Aphorisms from Twitter

On Deontology

Authoritarian intuitions assume deontology must mean a list of sternly worded "thou shalt (not)"s. But autonomously doing things because they're the right thing to do is liberating and pleasant.

On Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

CBT is straightforwardly authoritarian-rationalist self-gaslighting: The treatment consists of persuading the patient that some of their thoughts are erroneous, but standard diagnostic criteria don't involve investigating whether the patient's thoughts are erroneous.

On Rent

Landlords are tax farmers. Tax farming can be stressful and difficult work.

On Victims

We observe controversy about the most central of the things being suppressed, not the most marginal. In the long run, what matters is the procedure, not the immediate outcome.

On Pyramid Schemes

Pyramid schemes structurally have to exclude some people, namely, whoever doesn't like pyramid schemes - so they can't be universally inclusive, some would just prefer for everyone to want to join them, and don't discriminate on any other grounds.

On Jobs

The three basic job types in contemporary America:

  • Concentration Camp Guard
  • Rent-Seeking Cultist
  • Laborer

On Faith

My religio-epistemology: long logos, short faith.

Faith, or nonspecific "confidence," is the root of all pyramid schemes & fundamentally violent, but anything involving the mind really can't happen without participation in logos as a firm foundation.

2 thoughts on “Aphorisms from Twitter

    1. Benquo Post author

      Worth disambiguating: The broader importance of what you do is often unrelated to the causal process by which you get paid. And there are sometimes hybridized circumstances.

      Reply

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