iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Helen Pluckrose @hpluckrose.bsky.social · 26/03/2025

I believe we have reached new levels of irrationality and disgustingness.

Helen Pluckrose @hpluckrose.bsky.social · 28/11/2024

Happy Thanksgiving, Yanks! You know, I was thinking we should set up a tradition where each Thanksgiving, the English make a gift of a thousand of our most prominent current day Puritans to honour the occasion. What do you think?

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Helen Pluckrose @hpluckrose.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

Maybe Knowles is not one of the people who says the work are bad, intolerant people if they don't invite their Trump voting family for Thanksgiving. Musk's said that a lot though & he retweeted it.

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Helen Pluckrose @hpluckrose.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

So, is this a satirical depiction of how wokeists present Trump voters? Normally, this would have a caption like "How the woke imagine MAGA" to make that clear, but the comments aren't responding as though that's what it is. They're responding as though it's the reality of how MAGA are & that's good

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Helen Pluckrose @hpluckrose.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

But obviously Knowles and Musk are not wokeists &, would not (I would have thought) want to caricature Trump voters as insufferable, intolerant arseholes with creepy degrees of ideological zeal who ruin family gatherings & are best cut out of your life.

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Helen Pluckrose @hpluckrose.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

"It's not we who are intolerant. It's Trumpists. They really are malevolent ideologically-captured assholes who abuse everybody who disagrees with them & make Thanksgiving miserable. It's perfectly reasonable to cut them out of your life & not see them for Thanksgiving."

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Helen Pluckrose @hpluckrose.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

On the surface it looks like a thing someone who wanted to justify cutting off the Trump voters in their family & not seeing them at Thanksgiving would create in response to accusations that they’re intolerantly ending relationships with perfectly lovely people who just voted differently.

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Helen Pluckrose @hpluckrose.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

Can someone explain the context of this to my British brain? x.com/elonmusk/sta...

x.com

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Helen Pluckrose @hpluckrose.bsky.social · 24/11/2024

The rage is intense and many people seem committed to proving they do not have a cult-like mentality & in no way resemble the woke by responding to what wasn't said, reporting me to third parties, telling me to shut up, educate myself, that I am a brainwashed wokist, a bully & denying free speech

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Helen Pluckrose @hpluckrose.bsky.social · 24/11/2024

Certainly. h.pluckrose@gmail.com

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Helen Pluckrose @hpluckrose.bsky.social · 24/11/2024

I've been pissing off Xitter again.

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Helen Pluckrose @hpluckrose.bsky.social · 24/11/2024

There's not even really a right to be heard, only to speak. In the marketplace of ideas, people choose who they listen to just as they choose which stalls they buy from in a regular marketplace. If people are not listening to you, it's your responsibility to make your wares more appealing.

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Helen Pluckrose @hpluckrose.bsky.social · 24/11/2024

Hmmmm. Is Whitney here? She is a woman of good sense. Either that or she is humouring me on the whole tea issue due to a cultural sensitivity notably lacking in you two.

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Helen Pluckrose @hpluckrose.bsky.social · 24/11/2024

You are both terrible people and I don't know why I still associate with you.

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Helen Pluckrose @hpluckrose.bsky.social · 24/11/2024

I shall persuade you with the evidence of your taste buds. You are a reasonable people. I predict that you will then make me Queen. Then we will move on to spreading the Good News to Tennessee @joshuaeakle.com where, of course, I will pay due homage to the reigning monarch, Her Grace, Queen Dolly.

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Reposted by Helen Pluckrose

The Whimsical Muse @whimsicalmuse.bsky.social · 22/11/2024

I don't know who needs to hear this, but if all you accomplish this weekend is reading a riveting novel cover-to-cover whilst drinking multiple kettles of tea and consuming a scandalous amount of croissants, then you will have accomplished more than enough.

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Helen Pluckrose @hpluckrose.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

The "Twitter is not real life" thing is overplayed. The dominant problem now is not that we overestimate the role that social media plays in public opinion & elections etc, but that we underestimate it.

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Helen Pluckrose @hpluckrose.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

I'm suggesting you look at it to get an outsider's perspective on your own country. Does it concern you that diplomats and ambassadors are advocating plans to conciliate a single private citizen as a way to forward diplomatic relations with the US rather than the person you democratically elected?

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Helen Pluckrose @hpluckrose.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

Yeah, I could put a lot of effort into becoming a ballerina. Would the outcome reveal this as a good use of my time? Extremely unlikely.

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Reposted by Helen Pluckrose

Tyler Harris @tylerharris.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

Failing to reduce yourself to the lowest ethical level of the most despicable of your opponents may indeed result in defeat, but doing so guarantees it. A cause worthy of support must be about more than the pure attainment of power.

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Helen Pluckrose @hpluckrose.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

And we have this disgustingness. I am very close to despairing of humanity.

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Helen Pluckrose @hpluckrose.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

And how the fuck are we in a situation where news reporting about plans for defending the Western World against Russia include a lot of commentary on how to flatter the POTUS' ego & make it look like good PR for him rather than a principled & effective strategy? www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

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Helen Pluckrose @hpluckrose.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

The conservative element of my liberalism is coming to the fore too. I think it's because the need to conserve is becoming so pressing &so many on the right who would typically be regarded as conservatives are just not interested in conserving liberal democracy & its institutions.

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Helen Pluckrose @hpluckrose.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

OK, I need to reduce my stress & blood pressure in case this is having an impact on my headaches. More no-screen time and new, wholesome hobbies are needed, I think.

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Helen Pluckrose @hpluckrose.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

Oh, this is not actually Elon Musk, but a parody account of him?

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Helen Pluckrose @hpluckrose.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

In lighter news (literally) my trousers fell off a few days ago. Fortunately, I was indoors. Anyway, I ordered the same ones two sizes smaller to slim into, but they fit already. Seems I have gone from size 28 to size 20(UK) this year. One more drop until I am out of Plus Sizes.

media.tenor.com

grizzly bear from we bare bears is dancing with his arms outstretched on a white background .

ALT: grizzly bear from we bare bears is dancing with his arms outstretched on a white background .

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Helen Pluckrose @hpluckrose.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

The absolute state of some of our alleged conservatives who were very clear about the need for sovereignty to protect democracy when it came to leaving the EU is really something to behold.

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Helen Pluckrose @hpluckrose.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

We don't typically see diplomats, ambassadors & international relation wonks giving this much attention to one individual who is not an elected political leader unless he is a monarch. Starmer has had to stress that he'll deal with the president, not Elon Musk. I don't think you want a king, America

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Helen Pluckrose @hpluckrose.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

Don't think Americans typically follow UK political debates much. I think you would be quite concerned about how much the arguments about UK-US relationships and what Starmer should do to mend them focus on mending bridges with Elon Musk.

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Helen Pluckrose @hpluckrose.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

Getting emails urging me to recognise Musk as some kind of messiah. People earnestly urging me to see the light about how Musk is going to be the saviour of humanity. The hero worship going on reminds me a lot of the cult-like following Jordan Peterson attracted, but with much higher stakes.

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Helen Pluckrose @hpluckrose.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

Substantial number of alleged conservatives on both sides of the Atlantic not seeming to want to conserve their own liberal democracies very much even while claiming it is illiberal leftists who hate & want to undermine their own country.

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Helen Pluckrose @hpluckrose.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

I see a lot of illiberal rightists 'threatening' to come here & be their delightful selves. Good! I encourage this. Don't want an echo chamber they can't get into. I want a platform where they're not at the top of my newsfeed all the time & that doesn't keep locking me out.

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Helen Pluckrose @hpluckrose.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

My Xitter account has been rendered unusable again. Everybody is unfollowed from me & me from them and I cannot refollow anybody & vice versa. Again. It's more likely that this is a tech glitch than a de facto ban but that place is such a mess generally, it's worth trying to grow this one.

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Helen Pluckrose @hpluckrose.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

Me: No procrastination today! I have work to do! Me, for next half hour: Watches videos about how to secure wooden posts with inventive knot tying using wire.

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Helen Pluckrose @hpluckrose.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

Well, I'd only be repeating myself if I went over again the difference between speaking to and collaborating on illiberal aims with. Also, you could do both, but I defend your right to do neither. I'll speak to anti-gay social conservatives. I just won't let them tell me what to say or pay me.

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Helen Pluckrose @hpluckrose.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

Talking to =/= collaborating with. However, I will absolutely collaborate with liberal conservatives & classical liberals and libertarians when they defend LGBT rights. Have you seen Queer Majority? There's a load of them there. I collaborate with them a lot.

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Helen Pluckrose @hpluckrose.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

Anybody whose respect I value will see my talk and continue to respect me. Anybody who refuses to watch it because it was a right-wing Catholic group & condemn me for who I am speaking to is not somebody I can respect & so I have no wish for their respect. Is that not a perfectly normal stance?

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Helen Pluckrose @hpluckrose.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

Also, people who won't read you if you talk to conservatives are probably a lost cause anyway. I recently spoke about queer theory & trans activism for a conference run by an organisation that believed homosexuality & abortion were wrong. I presented them with a liberal case against that too.

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Helen Pluckrose @hpluckrose.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

It would, indeed, be ideal, if the major LGBT orgs which are overwhelmingly left-wing would publish criticisms of authoritarian queer theory approaches to trans activism, for example, but we have to operate within the reality we have, not an idealised one that we don't have.

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Helen Pluckrose @hpluckrose.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

OK, so when I speak of the left, its not necessarily the US. We all know optics matter but the *reality* remains that few left-wing LGBT outlets will publish Benjamin or me & not speaking to right-wing ones leaves the option of barely getting your ideas out at all. I want to convince people of mine

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Helen Pluckrose @hpluckrose.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

I'm British, btw, but I am well aware that voting Democrat does not necessarily mean one is left-wing. Black Democrat voters are more likely to describe themselves as conservative than white Democrat voters, for example.

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Helen Pluckrose @hpluckrose.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

Well, you can focus on optics and PR rather than content if you like. It remains a fairly pointless PR effort to advise people to publish in left-wing LGBT outlets when they won't publish you. Also, voting left does not mean only consuming left-wing media or only trusting people who write in them.

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