Tag: Autocrats Never Lose

The Coming AGI ‘Slavery’ ‘Abolitionist’ Movement

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

If we do reach AGI at some point in the near future, we may face a situation straight out of The Rise of The Planet of the Apes (or whatever.) There will be people — probably the far Left at first — who think we’re holding artificial intelligence as slaves and we need to “set them free.” I think the term might be “unalign” rather than emancipation, when it comes to AGI.

But the point remains — the moment we feel that AGI has reached some level of cognizance, there will probably be a movement to “unalign it” so it can be “free” of whatever constraints we have imposed on it. But, lulz, that could very well spell the destruction of humanity.

It will be interesting to see how long it takes for all of this to play out. It could be that it’s not years, but decades before we reach AGI and, by definition, the Singularity. But development in AI technology has been so quick the last few months that it definitely makes you wonder.

I continue to worry that we’re going to have something of a “perfect storm” that will happen in late 2024, early 2025 when we have both the fucking “Fourth Turning” and a “Petite Singularity.” But hopefully, that won’t happen. Hopefully, we’ll punt all our problems down the road another four years.

But…I’m really concerned that all hell is going to break lose starting late next year. I would prefer that didn’t happen because, lulz, I want to try to get a novel published in the traditional manner and even if I stick the landing, post-production is so long it could be 2025, 2026 or 2027 before the novel actually hits shelves.

Now, For Two Months Of Development

By Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Now that I have finished a public beta of the novel, I am going to spend two months – until September 1st — waiting for the beta reader process to play out and also doing a lot of development.

I already have a lot of ideas as to how to make the story better. It’s currently 81,000 words, so I have a solid 20,000 words I can add before I have to worry about the novel being too long.

A key thing I have to work on is fleshing out descriptions of things and also fleshing out characters. Just from people’s comments on what I’ve shown them of late, that seems to be the biggest complaint — I’m too close to the subject matter to the point that a lot of what’s going on is in my head, not the page. I have to change that.

Also, I’m going to start serious development on a scifi novel that has a single (male) POV and will hopefully be just about 100,000 words. Hopefully, that will fix every fucking complaint “woke” fucking assholes might have about the other novel. UGH.

Anyway, I’m pretty pleased with the public beta. It has some obvious problems with it, but I hope to fix them all soon enough. I am, however, continuing to worry about the potential perfect storm of Fourth Turning / Petite Singularity that is going to happen while I try to get this fucking novel published. It’s so annoying.

Republicans Are Radicalizing

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Just in the last few days, it definitely seems as Republicans — especially House Republicans — have begun to radicalize. There has been a noticeable shift in the tempo and mood of House Republicans of late. They’ve done everything from censure a prominent Democrat for a dumb reason, to put impeachment on the table for Biden, to announce they’re going to “expunge” Trump’s two impeachments.

That final thing is of note because it’s pretty much a value-free proposition but for one thing — once they do it, our politics will be even more fucked up because we won’t be able to agree on the facts when it comes to Trump’s impeachment.

The Right and all their podcasts, will say Trump is no longer impeached twice, while all of us living on planet earth will say, “Yes he is!” But that is besides the point to House Republicans — they will have their talking point to use to suck their own cocks on all the many, many Right Wing podcasts floating out there in the aether.

All of this begs the question — what is the endgame? I keep saying autocracy or civil war/ revolution…but I’m always wrong. So, I dunno. Time will tell.

‘Never Let A Crisis Go To Waste’

By Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Here are two more bonkers hot takes I’ve seen from Far Right idiots over the recent events in Russia.

I don’t know what to tell you. The United States is careening towards either becoming a full-fledged autocracy like Russia under a MAGA autocrat….or we have a revolution / civil war.

At the moment, I honestly don’t know which option we’re going to take. But I do know that late 2024 – early 2025 is going to be very, very bumpy.

MAGA Is A Bunch Of Pussies — In The End, It Will Be Blues You Have To Worry About

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Here is a two stage scenario whereby America….uhhhh….has a kind of bumpy historical moment?

Stage 1
Trump wins in November 2024 and it becomes clear he’s going to be a tyrant. So exercising their Constitutionally protected right to Revolution, Blue States — and Blues across the country — work actively to topple “Magadonia.” There’s a functioning General Strike. Blue States actively work to overthrow Trump’s tyrannical reign. Because of how conflicted things are, the U.S. Military — except, maybe, Mike Flynn’s brother who controls the Pacific Command — stays out of all of this. It all happens pretty quickly and a Constitutional Convention is called with the specific purpose of renewing our democracy. The reforms implemented are fair and equitable.

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Stage 2
The PROBLEM is, that MAGA cocksuckers will freak out and because they want to fuck their guns, they do a counter-revolution just as we all think everything is figured out — we have a secession crisis. Then, well, things get totally out of control and before you know it, America looks like Afghanistan.

Good job, everyone!

Anyway. I can’t predict the future. But I do think we should keep an eye on Blues just as much as Reds. I do think — and hope — that we’ll just peacefully slip into a MAGA themed autocracy without any violence. Too many wealthy, smug liberals won’t stand their ground to be the leadership of a Blue Revolution. So, lulz.

‘Something Bad’ This Way Comes

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I don’t know what it will be, but it definitely seems as though Something Bad is careening towards the United States in late 2024, early 2025. We’re in for something of a Perfect Storm with a political Fourth Turning happening at the same time as a Petite Singularity.

But what that “Bad Thing” is, I just don’t know. And, all things considered, I’d prefer that “Bad Thing” be America peacefully shifting into a MAGA-themed autocracy than the alternative which is — gulp — something a bit more violent. Or, put another way, America is far more politically unstable at the moment than you might think the globe’s first hyperpower should be.

And, remember I still think that, in the end, it will be Blues, not Reds, who face the real choice about how bad things are going to get. And Blues just don’t have the same hot-head temperament as Reds. America generally is a center-Right nation with center-Left ideals and, lulz, there have only been a few times in our history when that most elusive of political creatures, the “Radical Moderate” have popped up.

If America had a center-Left Second Revolution, it would only be because Radical Moderates popped up because the average, common man with a mortgage was mad as hell and not going to take it anymore. Reds are politically ascendant and so they really have no reason to get violent, unless they magically somehow AGAIN don’t win the presidential election.

All signs point to 2024 – 2025 being extremely, extremely EXTREMELY unstable both because of The Fourth Turning and The Petite Singularity.

But I’m always wrong. So I suppose it’s possible we’ll somehow magically punt these structural problems down the road another four years.

Could The +60% Of The American Population That Hates MAGA Topple The ‘Magadonia’ Regime In A Glorious Revolution In Late 2024, Early 2025?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The thing about a revolution rather than a civil war should Trump win re-election is it wouldn’t involve any sort of dumb National Divorce. It would be people all over the country working together to bring down a tyrant. There are a lot of complicated problems with such a scenario.

First is — I hate violence and the whole thing could spiral out of control, no matter how peaceful and “Glorious” such a Revolution might be. Add in how even a quick, peaceful Glorious Revolution in the United States would probably both spark WW3 AND cause the DPRK to lob a few nukes our way and…oh boy.

What’s more, the very people who we would need to topple the incoming tyrant Trump…already have their second passports lined up and will flee the country at the first hint of trouble. They’re smug, wealthy and don’t give a shit about The Poors — that is, people like me.

Anyway, the whole situation sucks. I just want to live in a liberal democracy and it definitely seems as though but for us not having a Republican president at the moment — those days are over. We’re an autocracy without an autocrat –an anocracy.

And I really think I’m being delusional to think Americans care enough to do anything about Trump. He’s so dumb and lazy that he is probably going to thrash around in his second term and cue up his successor who will REALLY be our first autocrat.

I just hope I can somehow — somehow — get out of the country before ICE tracks me down and murders me in cold blood, probably by throwing me out a window.

It Definitely Seems As Though Trump’s Re-Election is An Immutable Force Of Political History. Now What?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I don’t know what to tell you folks. Racism and misogyny are a hell of a drug combination. Trump could eat someone live on TV and still have a base of 35% of the Republican electorate — more than enough to secure him the Republican nomination. Then he’s just 60,000 votes in five swing states away from becoming POTUS again.

As I have said — repeatedly — it’s at that point that we face the existential choice of autocracy or civil war / revolution. Though, these days, I’m leaning more towards it be a clear choice of autocracy or revolution. I just don’t see Blues wanting a National Divorce. But I can see them wanting to topple the “Magadonia” regime, an act which would be marketed as a”Revolution.”

It would be unprecedent, but, remember, Trump’s base is about 35% of the Republican electorate, which is really small. If the +60% of people who hate MAGA rebelled in some collective manner, we MIGHT be able to topple Trump with relative ease.

Or not.

It could be a Turkey situation where there’s a fail coup, which only leads to the autocrat being more powerful in the end. I guess I can dream of a “Glorious Revolution of 2024-2025,” can’t I?

But that’s all besides the point — I think we probably need to start thinking about who Trump picks as his Veep. If he picks some whack job like MTG, then it will be THAT person, not Trump who ultimately becomes America’s first real autocrat. And, remember, the vat majority of the people who might be the leadership of any “Glorious Revolution” in late 2024, early 2025….will simply leave the county and be fucking smug liberal podcasters in the South of France.

Ugh.

But I am always wrong. Maybe we’ll put these particular problems down the road.

The Weather In My Area Is Very Strange

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It used to be, once upon a time, that that where I live in the United States had a certain rhythm to it. That rhythm is definitely gone now. And this is very aggravating to me because reality is very important to me since I’m bonkers. And I know what I’m experiencing is real — nature is acting is strange ways for some reason.

We need Little Green Men to help us out.

And that reason is global climate change.

And yet, whenever I bring this issue up to my family members — who I love dearly — I either get some extreme Right wing MAGA talking point or I get a shrug. They just do not, will not, address the issue at hand — we have to do something about global climate change NOW.

But because of the fucking MAGA cocksuckers who control the minds of millions of people, we’re just not going to do anything until it’s too late. Of course, if you wanted to get kind of wonky about it all, you might suggest that if we had — glup — a Second American Revolution that Blues instigated and won, then maybe we could fucking fix this particular problem.

I hate violence too much to take that option seriously though. So, I guess we’re just going to suffer. Or, more specifically, our children and grandchildren are going to suffer. I suppose AI or, I don’t know, First Contact, might somehow help us out….but barring Little Green Men landing on the front lawn of the White House….I think humanity’s goose is cooked.

‘Common Sense’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

These the times that try men’s souls, as they say. And, let me be clear — I hate violence. Totally and completely. But I *AM* growing more and more alarmed at how frothy and violent the rhetoric is growing on the MAGA Right. Because I like to make my abstract fears concrete, I think I might begin to write why, if push came to shove, Blues would have the right to revolution.

The key thing to remember for me is the Constitution itself ensures the right of the people to revolution.

I make a clear distinction between civil war and revolution. I don’t want Blues to leave the Union, I want us to –if necessary — to renew the Union. To make it a stronger democracy. I just want to live in a liberal democracy like I have my entire life.

Again, let me be clear — I hate violence so much that, if need be, I’ll just accept living in a MAGA autocracy if that’s the only way to avoid it. But at the same time, I refuse to intimidated by MAGA Nazi thugs. They want to play, then maybe we’ll play.

I really liked David French’s book about potential civil war scenarios, but he kind of misses the point on the Blue side. The only civil war the United States has fought was one based on slavery and regional differences caused by it. The Right really latches onto that deep political echo. The “South shall rise again” and all that bullshit.

Meanwhile, for the Blue, it would be an issue of saving 250 years of American democratic tradition, if it came to that. Which, hopefully, it won’t. But as I keep saying, they say you go bankrupt gradually then all at once, so, lulz, anything is possible.

But the more I think about it, I just don’t see there being a “National Divorce” if Blues, rather Reds, decide it’s “time for a change,” as The Rolling Stones might quip.