Previous: Cruel & Unusual
Time to introduce 2 new characters: Milo Youngblut* (L) and Ophelia Bauckholt (R).
*The conservative media have been aflame w/ indignation that Milo (according to them) has chosen the name Milo, & (also according to them) that Milo uses neopronouns. We have yet to hear directly from Milo on this topic, but don’t want to risk deadnaming xim & so will be using both “Milo” & xier said-to-be-preferred pronouns, unless & until new info comes to light.
Milo is a graduate of Seattle's prestigious Lakeside School, & of the U. of Washington, where xie studied Computer Science. Xie’s described by classmates as "rather quiet, reserved", & as seeming "incredibly harmless." Xie- like Ophelia- travels in Rationalist circles.
Ophelia is a German "math whiz" & graduate from the U. of Waterloo. She's interned on Wall Street, & is, at the time of this story, making over half-a-million-$ a year as a NY quant trader!
She's described by one friend as a "friendly nerd" who hosts Discord discussion channels; yet another friend describes her as “bubbly”. Her roommate describes her as "the glue of our friend group"- their apartment is this group's "gathering place".
The West-coast exploits of Ziz never come up b/w Ophelia & her NY friends— why would they? But, in 2022, Ophelia meets Jessica Taylor, a Rationalist from Berkeley. They start hanging out, & it becomes clear to Jessica that Ophelia is "enthralled" w/ certain “Zizian” tenants.
Namely, Ophelia likes Ziz's emphasis on veganism & altruism.
She is (as Ziz once was) deep in the world of “Effective Altruism”*.
*Effective Altruism (EA) is the idea of using evidence & reason to figure out the most effective ways to help others. It sounds great, but unfortunately tends to dovetail in w/ the world of Rationalism, where the “most effective way to help others” is often interpreted as, “giving $$$ to Rationalist orgs like MIRI, to aid in their fight against demonic AI”.
Ziz, on her blog, has critiqued EA for a certain pie-in-the-sky approach to “helpfulness”, & has further critiqued the Rationalists as having little interest for “altruism” as we common ppl would define it. She has, chez the Rationalists, described convos in which ppl “insisted that actual altruism was unimportant and basically… the optimal selfish thing to do is the optimal altruistic thing to do.”
Perhaps Ophelia can recall such convos among her own Rationalist acquaintances, & perhaps she resonates w/ Ziz’s observations— ex., that “Most Effective Altruists [don’t] seem to care about doing the most good.”
—Bc for her part, Ophelia is quite genuinely altruistic! She spends only 10% of her half-million-$ income on herself: the rest goes to charity, for things like anti-malarial initiatives. She writes stuff like this on her FB:
If you too are earning more money than you'll need, I urge you to consider giving some of it away to cost-effective charities as well.
She seems like a sweet girl!
Ophelia also isn't fazed by Ziz's (alleged) emphasis on "retribution". She tells Jessica that she agrees w/ the "importance of retribution under some circumstances".
…We say “alleged” bc we have searched all 4 pages of Ziz’s blog, & have found no hits for the word “retribution”. We therefore rather suspect this word is Jessica’s interpretation of whichever term(s) Ophelia really used.
While we cannot say for sure what Ziz might have to say wrt to the somewhat ominous word “retribution”, we can refer to one zpost (Ziz post) which seems highly relevant.
This ~notorious~ post, from Feb. 2019 (before the protest, & long before the pile-on) is called “Punching Evil”— & it caused no small amount of pearl-clutching among our Rationalists, who (revealingly?) seemed to infer that “evil” was referring to them, while the promised “punching” would be delivered by Ziz.
In fact, in this post, Ziz never mentions the Rationalists, & instead uses Nazis as a salient example of “evil actors” which, she asserts, ppl have a moral imperative to resist— including, if it comes to it, thru extralegal means.
We have no doubt that Ophelia, “enthralled” as she was by Ziz’s writings, & Jessica, immersed as she was in Rationalist pearl-clutching, would both have been familiar (perhaps superficially in the latter case) w/ this notorious post.
Let’s therefore take a sec to look it over & deduce: how might Ziz— &, by extension, Ophelia— be thinking abt that oh-so-loaded concept “retribution”?
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Next:
For musings on "retribution" chez Ziz, & on what Ophelia might see in this: By Any Means Necessary
To get on w/ the story: Who's a Death Cult?
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Related Bonus Content (w/ possible spoilers):