this post was submitted on 17 Aug 2025
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Big brain tech dude got yet another clueless take over at HackerNews etc? Here's the place to vent. Orange site, VC foolishness, all welcome.

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For actually-good tech, you want our NotAwfulTech community

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Need to let loose a primal scream without collecting footnotes first? Have a sneer percolating in your system but not enough time/energy to make a whole post about it? Go forth and be mid: Welcome to the Stubsack, your first port of call for learning fresh Awful you’ll near-instantly regret.

Any awful.systems sub may be subsneered in this subthread, techtakes or no.

If your sneer seems higher quality than you thought, feel free to cut’n’paste it into its own post — there’s no quota for posting and the bar really isn’t that high.

The post Xitter web has spawned soo many “esoteric” right wing freaks, but there’s no appropriate sneer-space for them. I’m talking redscare-ish, reality challenged “culture critics” who write about everything but understand nothing. I’m talking about reply-guys who make the same 6 tweets about the same 3 subjects. They’re inescapable at this point, yet I don’t see them mocked (as much as they should be)

Like, there was one dude a while back who insisted that women couldn’t be surgeons because they didn’t believe in the moon or in stars? I think each and every one of these guys is uniquely fucked up and if I can’t escape them, I would love to sneer at them.

(Credit and/or blame to David Gerard for starting this.)

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[–] saucerwizard@awful.systems 15 points 2 weeks ago (27 children)

The usual suspects are mad about college hill’s expose of the yud/kelsey piper eugenics sex rp. Or something, I’m in bed and can’t be bothered to link at the moment.

[–] istewart@awful.systems 12 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

I'm sorry, we finally, officially need to cancel fantasy TTRPGs. If it's not the implicit racialization of everything, it's the use of the stat systems as a framework for literally masturbatory eugenics fetishization.

You all can keep a stripped-down version of Starfinder as a treat. But if I see any more of this, we're going all the way back to Star Wars d6 and that's final.

[–] scruiser@awful.systems 11 points 2 weeks ago

To be fair to DnD, it is actually more sophisticated than the IQ fetishists, it has 3 stats for mental traits instead of 1!

[–] swlabr@awful.systems 8 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

also: The int-maxxing and overinflated ego of it all reminds me of the red mage from 8-bit theater, a webcomic based on final fantasy about the LW (light warriors) that ran from 2001-2010

E: thinking back on it, reading this webcomic and seeing this character probably in some part inoculated me against people like yud without me knowing

[–] Soyweiser@awful.systems 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I never read 8bit. I read A Modest Destiny. Wonder how that guy is doing, he always was a bit weird and combative, but when he deleted his blog it was getting very early signs of right wing culture warrior bits (which was ironic considering he burned a us flag).

[–] swlabr@awful.systems 5 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Never read AMD (and shan't). The author's site appears to be live.

8BF's site has been taken over by bots, and I can't be bothered to find an alternate source. Dead internet go brrrrr. Otherwise, the creator, Brian Clevinger, appears to have had a long career in comics, and has written many things for Marvel.

[–] BlueMonday1984@awful.systems 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

8BF’s site has been taken over by bots, and I can’t be bothered to find an alternate source.

You can find it directly on Brian Clevinger's blog, Nuklear Power. Here's a direct link to the archive.

[–] swlabr@awful.systems 4 points 1 week ago

Ah thanks! On mobile the main page gets redirected to spam, but the site is navigable from the archive.

[–] Soyweiser@awful.systems 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Yeah, but he used to have forums, and then a blog, and then no blog and then a blog again, and then a hidden blog etc. Think Howard has only a few minor credits on some games, he always came off as a bit of a weirdly combative nerd who thought he was right and the smartest in the room and didn't get that people didn't agree with his definitions/assumptions. He is a big idea guy for example. One of his comics was also called 'the atheist, the agnostic and the asshole' so yeah. The 00's online comic world was something.

[–] swlabr@awful.systems 6 points 1 week ago

has only a few minor credits[…], he always came off as a bit of a weirdly combative nerd who thought he was right and the smartest in the room and didn’t get that people didn’t agree with his definitions/assumptions. He is a big idea guy for example.

gosh i’m sure glad that these kinds of people disappeared from the internet /s

[–] swlabr@awful.systems 7 points 2 weeks ago

Anyone found with a non-cube platonic solid will be lockerized indefinitely

[–] jonhendry@iosdev.space 6 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

@istewart

I would simply learn how to keep "games" and "reality" separate. I actually already know. It helps a lot.

Racists are gonna racist no matter what. They didn't need TTRPGs around to give them the idea of breaking out the calipers.

[–] Soyweiser@awful.systems 6 points 1 week ago

Yes but basic dnd does have a lot of racism build in, esp with Gygax not being great on that end (nits make lice he said about how it lawful for paladins to kill orc babies). They did drop the sexism pretty quickly, but no big suprise his daughters were not into it. It certainly helps with the whole hierarchical mindset. My int/level is higher than yours so im better than you stuff. And sadly a lot of people do have trouble keeping both seperate (and even that isn't always ideal, esp in larps).

But yes this, considering the context ks def a bit of a case of some of their ideologies, or ideological fantasies bleeding through. (Esp considering, Yud has been corrected on his faulty understanding of genetics before).

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