If you want to understand #ElonMusk, you have to understand the Myth of the Secret Genius.

He's part of a group of people who are rich partly because they convince others that they are secret geniuses.

Many still falsely believe we live in a meritocratic society, in which riches are purely a marker of talent rather than of luck or generational wealth.

Sometimes, the emperor just has no clothes. I explain here: open.substack.com/pub/briankla…

#Twitter #Narcissism #Politics #Musk

The Myth of the Secret Genius

From Elon Musk to Elizabeth Holmes and Donald Trump, many very rich people are effective at convincing us of a myth: they're secretly a genius, and you're just too dumb to understand. Are they right?

^{Brian Klaas (The Garden of Forking Paths)}

From @pluralistic:

"Earlier this year, many people with Argus optical implants – which allow blind people to see – lost their vision when the manufacturer, Second Sight, went bust.

"Nano Precision Medical, the company's new owners, aren't interested in maintaining the implants, so that's the end of the road for everyone with one of Argus's 'bionic' eyes. The $150,000 per eye that those people paid is gone, and they have failing hardware permanently wired into their nervous systems.

"Having a bricked eye implant doesn't just rob you of your sight – many Argus users experience crippling vertigo and other side effects of nonfunctional implants. The company has promised to 'do our best to provide virtual support' to people whose Argus implants fail – but no more parts and no more patches."

pluralistic.net/2022/12/12/uns…

Think about this.

White supremacists terrorized Black & Indigenous people for 300 years, & when that terror was finally made illegal, white rebel groups rose up to further terrorize Black & Indigenous people for another 100 years, & while zero reparations were paid to remedy that 400 years of terror, now to simply acknowledge that 400 year terror is called the "woke virus."

White privilege is when the cancer of white supremacy is to be ignored—but recalling that history is called "a virus." 😐

SENATOR MERKLEY INTRODUCES LEGISLATION TO BAN HEDGE FUND OWNERSHIP OF RESIDENTIAL HOUSING

Wall Street control of large portions of housing markets across America drives up rents, limits homeownership opportunities

merkley.senate.gov/news/in-the…

Senator Merkley Introduces Legislation to Ban Hedge Fund Ownership of Residential Housing | U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon

The Official U.S. Senate website of Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon

^{www.merkley.senate.gov}

Seasonal Reminder !

The #SalvationArmy is not a #charity. They are an evangelical protestant church that uses donations to oppose #LGBTQ rights.

Give them NOTHING.

For any trans people who need to hear this:

Your body is beautiful. You're worthy of being desired, if that's something you want.

Whether you choose to transition (and in whatever direction you want), and wherever you are in that process -- you're seen, you are believed, and I'm proud to be your sibling.

When you look in the mirror, you deserve to hear, "Hey, Beautiful." If you don't hear it in your voice, hear it in mine.

Your strength is incredible. You come from a long tradition of transgender people, stretching back to the earliest days of humanity.

Let the haters shout into the void. You don't need to. The Void already loves you. ✨​

(cis people please boost)

Hello Fediverse!

I'm sharing a thing that I hope can be the beginning for many conversations, and represents for me a statement that is the result of many years of conversation:

slocanstatement.org/

I call it the #slocanstatement, and I'm sharing it here first, in public, in the spirit of the Fediverse.

I hope you'll read it, share it if you think it's a valuable statement, and comment and revise it towards building consensus across the Fediverse.

What if the universe is set up just like the Fediverse, but we don’t know about the existence of any other life because our Earth instance was preemptively blocked for hateful conduct.

#DeepThoughts #universe #fediverse

Sharing one of my favorite poems since childhood.

By the 12thc warrior poet Xin Qiji 辛棄疾, who was sidelined during peacetime, demoted, drifting through a decade of minor posts in remote lands.

Poetry, then, is that which is left unsaid.
“My, what a cool and lovely autumn.”
#everynightapoem #poetry #translation

- I read it aloud and write a bit more about the poet, and the translation choices that I made, here: quotomania.simplecast.com/epis…