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vgr's profile
Venkatesh Rao
Venkatesh Rao
Venkatesh Rao
@vgr

Tweets

Venkatesh Rao

@vgr

This is my conversational account. For my work follow @ribbonfarm, @breaking_smart, @artofgig. Tweets are 90% vacuous views, apathetically held. Mediocritopian.

Los Angeles, CA
venkateshrao.com
Joined August 2007

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    1. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 26 Oct 2019
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      What’s your best 1-tweet mic-drop critique of western-style capitalism?

      125 replies 17 retweets 103 likes
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      Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 26 Oct 2019
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      I’m fundamentally sympathetic to capitalism but if I had to make a critique, it would be: it institutionalizes an unrealistically cynical view of human nature, rendering idealism unreasonably ineffective and self-defeating

      11:56 AM - 26 Oct 2019
      • 6 Retweets
      • 118 Likes
      • nolan Dan Grover James Tinged Words Vinh Truong Faute Jenssen 宅家 Max Nighswander 🚀⏭🤖🐙 Alex Luck giridhur s
      12 replies 6 retweets 118 likes
        1. New conversation
        2. foo‏ @slashdottir 26 Oct 2019
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          Replying to @vgr

          I have this same feeling about boardgames. I appreciate them generally, but it seems to me they teach people to appreciate the advantages of being maximally selfish, self-dealing and foiling the plans of others. I can't get past how this is evil, but nobody but me seems to see it

          1 reply 0 retweets 2 likes
        3. Greg Jones‏ @gregjoneskeepup 26 Oct 2019
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          Replying to @slashdottir @vgr

          Western culture has long glorified war. The first board games were not toys but professional tools of war. Maybe the cutthroat attitude trickled down from feudalism to capitalism.

          0 replies 0 retweets 2 likes
        4. End of conversation
        1. New conversation
        2. Spike Brehm‏Verified account @spikebrehm 26 Oct 2019
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          Replying to @vgr

          @jongold do u feel seen

          1 reply 0 retweets 2 likes
        3. J.H. Gold‏ @jongold 26 Oct 2019
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          Replying to @spikebrehm @vgr

          finally

          0 replies 0 retweets 1 like
        4. End of conversation
        1. Robin Hanson‏Verified account @robinhanson 27 Oct 2019
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          Replying to @vgr

          Not sure that's true. What alternative do you have in mind to compare it with?

          0 replies 0 retweets 2 likes
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        1. Pirates sleep soundly‏ @Wit_recycler 26 Oct 2019
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          Replying to @vgr

          Anarcho-capitalism perhaps. I see plenty of idealism running pretty unchecked in the West though

          0 replies 0 retweets 1 like
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        1. Olaf Alex‏ @olaf_alex 26 Oct 2019
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          Replying to @vgr

          Olaf Alex Retweeted Olaf Alex

          That‘s pretty similar to what I meant https://twitter.com/olaf_alex/status/1188188478015770631 … except I would stress more the self-referential problem: the same behaviors that can work on an object level if the rules are good, prevent good rules from being adopted at the meta level. (h/t Daniel Schmachtenberger)

          Olaf Alex added,

          Olaf Alex @olaf_alex
          Replying to @vgr
          By building upon self-interested actions of individuals, capitalism reinforces exactly those manipulative, anti-competitive and rent-seeking tendencies that prevent + destroy the necessary institutional and normative conditions which could ensure the system‘s long-term survival.
          0 replies 0 retweets 1 like
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        1. Diane Foley‏ @Tantele 26 Oct 2019
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          Replying to @vgr

          The triumph of desire over sense

          0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
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        1. Raoul Kennedy‏ @rakurabu 26 Oct 2019
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          Replying to @vgr

          Recent tweet touching on the (widespread) conflation of the term “capitalism” with *crony* capitalism.pic.twitter.com/gzm0JtiTCi

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        1. αlpha-Minus‏ @AlphaMinus2 27 Oct 2019
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          Replying to @vgr

          "Unrealistically cynical view of human nature" *laughs in @robinhanson *

          0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
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