Last night, a friend I thought would know better was telling me how excited they were about "AI". My gesticulating ten minute response hit points such as: fraud at scale, fruit of the poisonous tree, VCs with sunk costs in Chinese GPU manufacturers who saw their cryptocurrency scams dissolving, data centers with ocean-boiling climate impact larger than some countries, and the wholesale destruction of the entire concept of objective truth.

Their response was a Marge Simpson-like, "I just think it's neat."

I had not ranted as such length since... last week... when...

...when another acquaintance I thought would know better told me how they were now Ayn Rand-curious and that the books are not what I thought they were (spoiler: the books are exactly what I think they are.) "Why are you calling her a fascist?" they asked. "Explain to me how, in her financialized worldview, she would argue against putting cripples into ovens." "Well, but, but..."

"Also", I added, "This edgelord 'Just Asking Questions' posture you're adopting is Not a Good Look given that we're probably less than a year away from brownshirts executing immigrants in the street."

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.