There are many people on this website who can make nuanced, thoughtful, informed pro/anti arguments about LLMs and the fact that they're drowned out by the "useless slop plagiary" consensus shows we've been applying the "conservative" label to the wrong people this whole time.
I've held this view a long time, and usually mean it flatteringly - leftists work to conserve the environment, the working class, human dignity, the American system of government, all noble things! - but it's hard to argue this anti-AI sentiment is anything but classical reactionary conservatism.
And it's not hard to understand why. People feel threatened. Some of the worst people we know are doing the threatening. Their idiotic gooner fans are thrilled. It adds to the stochastic flood we seem to be trapped in.
But if you're a hand weaver facing down the first power loom, arguing that it can't do your job is *demonstrated* to be the doomed position. Arguing that it shouldn't change your job is *definitionally* reactionary conservatism. Smashing it with hammers feels noble but ultimately will fail.
Whatever you think of Brian Merchant (I think about Blood In The Machine just about every day), his views on this are appropriately nuanced and informed and he doesn't indulge in the hysterics that are fashionable on Bluesky. www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/on-agi-mas...
