Want to wade into the snowy surf of the abyss? 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 youā€™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 cutā€™nā€™paste it into its own post ā€” thereā€™s no quota for posting and the bar really isnā€™t that high.

The post Xitter web has spawned soo many ā€œesotericā€ right wing freaks, but thereā€™s no appropriate sneer-space for them. Iā€™m talking redscare-ish, reality challenged ā€œculture criticsā€ who write about everything but understand nothing. Iā€™m talking about reply-guys who make the same 6 tweets about the same 3 subjects. Theyā€™re inescapable at this point, yet I donā€™t see them mocked (as much as they should be)

Like, there was one dude a while back who insisted that women couldnā€™t be surgeons because they didnā€™t believe in the moon or in stars? I think each and every one of these guys is uniquely fucked up and if I canā€™t escape them, I would love to sneer at them.

(Last substack for 2025 - may 2026 bring better tidings. Credit and/or blame to David Gerard for starting this.)

  • nfultz@awful.systemsEnglish
    14Ā·
    17 days ago

    Anti-A.I.-relationship-sub r/cogsuckers maybe permanently locked down by its mods after users criticize mod-led change of the subreddit to a somewhat pro A.I.-sub (self.SubredditDrama)

    The mods were heavily downvoted and critiqued for pulling the rug from under the community as well as for parallelly modding pro-A.I.-relationship-subs. One mod admitted:

    ā€œ(I do mod on r/aipartners, which is not a pro-sub. Anyone who posts there should expect debate, pushback, or criticism on what you post, as that is allowed, but it doesnā€™t allow personal attacks or blanket comments, which applies to both pro and anti AI members. Calling people delusional wouldnā€™t be allowed in the same way saying that ā€˜all men are Xā€™ or whatever wouldnā€™t. Itā€™s focused more on a sociological issues, and we try to keep it from devolving into attacks.)ā€

    A user, heavily upvoted, replied:

    Youā€™re a fucking mod on ai partners? Are you fucking kidding me?

    It goes on and on like this: As of now, the posting has amassed 343 comments. Mostly, itā€™s angry subscribers of the sub, while a few users from pro-A.I.-subreddits keep praising the mods. Most of the users agree that brigading has to stop, but donā€™t understand why that means that a sub called COGSUCKERS should suddenly be neutral to or accepting of LLM-relationships. Bear in mind that the subreddit r/aipartners, for which one of the mods also mods, does not allow to call such relationships ā€œdelusionalā€. The most upvoted comments in this shitstorm:

    ā€œidk, some pro schmuck decided we were hating too hard šŸ’€ i miss the days shitposting about the eggā€ https://www.reddit.com/r/cogsuckers/comments/1pxgyod/comment/nwb159k/

    • TinyTimmyTokyo@awful.systemsEnglish
      9Ā·
      16 days ago

      That was quite the rabbit-hole.

      The whole time Iā€™m sitting here thinking, ā€œdo these mods realize theyā€™re moderating a subreddit called ā€˜cogsuckersā€™?ā€

      • lagrangeinterpolator@awful.systemsEnglish
        11Ā·
        16 days ago

        There are some comments speculating that some pro-AI people try to infiltrate anti-AI subreddits by applying for moderator positions and then shutting those subreddits down. I think this is the most reasonable explanation for why the mods of ā€œcogsuckersā€ of all places are sealions for pro-AI arguments. (In the more recent posts in that subreddit, I recognized many usernames who were prominent mods in pro-AI subreddits.)

        I donā€™t understand what they gain from shutting down subreddits of all things. Do they really think that using these scummy tactics will somehow result in more positive opinions towards AI? Or are they trying the fascist gambit hoping that they will have so much power that public opinion wonā€™t matter anymore? They arenā€™t exactly billionaires buying out media networks.

        • ShakingMyHead@awful.systemsEnglish
          8Ā·
          16 days ago

          Do they really think that using these scummy tactics will somehow result in more positive opinions towards AI?

          Well, where would someone complain about their scummy tactics? All the places where they could have were shut down.