
Comes with a price though, cause after October 7 I sort of had to become Pro-Palestine to make the story work. That was not cynical, but a semi-conscious attractor.
This piece smells good
Very well done.
I'd always thought that people tended to pick status (and romance) contests they could win--but you turned that observation into art.
(I would add with the East Asian nerd wives there was a cultural valuing of scholarship that doesn't exist in the West and probably stems (hah) from the examination system.)
And the ultimate test is, of course, is the cope adaptive or maladaptive--motion or decay, as you put it?
I'd be interested to hear you speculate about the impact of transformative AI on status economics. How much of the chiliasty do you buy, and how do you see it all shaking out? If a superintelligence were to try to settle everyone's status hunger at the same time in a way aesthetically and morally acceptable to all, would that be possible even in principle?
Legend, tbh
ur so smart! do u have a girlfriend?
dm feet
https://www.waltbismarck.com/p/zoomer-boys-and-stealth-archer-masculinity
https://www.waltbismarck.com/p/millennial-matrons-latchkey-crones
https://www.waltbismarck.com/p/the-great-unbinding
https://www.waltbismarck.com/p/generations-done-right
Prob will enjoy these