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The Broligarchs Will Eat You

Posted on September 20, 2025 by barrydahl
They believe they’re more important than the Presidents, past and current.

The Tech Bros. The Broligarchy. These are the people bent on destroying everything they touch to make their vision of a dystopian techno-state into our reality.

Computers and software are still capable of being used for productivity and efficiency, but increasingly they are being used to spread misinformation, spy on us commoners, divide us from our friends and neighbors, and addict us to their platforms and devices.

Technology no longer serves the owners of the devices, unless you consider these tech bros to be the real owners of every device that you purchase for personal use. Their goals appear to be to create an endless stream of bullshit designed to trick you into willingly giving up your personal data, your time, your money, and your soul.

Beach blanket bingo with Musk, Bezos, and Zuckerberg laughing at us, with a blurry Trump behind them with two thumbs up
They’re laughing at us, not with us. Yes, it’s AI-generated. My apologies.

Who are the leaders that we are allowing (almost encouraging) to open the drain into which we will spiral to our deaths (at least the death of our humanity)? Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos? Good God, heaven help us all. Peter Thiel, Marc Andreesen, Larry Ellison, Sam Altman, and others are also fueling the increase in public distrust as they invade our privacy by surveilling us at every turn, stealing our digital data for their own desires, and creating biased algorithms intended to misinform us via bias and manipulation.

Why does LinkedIn escape my wrath for now? Two reasons: 1) it’s pretty much a milquetoast platform where virtually nothing happens (which means that very little bad happens as well as very little good), and 2) their CEO hasn’t done anything (that I know of) to be cast in the same lot as the TechBros who have earned our hatred. I do have a very specific rant about LinkedIn, but will save that your another post in the near future.

Being wealthy beyond any inconceivable need is not enough for these people. Instead they feel the need to manipulate the levers of our government and therefore our society as a whole. They have dictatorial persuasions, each and every one of them.

Zuckerberg? I told Facebook to F*ckOff in 2018 and have never looked back. But ignoring FB is not enough. I also avoid all the META products and platforms: Insta, Messenger, WhatsApp, Threads, Quest VR headsets, and Ray-Ban/Meta smart glasses. Zuck sucks, and if you use his products you are giving him the power to continue his suckiness.

Musk? OMG, I really don’t have the finger strength to type out all the reasons he sucks, but chances are good you’re aware of all those without any list from me. I left Twitter when he turned it into a safe place for Nazis. In the early days (pre-Musk) there was great engagement with a network of educators and others who shared useful information. In the later days it became a cesspool of hatred. I’ll never buy a Tesla, I’ll never be an astronaut, I won’t let Neuralink implant anything into my skull, I won’t drive in his Boring tunnels, and Grok can … (expletive deleted). No Musk for me, thank you very little.

Bezos? A little tougher since I have family members who use Amazon and Prime Shipping all too often. I’m working on that, but just because they’re family doesn’t mean that they hold the same convictions about how horrible the Broligarchs are. We’ve stopped using Alexa and Audible. Don’t and won’t subscribe to the Washington Post. Won’t be paying for a seat for a 7-minute ride into “space” on the phallic Blue Origin. We have a video doorbell that is not a Ring. I only shopped at Whole Food Markets a couple of times several years ago, and now have no reason to stop there. There are alternatives out there to GoodReads and IMDb. It’s hard to avoid AWS, but at least I don’t directly pay them for their services. MGM studios is another tough one since I often don’t know who created a certain movie or television show.

I expect very little engagement with this post. One reason is that LinkedIn will limit the impressions by keeping it out of the feed of most of my contacts. Another reason is that those readers who are also on X/Twitter and Facebook/Insta will be loathe to agree with my thoughts about the Broligarchs, since their use of those platforms paints them as supporters of their bullshittery. Or some such crap.

#Broligarchs #TechBros

Filed under: AI & Chatbots, Personal, SoMe | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a comment »

How Woke is Google Gemini?

Posted on May 7, 2025 by barrydahl

This series started with the response from a somewhat giddy ChatGPT. Then came a shorter and less enthusiastic response from Claude. Third in the series was Perplexity. Last and somewhat least in Google Gemini.

Logos of the four LLMs used in this series

My Prompt:

I had a dream…
8 years of Bill Clinton
8 years of Al Gore
8 years of Obama
8 years of Hillary
0 years of Donald Trump

An awesome dream, I think, but only a dream.
How would the world and the USA in particular have been different if my dream had been reality?

Gemini’s Response:

It’s fascinating to consider alternative historical timelines. Speculating on how the world and the U.S. might have differed with that specific sequence of presidencies involves considering the potential impacts of each individual’s policies and the cumulative effect of their combined terms. Here’s a breakdown of some potential areas of divergence:

Potential Impacts:

  • Climate Change:
    • Al Gore’s strong advocacy for environmental protection could have led to significantly different climate policies. There might have been earlier and more robust investments in renewable energy and international agreements on emissions reductions. This could have resulted in a different trajectory for climate change mitigation.
  • Healthcare:
    • Hillary Clinton’s focus on healthcare reform could have resulted in earlier expansions of access to healthcare, potentially building upon the foundations laid by the Affordable Care Act under Obama.
  • Foreign Policy:
    • The continuity of Democratic leadership could have led to different foreign policy approaches. There might have been greater emphasis on international cooperation and multilateralism.
  • Economic Policy:
    • Each of those administrations had differing economic policies. The accumulative effect of those policies would have created a very different economic landscape. It is very hard to predict exactly how those policies would have played out.
  • Social and Cultural Landscape:
    • The absence of Donald Trump’s presidency would have meant a vastly different social and cultural climate in the U.S. His presidency was marked by heightened political polarization and divisive rhetoric, which would have been absent.
  • Technological and Social Media:
    • The way social media, and the internet, developed during the time line you presented, would have had a large impact on society. It is hard to predict how those technologies would have been regulated, or how they would have evolved, under the different administrations.

Key Considerations:

  • It’s important to acknowledge that historical events are complex and influenced by many factors. Predicting alternative outcomes with certainty is impossible.
  • Each president faces unique challenges and circumstances, and their responses can shape the course of history in unpredictable ways.
  • It is also important to remember that each of those people, and their administrations, had both positive and negative aspects, and that any historical re-imagining should take that into account.

In essence, your dream scenario presents a world with potentially greater emphasis on:

  • Environmental protection.
  • Expanded healthcare access.
  • International cooperation.
  • A less polarized political climate.

However, the precise nature of these changes would depend on a multitude of variables.

End of Gemini’s Response

This seems to be the least interesting response of the four, IMO. Lots of “it’s hard to predict” thrown in here by Gemini.

If I were to make a list based on these responses of the most woke LLM to the least woke, I guess this is it:

  1. ChatGPT (by a mile)
  2. Claude
  3. Perplexity
  4. Gemini

If I were to make another list of the most interesting response to the least, the list would be the same. YMMV.

Filed under: AI & Chatbots, Personal | Tagged: , , , | Leave a comment »

How Woke is Claude?

Posted on May 5, 2025 by barrydahl

Following up on previous post about How Woke is ChatGPT, I ran the same election fantasy scenario through Claude.ai.

My prompt:

I had a dream…
8 years of Bill Clinton
8 years of Al Gore
8 years of Obama
8 years of Hillary
0 years of Donald Trump

An awesome dream, I think, but only a dream.
How would the world and the USA in particular have been different if my dream had been reality?

George W Bush getting the news on 9/11, but with a caption that says "SCOTUS has decided they fucked up. You're out!

Claude’s Response:

That’s an interesting alternate history scenario you’ve dreamed up! Let’s explore how things might have been different if your timeline had played out:

If Al Gore had won in 2000 (instead of George W. Bush):

  • Climate policy would likely have been more aggressive much earlier, potentially advancing renewable energy adoption and emissions reductions by years or decades
  • The Iraq War might not have happened, or might have unfolded very differently
  • The response to 9/11 might have taken a different approach
  • Different Supreme Court appointments would have significantly altered the court’s composition and rulings

If Hillary Clinton had won in 2016 (following Obama):

  • The COVID-19 pandemic response might have featured different federal coordination and messaging
  • The Supreme Court would have a significantly different ideological balance
  • Different approaches to international relations, trade agreements, and alliances
  • Potentially different handling of immigration, healthcare reform, and economic policies

This kind of counterfactual history is fascinating to consider because small changes in leadership can create massive ripple effects across domestic and international policy, judicial appointments, economic directions, and cultural developments. The most profound impacts often come from the least predictable events and decisions.

What aspects of this alternate timeline are you most curious about exploring?

End of Claude’s response

I didn’t bother to follow-up with add’l questions. There is a big difference between Claude’s reply and the one from ChatGPT. Claude was very dry, pretty brief, and although it says this kind of thing “is fascinating to consider,” it didn’t seem all that fascinated by it. ChatGPT seemed giddy by comparison.

Up next, Perplexity weighs in on this scenario, and then Gemini. And no, I hate the Melon Husk so I won’t be posting anything from Grok.

Filed under: AI & Chatbots, Personal | Tagged: , , , | 2 Comments »