fubarobfusco comments on Open Thread, November 1-15, 2012 - Less Wrong

4 Post author: OpenThreadGuy 02 November 2012 02:11AM

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Comment author: [deleted] 07 November 2012 10:27:31PM *  5 points [-]

Reactionary Rationalist Plotting, Advice Requested

I'm an atheist that lives in Slovenia a mostly secular place with a cosy social democracy yet I'm also a young no income white male and seeing some deeply disturbing kinds of language among the cool set referring to my demographic. Seems pretty stage three-ish by Stanton's scale. I'm quit sure my country will import them in a matter of a few years because we've had rapid cultural convergence with US norms after the fall of Communism. I'm also quite certain at this point that there is a real risk about 0.05 to 0.1 for some rather nasty outcomes in just a few decades.

Not to imply this is me resenting cultural imperialism or something, we would have inevitably gotten there too on our own, I blame silly forager morality and signaling games attached to it that have been unleashed by material prosperity. To make a short argument for my concerns market dominant minorities and democracies are not happy combinations. Minorities that do well economically end up targets of irrational hate. The memetic core for scapegoating for various problems that will only grow worse is clearly there and unlikely to be opposed strongly by any institution I'm aware of.

Being from the former Yugoslavia I have very little confidence Western Europe is going to be a pleasant place in a few decades since its economies probably won't ever really recover. The fundamentals are rotten, the political system incapable of reform. That and competing tribes coexisting tightly when the economy is bad is a major sign of bad news for me. Technological progress may keep them afloat with 1 to 2 or even 3 percent GDP growth but they won't ever be centers of innovation and will be ever more outshines by other parts of the world. The welfare states there are also unsustainable because of aging.

I'm thinking to teach my children & grandchildren to not be too attached to any particular country and be ready to move at the drop of a hat. Maybe even try to set up a viable subculture around that. I'm thinking Cyber Gypsies or some economic/cultural niche like that. The settled alternative is probably the machete.

Maybe move to the US while there is still some money to be made and then perhaps go to Singapore before it becomes a democracy. Maybe stay there at that point but I have a feeling it will go downhill pretty rapidly. Maybe South Korea? It will be a downgrade from Singapore certainly but its been opening up its borders so immigration there should be easier by them. Also it is going to take several decades for it to be fucked up to European levels by forager morality so that seems an ok place to go.

Comment author: fubarobfusco 07 November 2012 10:45:08PM *  1 point [-]

I'm an atheist that lives in Slovenia a mostly secular place with a cosy social democracy yet I'm also a young no income white male and seeing some deeply disturbing kinds of language among the cool set with regards referring to my demographic.

Sorry, could you be more explicit here? It sounds like you may be talking around a topic that you think is obvious, but that may be illusion of transparency.

Comment author: NMJablonski 07 November 2012 10:53:35PM *  8 points [-]

Konkvistador is a concerned Tutsi living in a politico-cultural regime which seems increasingly pleased at the prospect of watching Hutus eat Tutsis.

Comment author: Emile 08 November 2012 07:32:08PM *  2 points [-]

I'm supposing he's a croat or serb - see some discussion here for context on stereotypes and politics and faction (also maybe here, though that's more about the position of Slovenia and Croatia vis a vis the rest of Yugoslavia).

(Konkvistador, plays say so if you don't want people publicly speculating about you)