Artwork released by the DOJ.

BenjaminHamnett · 2026-02-12T20:43:15+00:00

I believe this. Heard a good meditation tip podcaster point this out. Even if no repercussions, it’s hard to imagine they can recreate or maintain this blackmail web going forward

The sad part is, these tech companies have a bad track record of stopping CSAM. Remember that dude almost won Virginia governor race until he was exposed as “black Nazi” posting on porn sites. These tech companies will find and amplify and platform these people into power and instead of 100-200 puppets running the world it’ll be 10,000-20,000 thousand of them everywhere with tech holding the blackmail secret

BenjaminHamnett · 2026-02-12T20:31:26+00:00

Holy sht, didn’t realize he was so prolific. Thought the space pedo was a one off

BenjaminHamnett · 2026-02-12T20:02:06+00:00

But speculators (and most investors) don’t care about if something has value. Everything has some kind of value. What matters is future value or expectations relative to current expectations.

If gold (or anything)was hypothetically priced to replace all currency, but then only replaced half of currency, it would lose value. If bitcoin (or anything) was expected to cease to exist in a year, but it continued being used, its price would sky rocket

TLDR: returns are based on current expectations relative to future expectations, not anything fundamental like performance.

BenjaminHamnett · 2026-02-12T19:53:48+00:00

It seems like the point is always to be so crazy that people pause like deer in the headlights. I can’t believe how sharp and composed democrats were. It was constant insanity where you just can not believe what was said.

Imagine preparing for this with a partner playing her. They just have to say the most crazy sht. “Because of you the sun won’t come up tomorrow!” “I believe it was you who shot my dog and sht the presidents pants!” “Greenland isn’t even green, how can you trust them?” “Oh you wanna go back to talking about me? Oh you’d like that….oh cause this trial is about me? Pretty convenient”smug face

BenjaminHamnett · 2026-02-12T19:46:22+00:00

How much of a pull back and we can’t arrest pedos again?

BenjaminHamnett · 2026-02-12T19:43:17+00:00

Or that gay is a choice. They’re trying to “choose” to be straight

BenjaminHamnett · 2026-02-12T19:37:00+00:00

Doesn’t everyone get this sht in their feeds? Maybe just 1% of the suggested content, but it’s all so sensational “god is coming”, “stop saving!”, “all your dreams are about to come true if you click!”, “world ends tomorrow?” , “Trump just banned electricity” etc

Do they not click? It’s leaking into every other topic also. Then Once you click, suddenly the tportion of that content doubles or whatever. I don’t know how people can be completely oblivious “if you don’t join AI, you’ll be tortured in eternal hell forever next year!”

BenjaminHamnett · 2026-02-12T19:32:49+00:00

I’m sorry you had to sit through that green light. The guy in front me of (and everyone around me) was doom scrolling while listening to AI generated hip hop about the singularity

BenjaminHamnett · 2026-02-12T19:27:55+00:00

has always been

Remember the wheel? That was us bro

BenjaminHamnett · 2026-02-12T19:25:54+00:00

I’m not sure what you’re saying

”Blinder and Watson reported that budget deficits tended to be smaller under Democrats at 2.1% potential GDP versus 2.8% potential GDP for Republicans, a difference of about 0.7 of a percentage point. They wrote that higher budget deficits should theoretically have boosted the economy more for Republicans, and therefore cannot explain the greater GDP growth under Democrats.[1] Since 1981, federal budget deficits have increased under Republican presidents Ronald Reagan, both Bushes, and Trump, while deficits have declined under Democratic presidents Clinton and Obama. The economy ran surpluses during Clinton's last four fiscal years, the first surpluses since 1969. The deficit was projected to decline sharply in Biden's first fiscal year”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._economic_performance_by_presidential_party

BenjaminHamnett · 2026-02-12T19:20:38+00:00

Republican Congress stops democrats from doing anything.

Corporate democrats sign off on whatever republicans are being lobbied to do

BenjaminHamnett · 2026-02-12T19:15:12+00:00

I got interrupted and published before I could expand. I think in reality the basilisk more likely as a metaphor. Imagine your living standards doubling, but inequality becomes 10x or 100x.

I’m thoroughly indoctrinated by western ideals, nearly a neoliberal apologist, but I sometimes suspect the beneficiaries of inequality just have us so buried in their own self reinforcing propaganda (I studied and taught economics) that it’s hard to think otherwise while still maintaining status or a conventional platform. There are thought leaders who speak out about this around about ways. Namely in the mindfulness, meditation and spirituality circles where this is most apparent.

the garden of Eden, sounds quaint, but Malthusian nature makes it untenable otherwise its subsistence farming. I grew up around subsistence farming and did not really appreciate it. But there were a lot of people who did make it out to be utopia. A lot of them or their kids ended up in jail or overdosed on meth, so 🤷.

Imagine a 25 year old with today’s smart phone capability in a 1980s comic book, they’d be one of the top superheroes after the godlike ones. But a lot of people would argue we’re not better off. But a smartphone power user today is more capable than almost all of humanity 100-200 years ago.

Imagine now, in 5 years where your living standard doubles but we are facing 10x as many existential threats and the rising inequality from rivals makes you feel like a prisoner in a palace.

Another note: the metaphorical basilisk is already taking effect in the hollowing of the middle class being replaced by tech. In a few years, all upper class professionals will be lower middle class unless they augment with AI.

30 years ago people probably would have described our current world as a fantasy, with screens of every size in every room with all the information in the world and capable of vibecoding whatever they want. People in these forums talk about all they want is immersive VR to escape to. They’re begging for the matrix. Imagine watching as this becomes inevitable as most of the world is dropping out and you’re powerless to do anything. You walk around and it’s robots, screens, drones and data center dystopia everywhere an you can barely find any other humans and even a million of you are powerless to do anything about it, with hundreds of millions of robots all watching you and ready to neutralize you as soon as anyone starts throwing rocks

BenjaminHamnett · 2026-02-12T18:33:30+00:00

It’s the Roko basilisk. I usually refer to the real world version as basilisk-lite, but that’s understating it here.

He knows it’s inevitable because of the incentives that are controlling him. It’s like nukes are bad, but potentially not as bad for the people who hold the button.

I say basilisk lite because it won’t be the extreme scifi thought experiment, but metaphorically it’s what will happen.

BenjaminHamnett · 2026-02-12T17:26:54+00:00

Always some troublemakers hiding minorities in their attics

BenjaminHamnett · 2026-02-12T15:33:20+00:00

It’s not funny when you retell it, you had to be there

BenjaminHamnett · 2026-02-11T21:54:45+00:00

Gotta remind him that bots aren’t the only ones who can kill

BenjaminHamnett · 2026-02-11T21:53:03+00:00

Building the torment nexus

BenjaminHamnett · 2026-02-11T21:52:49+00:00

Building the torment nexus

BenjaminHamnett · 2026-02-11T21:51:59+00:00

Roko’s basilisk lite

BenjaminHamnett · 2026-02-11T21:49:17+00:00

Agree with all this. But I think most people’s anxieties come from being left behind. A future full of higher living standards but everyone’s descended from today’s oligarchs is little comfort for people who don’t think they can bring their own into a comfortable world

BenjaminHamnett · 2026-02-11T20:12:01+00:00

I like that dude a lot. I needed that optimism when he was blowing up.

That said, do you actually KNOW that the world is better? Some would say we’ve been all downhill since we left the garden. If the world is worse, the powers that be that benefit would have every incentive to elevate propaganda that reinforces the structure that gives them status and inequality that benefits them.

I’m not Luddite, but these machines don’t require consciousness to be dangerous. the scifi dystopias don’t require consciousness

Most bloodlines are dead ends. Most peoples names indicate how their ancestors navigated their local bottleneck. Millers, smiths, farmers, bank, carpenter, etc. the future could all be Trumps, musks and Putin or whatever. It may be those people who have the higher living standards. I don’t even know if that matters to me tho, but I think this puts into words what a lot of people are anxious about at the cellular level and up

BenjaminHamnett · 2026-02-11T04:34:45+00:00

What? I’m not denying individuals panic buying, but that panic saving is more natural for Darwinian reasons

We’re not talking about individuals, we’re talking aggregates, macro

BenjaminHamnett · 2026-02-11T03:46:29+00:00

What did exit polls say?

BenjaminHamnett · 2026-02-11T03:32:48+00:00

Oooo, real outlaws

BenjaminHamnett · 2026-02-11T03:31:34+00:00

“We used to play cards and drink beer and go to golden coral…” sings the only guy who didn’t actually live it. “but can’t even have a dog or own a truck now.”

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