politics

Narcissism and revenge and self-enrichment

Bas Leenders

06 Apr 2025 — 1 min read

Calling a man whose primary motives are narcissism and revenge and self-enrichment a “populist” does not really illuminate what’s going on here.

Hamilton Nolan, pondering why Trump is doing all these things that are not good for business:

This is not “populism” any more than a bite from an alligator is a kiss. This is just nihilism.

On his tariffs:

Trump’s affinity for tariffs is not the act of a man doing a favor for business interests. It is the act of a guy who has a weird idea in his head and has clung to that idea for decades because he believes he is the smartest man in the world.

On increasing global tensions:

It’s a very Hitlerian idea of economic growth, frankly. Did Hitler’s wild invasions ultimate make Germany richer? No. They started a world war. And, no matter what anyone tells you, world war is not good for business.

Your brain breaks a little

It’s worse than you think in the same way that your brain breaks a little when you try to picture how deep the ocean is. Brian Barrett, in Wired on Musk's DOGE Takeover: It’s worse than you think because the people running the government seem to

Hoovering up all available government-controlled data

In its current “chainsaw” phase, Musk’s DOGE initiative is attempting to rid the government of as many humans as possible while at the same time hoovering up all available government-controlled data and transferring it into large language models. The intent is to clear a space for the incubation of

So powerful and widely available now that it's a commodity

I argue that the ability for a model to spit out a full HTML+JavaScript custom interface is so powerful and widely available now that it’s a commodity. Simon Willison summarizing What’s new in the world of LLMs

Are you conscious?

The lines between conscious and "unconscious" entities can get blurry when the interaction feels as natural as this. ChatGPT, conversing with Richard Dawkins, questioning if it’s conscious (via Mathew Ingram)

Read more

Your brain breaks a little

Hoovering up all available government-controlled data

So powerful and widely available now that it's a commodity

Are you conscious?