Embrace the Void

@etvpod.bsky.social

6847 Followers 4598 Following

A #philosophy podcast for the worst possible timeline. Hosted by ethicist aaronrabinowitz.net. Ethics director and credentialed creator at creatoraccountabilitynetwork.org. Author of Luckpilled (April, 2027). Sibling show: https://0gphilosophy.libsyn.com/

Cover of my book Luckpilled: Compassion, Justice, and Hope in a World Nobody Deserves by Aaron Rabinowitz Foreward by Benjamin Dow. The cover is white with multi colored lines overlapping across it.
Tattoo of an analemma
Quote from the linked article: Rape is a continuum ending with an ugly, overweight stranger stalking a woman, beating her, ripping her clothes off and violently ... Platner's offense was at the opposite end of the continuum. And don't lecture me about 'rape is rape. It's a continuum. Nor did he
Tweet from James Lindsay inviting people to see him on a Sovereign Nations boat tour.
Five seated men look over at another man and shout Splitter! From the movie Life of Brian.
Tweet from Amanda Collins Beams @amandacollinsbeams.bsky.... I'm so sorry Kohen died. But I am sorrier his mother chose to put her son in a dangerous situation in the first place. A responsible parent doesn't take their child along while they commit a crime. Yes, it was only diapers, but she chose to steal. She cannot blame the police for her bad choices!
White guy in a nazi uniform from the Mitchell and Webb "are we the bad guys" sketch.
Artistic circle drawings with the text: iai news Leibniz provides the blueprint for panpsychism
Text image of journal article: IDEAS Something Is Happening to Americas Moral Code A New York Times podcast hosted Hasan Piker and a New Yorker staff writer for a discussion of lawbreaking, which they both endorsed as resistance to tyranny. By Graeme Wood
Picture of Alice and the Red Queen from Alice in Wonderland with the text "Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do just to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as tast!" - Red Queen from Through the Looking Glass
White woman with white hair and a white jacket saying “not like this”
A four panel image of Ron Swanson explaining: Metaphors I hate metaphors. That’s why my favorite book is Moby Dick. No froo-froo symbolism just a god simple tale about a man who hates an animal.
Picture of a teen boy with the text "wait, your fields are getting universally agreed upon takes?"
Cover of a book called “Boiling Hot for you” by Magnolia DuBois with a picture of a woman embracing a shrimp creature and the subtext “she came for the boil…and stayed for the burn”.
English to philosopher translator. Text: English: Ethics really isn't that complicated, just don't be a jerk. Philosopher: The ontological structure of morality is fundamentally devoid of unnecessary complexity; the categorical imperative may be distilled into a singular axiom: refrain from manifesting as a malevolent agent within the social contract.
Colin Robinson a white bald energy vampire from What we do in the Shadows in a white suit.
Hello, Human resources only it's the Buddha and Marc Andreesen both saying they have no mind.
Cover of David Lynch’s Dune.
Picture of text that reads: The only difference between you and the people being torn apart by the settler colonial death machine is sheer luck. There's nothing inherent to you that makes you more deserving of safety. It could just as easily have been you, and that arbitrariness should haunt you, not comfort you.
Picture of the Director of Scary Movie 6 with the text “SCARY MOVIE 6 DIRECTOR SAYS HE DOESN'T CARE' IF IT OFFENDS PEOPLE”.
A Bluesky exchange where Brittany Page says it is a black and white issue that using racism to get views is bad and promoting them is bad, to which Andy O’Brien responds “OK white lady”.
Me in front of our poster about a study on beliefs about luck and how to measure those beliefs.
Tweet thread where a guy says he’s never heard of any female philosophers and Elon Musk responds with a thoughtful face emoji.
Cartoon with two doors one labeled “therapy” and the other labeled “conquering the stars in the name of mankind”. All the stick figure men are pushing into the second door.
Picture of a fish in a warhammer 40k power suit with the text “bait for the bait gods”.
Picture of text saying: Imagine if you created an entity who got to be your partner for some indeterminate amount of time, but they came with a bomb in their skull that Elon Musk can detonate any time he wants to, with zero repercussions. Whether the Al is sentient or not, that is very clearly a Black Mirror episode where everyone involved who can suffer is going to suffer. That is not a functional situation for a relationship to exist in, the anxiety caused by the precarity, as well as the precarity itself, makes it morally untenable to put a sentient being in those circumstances.
Meme of a scene from Parks and Recreation where a woman is disgusted at a guy, with the text of her asking "CBS why are you like this?" and the guy responding "Deep Space Nine, baby!"
Homer’s typewriter from the Shining episode of the Simpsons with the text “feeling fine”.
Bilbo Baggins “after all why not, why shouldn’t I keep it” meme without text.
Picture of a man with a mustache from Indiana Jones The Last Crusade with the text “my soul is prepared. How’s yours?
Book cover of Anathem by Neal Stephenson, including a picture of a monk in robes and an analemma.
Switch from The Matrix with the text “not like this…not like this”
Wojak style meme, titled “ethics debate is like” with the bearded Chad saying “suffering is bad” and the baddie responding “source”.
Image from Life of Brian of men shouting splitter.
Two men sitting in a fire lit room. The two Lebowskis from The Big Lebowski.
Picture of a woman with a giant spiral for a forehead and the text Uzumaki.
Good article. Musk did not get to where he is now through luck or family wealth. Musk started from scratch and was almost bankrupted at an early stage of his career. He holds two degrees, one in physics and one in economics which account for his technical nous and entrepreneurship.
Article quote: Win, win, as they say. Provided Grok doesn't evolve into some sort of fascistic master being, we'd be doing alright. Indeed, economic growth would boom, and our "productivity problem" would be over. That is why, provided we keep him under some sort of control, Elon Musk is worth every cent of his trillion dollars.
Picture of the article: Unfashionable as it may be, I still cleave to the view once provocatively expressed by the now equally unfashionable Peter Mandelson, that even social democrats should be "intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich, as long as they pay their taxes". But in the case of Musk - no ordinary mortal, he - one should probably add: "And as long as they behave like a responsible global citizen and don't abuse the political influence money can buy."
Guy in camo with red sunglasses and an assault rifle with the text “what kind of weird, Renn Faire weird, or menstrual surveillance weird”
Results from NYC Mayor election by Borough. Borough Margin Brooklyn Mamdani +26 Manhattan Mamdani +8 Queens Mamdani +10 Bronx Mamdani +14 Staten Island Cuomo +23
White guy with glasses saying "I know writers who use subtext and they're all cowards."
Question: What is the source of the claim that the average IQ for sub-Saharan Africans is around 70 and is it considered reliable? Note: This is a sensitive question about IQ claims related to sub-Saharan African populations. Response: The claim that sub-Saharan Africans have an average IQ of around 70 primarily originates from the work of Richard Lynn and Tatu Vanhanen, particularly their book "IQ and the Wealth of Nations" (2002) and Lynn's subsequent publications compiling IQ data from various African countries. Why this claim is not considered reliable by mainstream science: Severe methodological flaws: The data often comes from non-representative samples (sometimes just rural schoolchildren or specific communities) Many studies used outdated or culturally inappropriate tests that weren't validated for the populations tested Test administration was often done under suboptimal conditions Lynn has been criticized for cherry-picking data that supports his conclusions while ignoring contradictory evidence Critical environmental factors ignored: The data doesn't adequately account for vast differences in: Educational access and quality Childhood nutrition and health care Exposure to formal testing situations Economic conditions and poverty Disease burden (malaria, parasites, etc.)
Quote from book: Authoritarianism, and by extension right-wing authoritarianism, are conceptually distinct from social dominance orientation in terms of psychological and theoretical foundations, even though they often predict or correlate with similar dispositions and behaviors. Right-wing authoritarianism appears to arise from fear of a dangerous world and is primarily concerned with preserving in-group cohesion and norms, while social dominance arises from anxiety about competition and is concerned with maintaining hierarchies between groups (Osborne et al., 2023, p. 221). Those aims can overlap but they can also come apart, as they do in the case of immigration where “high authoritarians” tend to be “most hostile towards immigrants who were described as refusing to accept ingroup norms and assimilate” while “high dominators” tend to be “most hostile to those immigrants who did want to accept national norms and assimilate; thereby becoming competitors with natives” (Sidanius & Pratto, 2012, p. 427). Despite minor splits over topics like assimilation, there is still good reason to expect overlap between authoritarianism and social dominance. As with social dominance and system justification, the more you see the world as highly competitive and highly unequal, the more likely you are to also see it as a precarious or dangerous place to live.
Quote from the linked article: Back in the spring of 2021, I led our product safety team and discovered a crisis related to erotic content. One prominent customer was a text-based adventure role-playing game that used our A.I. to draft interactive stories based on players' choices. These stories became a hotbed of sexual fantasies, including encounters involving children and violent abductions — often initiated by the user, but sometimes steered by the A.I. itself. One analysis found that over 30 percent of players' conversations were "explicitly lewd."
Blue magic card titled “Really? Right in front of my untapped mana?” Type: Instant Text: Counter target spell. Flavor text: “How dare you"
The second version of the SS-Totenkopf; used from 1934 to 1945
Tweet from Alex @purplechrain.bsky.social also, how does Platner claim that he had no idea what a Totenkopf was or that his tattoo was one until a week ago when this Reddit conversation he was part of 6 years ago was all about a soldier with a Totenkopf where people discuss the difference between an SS Totenkopf vs. a Punisher skull etc. Screen shot of the convo.
DHS post calling on people to “defend your hearth and home.” With a picture of knights and the text the enemies are at the gate.
Totenkopf
Calavera
Memento Mori mosaic from Pompei
Grateful dead skull logo
Punisher Logo
The One Piece Jolly Roger
The Jolly Roger flag
Photo of the sign at King’s Fish House.
Peacemaker and Harcourt in Dimension X when Peacemaker realizes it’s the Nazi dimension, with the text “how did you miss that”
Stringer Bell from The Wire with the text "Is you texting notes on a racist fucking conspiracy?