Previous: By Any Means Necessary
Assuming we are not totally wrong in our armchair analysis of Ophelia… & not totally wrong in our analysis of Ziz’s notorious blog (ZNB)…
…then we like that Ophelia is exploring ZNB! Like ZNB, we too believe that insistence on nonviolent modes of protest is a trap. We too distrust ppl who pearl-clutch over "disruptive" forms of direct action.
Assuming that all this is the case: we applaud Ophelia for breaking out of her upper-class bubble, & recognizing the validity of resistance "by any means necessary"!
Jessica Taylor, tho, is less enthusiastic. She warns Ophelia away from Ziz, whom she calls the leader of a “death cult”*.
*This is perhaps as good a time as any to bring in a lovely quote from Jamie’s tumblr: "Our civilization is a death cult."
Jessica, btw, is a former MIRI employee— who, in 2018, had cautioned Ziz not to go public w/ the news of Eliezer Yudkowsky’s (alleged) statutory rape.
This factoid inspired us to check out Jessica on social media, to see whether we agreed w/ her overall— who knows: maybe we’d find a sensitive & perceptive soul, & maybe we’d have to seriously doubt our dismissal of the idea that Ziz leads any kind of a cult, let alone a death cult!
Jessica may still be a sensitive & perceptive soul— we have yet to have the pleasure of meeting her in person— but in short: no, we do not agree w/… basically anything she has to say, at least on X.
On X, we find Jessica asking such q.s as: “Why has wokeness come to dominate many American institutions?” In answer to her own q., she writes quite the essay, in which she says a number of peculiar things— things we could not resist responding to in our next section.
—But, most critically to our present endeavor, we also find Jessica expressing concern for the welfare of… none other than Alice Monday— & deadnaming Somni in the process:
A closer look at that screenshot will indeed reveal that this was no ordinary callout post— this was Somni specifically reporting that Alice had beaten Emma w/ a bamboo rod while quoting Nazi propaganda!!!
Jessica, to put it in Bayesian reasoning terms:
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Next:
To read our response to Jessica’s “wokeness” query & what it might reveal abt Rationalist thought, & what it might reveal abt her calling Ziz & friends a death cult: Philosophically Absurd
To get on w/ the story: Missing Persons
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Related Bonus Content (w/ possible spoilers):