The Atlantic: Why Trump Didn’t Plan for the Strait of Hormuz
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The Atlantic: Why Trump Didn’t Plan for the Strait of Hormuz
In wartime, the enemy always gets a vote.
(These people are deeply unserious. I mean, they *must* be old enough to remember the 1980-88 tanker war and the vital role the Straits of Hormuz played back then, right?)
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/03/hormuz-strait-iran-oil/686365/
@cstross starting to wonder if the LLM that told them this was all ‘a great idea’ wasn’t told to check back on earlier wars in the region.
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@jackwilliambell I think you're right— they're not actual uneducated. But there is a notable disdain for education and particularly knowledge. Like, they think it's not particular relevant. That they're powerful geniuses who can outwit any situation with a little bit of cunning and creativity.
As a result, they're profoundly willfully ignorant.
@ariaflame @cstross@Tattie @jackwilliambell @ariaflame @cstross they’ve been exposed to an education of sorts. It doesn’t seem to have taken though. And they’re all fools of the sort who mistake intention with what will happen. (A mindset I find so foreign that I can’t remember the name for it.)
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@Tattie @jackwilliambell @ariaflame @cstross they’ve been exposed to an education of sorts. It doesn’t seem to have taken though. And they’re all fools of the sort who mistake intention with what will happen. (A mindset I find so foreign that I can’t remember the name for it.)
@Colman let me know if the word comes to you, that sounds useful
@jackwilliambell @ariaflame @cstross -
@Tattie @jackwilliambell @ariaflame @cstross they’ve been exposed to an education of sorts. It doesn’t seem to have taken though. And they’re all fools of the sort who mistake intention with what will happen. (A mindset I find so foreign that I can’t remember the name for it.)
@Colman @Tattie @jackwilliambell @ariaflame "Romantic" (in the original sense of the term): they think their desires shape and constrain reality, not vice versa.
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@Colman let me know if the word comes to you, that sounds useful
@jackwilliambell @ariaflame @cstross@Tattie @jackwilliambell @ariaflame @cstross it’s a style of political discourse. Put in a policy, be oblivious to all the higher order effects and then be really angry when they inevitably manifest.
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@Tattie @jackwilliambell @ariaflame @cstross they’ve been exposed to an education of sorts. It doesn’t seem to have taken though. And they’re all fools of the sort who mistake intention with what will happen. (A mindset I find so foreign that I can’t remember the name for it.)
@Colman @Tattie @ariaflame @cstross
I learned a long time ago someone who knows as much as you do about a subject can have *entirely different opinions about it*. Not everyone thinks the same.
And, as you point out, not everyone's *thinking styles* are the same.
And it's not always cultural differences in play either. But the real problem here is these people lack empathy, and their thinking styles reflect their sociopathy.
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@Tattie @jackwilliambell @ariaflame @cstross it’s a style of political discourse. Put in a policy, be oblivious to all the higher order effects and then be really angry when they inevitably manifest.
@Tattie @jackwilliambell @ariaflame @cstross I don’t think I could bear to label them romantics.
For start I’d be thinking of ballets in that style and *no*.
Though if someone would dance them to death (see Giselle) I’d take it.
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@Tattie @jackwilliambell @ariaflame @cstross it’s a style of political discourse. Put in a policy, be oblivious to all the higher order effects and then be really angry when they inevitably manifest.
@Colman Klein's concept of the "manic defence" definitely comes into play there, tho I'm not sure that's what you were going for
@jackwilliambell @ariaflame @cstross -
@cstross I can't read the Atlantic article, do they address how conveniently the administration's planning failure worked out for Russia?
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/12/us/politics/trump-russia-oil-sanctions.html
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@Colman @Tattie @ariaflame @cstross
I learned a long time ago someone who knows as much as you do about a subject can have *entirely different opinions about it*. Not everyone thinks the same.
And, as you point out, not everyone's *thinking styles* are the same.
And it's not always cultural differences in play either. But the real problem here is these people lack empathy, and their thinking styles reflect their sociopathy.
@jackwilliambell @Tattie @ariaflame @cstross this isn’t about different interpretations of agreed facts. This is outright denial of facts and complete disregard for any higher order consequences of their actions.
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@cstross starting to wonder if the LLM that told them this was all ‘a great idea’ wasn’t told to check back on earlier wars in the region.
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The Atlantic: Why Trump Didn’t Plan for the Strait of Hormuz
In wartime, the enemy always gets a vote.
(These people are deeply unserious. I mean, they *must* be old enough to remember the 1980-88 tanker war and the vital role the Straits of Hormuz played back then, right?)
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/03/hormuz-strait-iran-oil/686365/
@cstross "Why Trump didn't plan for the strait of hormuz?"
"cause he's a fucking moron."
- end of article -
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@jackwilliambell @Tattie @ariaflame @cstross this isn’t about different interpretations of agreed facts. This is outright denial of facts and complete disregard for any higher order consequences of their actions.
@Colman @Tattie @ariaflame @cstross
That calls back to the hubris I mention up-thread. They 'know better'…
FWIW? It isn't only fascists who ignore inconvenient facts. All of us do it in one way or another. It's a very human cognitive failure mode.
And it's a big reason I push Stoicism as a humanistic day-to-day philosophy. Because acknowledging your own faults is the first step in overcoming them.
The people we're talking about are Emoitionalists. They believe their feelings define reality.
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@gloriouscow @lritter i don't know of any hash tags for those but i'd be astonished if there weren't any
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@gloriouscow @cr1901 For myself, with regards to dealing with the cognitive dissonance, of watching technologists I personally know and admire adopt LLMs (some of which are on here, too, and who I am somewhat embarrassed to say have seen my unhinged anti-AI posts 😅):
I think this has been much easier for me to deal with, because my personal observation for a long time has been that technologists have a very weak sense of ethics. Both in the sense of having good ethics that I agree with, and in the sense of having thought about the subject of ethics at all. Most technologists have not sat down and decided what their moral boundaries are, and what the relationship of their own morality is to the technology they use or develop. Even very skilled ones that I have learned a lot from. Most people are content to think that technologies are value-neutral, and are content to follow the trend of what everyone else is doing.
I have observed brilliant technologists, long before LLMs, shrug at the ethics of many other things, so for me it is entirely believable that they shrug at the ethics of this, too. I don't think many of these people are inherently morally bad, but I do think that they just don't care. This is bad because I do think that people just following the trend into widespread AI adoption is an ethically bad outcome. However, I also think that as AI backlash increases, if the pendulum swings back to anti-AI being the norm in software: they will follow as well.
It is also the sad truth that for minority women in many computer fields, we must work with brilliant peers who are not necessarily bad people, but who by way of their privileged position in life will say and do ignorant things. We must see someone saying something hurtful, but not make a fuss about it, because it's not worth the time of having to personally educate that person, to deal with the backlash, or to be labelled as a "confrontational" person. And we must do this as well, for brilliant colleagues and mentors and people we admire, and that we learn a lot from. So in that sense, I am very well practiced at this kind of cognitive dissonance - I do it in order to preserve a career.
I hope this is maybe a little helpful for you, though this is only my personal experience. And if you do take a break, I hope it is a restful and rejuvenating one!
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@gloriouscow @lritter also I recommend # macrophotography (and the various non-english equivalents) though fair warning it has the occasional closeup on insects. my wife introduced me to that one last night :)
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@gloriouscow here's the list I gave @lritter https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@aeva/115947337211705540
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@gloriouscow i think i mean to say please stay i enjoy your presence
