[ExI] ai is the easy road

[Keith Henson]

On Wed, Oct 14, 2026 at 10:28 AM <spike at rainier66.com> wrote

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> *From:* Keith Henson <hkeithhenson at gmail.com>
>
> >>…  You were right on.  Still are… spike
>
> >…Then why is there so much disagreement on the cause of MAGA and the
> outsized influence of Trump?
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> Because those things have little to do with scarcity of resources or war
> memes.  All of our ferocious debates are among plentiful times.  No one
> here is homeless, no one is hungry.  I doubt there is any serious poverty,
> yet we see the spectrum of opinion.
>

The trip for the evolved mechanism is a substantial number of the
population thinking they have a bleak future. And this is, like most
psychological things, relative. So if you grew up with a dad in a high
paying manufacturing job, and your chances of such a job are bleak because
the factory is long closed, then you have a bleak outlook on your future
and that is enough toi trip the evolved psychological mechanisms. Grinding
poverty is not required, just a less hopeful future.

There were 2 or 3 economic downturns over the last 50 years. Each coincided
with a rise in neo-nazi activity, largely in the midwest. I was mystified
by this and said so in my writing at the time.

>…For that matter, I don't think there is a consensus here that an economic
> disaster led to the rise of Hitler…
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> That one very much did have to do with desperate scarcity or resources.
> We get that one.
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> >…or why the IRA largely went out of business….
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> We get that one too.  EP did a marvelous job.
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> >…You may say "sounds OK" but you don't think in EP terms…
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> On the contrary.  But we stretch it too far when we try to apply it to our
> very prosperous now.
>

You and I and the other people on this list are relatively prosperous, but
that is not uniformly spread over the US or to all subgroups. You just
visited parts of the country that are relatively poor. I wonder if you
looked into how much of their food is homegrown or local? Because if they
depend on outside food, the rise of prices is going to make them poorer.
Enough to cause social unrest? Don't know, should be modeled.

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> >…Not that it really matters. Understanding what lies behind human social
> behavior does not help. You are just as dead if you understand why a mob is
> lynching you.
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> Keith
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> Mob lynchings went away.  EP works.
>

Mob lynching are out iof favor _at the moment_. But consider what happened
in Cambodia where they killed people who wore glasses. I don't know how
likely it is, but it is not hard to imagine social unrest developing from
anti science, anti medical, anti technology killing everyone with more than
a high school education. You might be killed by a mob for having AC in a
world where millions are dying of heat.

>
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> The error is in equating the current POTUS with Hitler.  The young people
> are most puzzled by it.  One guy was responsible for the deaths of millions
> and attempted to brutally exterminate an entire subculture within his own
> country.  The other guy writes mean tweets and quarrels with the press.
> Those aren’t the same thing.
>

The racial elements are the same. True, they have not installed gas
chambers in the concentration buildings--yet--, but the intent to have over
a million non-white migrants die is there.

Keith

> spike
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