Good article, but very weird to scroll to the bottom and see "(c) Norman Yarvin" at the bottom. Curtis Yarvin's brother wrote this. I don't have an opinion about that, I just find it strange.
I have no opinion of unlimitedhangout.com or the veracity of that article. But in response to "I just find it strange", I'm beginning to associate this sort of intensely intellectual inquiry into disparate topics with equally intense political positions.
I was first introduced to Urbit as if it was a purely technical, humorous and extremely nerdy lark. It was a joke thing my friend got me to sign up for, to own a slice of an imaginary universe (in a quantity called a "frigate" or whatever it was). When I learned years later about how serious the worldview behind it was, I was quite shocked.
Since then, and especially since the NYT outing of Scott Alexander in 2020, I've become more attuned to the pattern. These hyper-analytical blogs often come with a lot of political implications below the surface.
Again, I'm not taking sides here. If anything, the takeaway for me is that the world is very complicated. We have these rare polymath personalities who go deep into topics, have a strong voice on the internet, and they end up with all sorts of valid criticisms of the status quo. This in turn can align with extreme political views.
I say I "just find it strange" because I was hesitant to tar Norman Yarvin with the same brush I'd use for his brother. Curtis Yarvin is a freak, but I figured it would be entirely possible that his brother was just a normal guy on the internet with weird relatives.
Judging by the article you posted, though…
> When talking about Nigerian Scammers in the online chat room, Norman Yarvin is recorded as making statements like: “I think everyone charged with a crime is entitled to a fair trial and the presumption of innocence, but I also think things would be a lot better if habitual criminals like scammers were executed in a timely manner, say within a week of their trials. Hanging 1% of the population would probably eliminate 99% of the actual crime [...]"
> In another piece Norman published on his own website, he blamed Social Security programmes for Germany’s social decline leading up to World War II. [...] Some of Norman’s carefully worded crypto-contrarianism will be familiar to anybody who has read the work of Curtis Yarvin and those observers of Mencius Moldbug will find much of Norman’s take on modern history to be eerily similar.
Also apparently he's potentially linked to a terror attack? I guess I'm too prone to giving people the benefit of the doubt.
> they end up with all sorts of valid criticisms of the status quo. This in turn can align with extreme political views
The thing about the status quo is that it's extremely easy to criticize. Ted Kaczynski made some solid arguments. Mao had some great points. Problems are everywhere—it's not hard to find them. You have to judge people by their solutions, and as a rule, neoreactionaries and their orbiters make flagrantly noxious prescriptions.
