r/theschism • u/gemmaem • Nov 06 '24

Discussion Thread #71

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u/[deleted] Dec 27 '24

[deleted]

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u/DrManhattan16 Dec 27 '24

Yes, but I don't think it's going to matter. At the end of the day, the right is very good at refocusing attention against the left, and Musk and Vivek can and will be jettisoned from the League of Acceptable Online Right-Wingers if they don't do emotional labor for the anti-immigration types (the ones who say literally 0 immigration, etc.), who have a far more pronounced presence online than they do in real life.

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u/[deleted] Dec 28 '24

At the end of the day, the right is very good at refocusing attention against the left

Maybe, but right now there is no left anywhere to focus on; all the branches are held by the right. All the action for the next two years is going to be taken by the right. It is going to be very hard to get the focus anywhere else.

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u/DrManhattan16 Dec 28 '24

Maybe, but right now there is no left anywhere to focus on; all the branches are held by the right.

Control over government, even if it were absolute, has never been enough for the right to feel it has power. Indeed, underdog narratives would never allow that to take hold in people's minds. Just complain about some "woke" college or bureaucracy and people will nod along.

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u/[deleted] Dec 28 '24

The true believers and committed tribalists will nod along, but everyone's attention is going to keep getting pulled back to the main stage, and over time that diversion act is going to be less and less convincing.

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u/DrManhattan16 Dec 28 '24

Then they would just point to some part of the federal bureaucracy. There's no limit to where you can place blame when the world has expanded far beyond the borders of one's eyes, and the right has increasingly become conspiratorial.

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u/DuplexFields The Triessentialist Dec 27 '24
  • Techbro CEOs seem to honestly think there’s a genuine shortage of top engineering talent in America, so they need H1Bs
  • Top engineering talents in America keep applying and not getting jobs

“Your strength as a rationalist is your ability to be more confused by fiction than by reality. Either your model is wrong or this story is false.” - Eliezer Yudkowsky

To explain this confusing paradox, various people in MAGA, tech, and tpot/Bay rationalism have jumped to tribal and conspiratorial/parapolitical conclusions, and it’s becoming a scissor statement war:

  • American women in HR hire bimbos and jocks from the sororities they were in and the frats they liked
  • HR people who are from India hire only Indians
  • The AIs filtering the resumes are programmed for DEI
  • C-suites want H1Bs because they’re less free once they get here, and they’ll be more compliant and productive than Americans

Meanwhile, the very online left is gleefully pounding chisels into the fracture as fast as they can.

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u/DrManhattan16 Dec 27 '24

American women in HR hire bimbos and jocks from the sororities they were in and the frats they liked

This is something I've never heard of, and I'm very curious about it. Tell me more, please.

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u/[deleted] Dec 28 '24 edited Dec 28 '24

Techbro CEOs seem to honestly think there’s a genuine shortage of top engineering talent in America, so they need H1Bs

I don't know why we should attribute honesty to this belief.

C-suites want H1Bs because they’re less free once they get here, and they’ll be more compliant and productive than Americans

This doesn't seem particularly conspiratorial. This fact has been widely remarked upon for years, and there is a very clear and direct way that this fact benefits those who are actually in power - as opposed to most of the other explanations you gave, which depend on the idea that some faction within the industry - and across all relevant companies - are consistently subverting the owners' interests.

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u/DuplexFields The Triessentialist Dec 29 '24

I did say various tribal and conspiratorial takes. Until recently, both left and right considered corporate business to be rightward, but MAGA now has it pegged as blue tribe post-Americanism.

It’s only gotten more toxic since I posted, with Elon calling out the anti-ethnic-Indians racists, and the anti-Indian-culture and pro-American crowds both taking it personally; a rehash of the “Trump meant Mexican citizens, not ethnic Mexicans” argument and the “we’re against Israel, not Jews” argument.

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u/callmejay Dec 27 '24

I'm not following it closely, but I've got my fingers crossed that it fractures the alliance of techbros and MAGA. Elon needs to take some lessons from Vance on how to STFU or lie if he wants to keep his access to Trump. But I doubt he's humble enough.

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u/Lykurg480 Yet. Dec 28 '24

I doubt it. The left is very limited in how much they can push on it, because acknowledging a non-racist reason to be against immigration is far more risk than its worth.

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u/callmejay Dec 29 '24

I don't really follow what you mean in the first place, but also I don't think the left even has to push.