Conversation

If something is capable of driving you to a derangement syndrome, almost certainly there's an element to it that strongly attracts you. It's a good idea to identify that element and reflect on your relationship to it.
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Reflecting on the early months of Trump regime when I had a solid case of TDS, it strikes me that in my case, the element was a kind of self-importance-deflating humor characteristic of Trumpism that I also identify with. But once I saw that, it was trivial to break out of it.
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Reflecting on one I observe a lot now -- crypto-derangement syndrome -- strikes me that the element that hooks the CDS-sufferers is that crypto is undeniably *technically* fascinating. You can't be any kind of geek and not find the machinery interesting.
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The difference between crypto fans and CDS sufferers is not that the former are more technically competent or curious, but that the competence/curiosity easily overshadows any social consciousness. CDS sufferers want their tech interest subservient to social consciousness.
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This is why right now, whatever my opinions on war, bloodshed, and invading wannabe-tsars (fairly conventional), I'm still capable of being fascinated by high-tech military hardware, including the latest Russian hardware, in a way that the horrors of war can't really dampen.
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Says something (which is likely "bad things" in the eyes of many) that I've spent hours in the last few days reading up on thermobaric weapons, Russian air defense, and Kinzhal cruise missiles, and only tens of minutes on Ukrainian history and culture.
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I'm guessing strong anti-war people likely violently repress any fascination with military hardware, and adopt the posture that the only ethical interest one can take in weapons is how to get rid of them forever
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Same with financial WMDs... these sanctions are the most sophisticated financial warfare that the world has every seen. They're going to destroy lives, institutions and entire small economies. That unfortunately doesn't mean the financial machines aren't intricate nerdnsnipes
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This has been a thing I've always grappled with, having grown up next to a weapons research base w/ a detonation physicist grandfather, but also a having a strong pacifist ethic. Also awareness of how intrinsic ties are between military funding and rural american economies
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