the cuban message crisis

the cure for ego is a soapbox.

it’s long been sort of an open secret that the russ hanneman (referred to as “the dumbest VC in the valley”) character in “silicon valley” is based on mark cuban right down to getting lucky and selling radio streaming to an unwitting buyer for top dollar in 1999 (cuban sold broadcast.com to yahoo for $5.7bn in april ‘99).

what’s rapidly becoming no secret at all is that mark cuban seems determined to dig himself into an ever deepening DEI discourse hole and simply cannot lay off the pitches that will strike him out. because guys like him never can.

i’m going to use this as a fun example of a larger point:

social media is a seductive, perhaps necessary siren song to those who want to be in “the debate.”

you have to be on twitter to get noticed.

but the other edge of that knife is if you are on social media, you DO get noticed. and it’s an uncontrolled environment. full of lots of people. many of them smart.

so the blade cuts both ways and this fact is what makes the arena the arena.

whatever one thinks about elon (or about how well he has managed to pursue this goal) he nailed this quote: (he also gave me back my twitter account after 2 years of decatforming. this was my first tweet when he did)

so let’s take a look at the arena, where sounding smart is harder than it looks and asking simple questions can absolutely get you a pageant.

adding to the allure and the danger, parody like wu wei (who has been mercilessly and skillfully clowning mark for a month) is savage, especially around ideas like DEI where once you peel through the platitudes, the base concepts are actually pretty hard to defend, especially from people who are better shape rotators than you are…

it's hilarious watching guys like cuban blow themselves up on twitter and reveal themselves as ostentatiously unable to think by analogy, extrapolate, or foresee simple objections like:

to speak of "the best AA woman" you can find instead of "the best person you can find" is, quite literally, the definition of racism and prejudice.

you're "pre-judging" this person based on race and gender and assuming that these characteristics must somehow imbue some sort of valuable "diverse perspective."

but how do you know it's true?

how do you know this this one specific vector of diversity is the important one?

why not a gay arab or a pilipino? why not tall people or short people or people from cleveland? why not a conservative to offset all the woke?

you're literally ascribing virtue (or inability to have such) to race and gender as a core assumption like it's some sort of trait intrinsic to being black or female.

this is the foundation of racism.

(full tweet here)

they are just such alarming midwits and you just cannot hide it if you engage with other people.

you can hide stupid when you "talk at" but "talking with" is much, much harder.

gatopal™ the rabbit hole has been handing out some lessons on this.

and it’s a nasty zugzwang for those who wish to play at being intellectual bright lights especially because entry is easy, but once you are in the ring getting out is another matter altogether.

the rules are simple:

you crave the attention, the approbation of being a “thought leader.”

you’re free to speak and see who wants to listen.

but others get to speak too.

and they will.

and there is no assurance that you will come out of it looking like the smart one.

but oh do they try.

it’s moths to a bug-zapper, as predictable as it is inevitable.

ZZZZZZZT.

celebrity CEO flambé.

the emergence of "you have to be on twitter to be relevant" is just death for high ego midwits.

mostly, they have no idea they are not smart and have been surrounded by bootlicker employees, sycophants, or (perhaps worse) academic groupthink and fake peer review.

they have mistaken wealth or accreditation for poignance.

easy to do.

woo woo works like that.

they have no idea that twitter is a buzz saw for them.

(or who might wind up noticing)

oops.

and they walk right into it.

every time.

as life imitates art.

apparently fox news (on TV this morning) is now picking up the story of the EEOC (equal employment opportunity commission) commissioner who took issue with mark and asking some pointed questions about class action lawsuits.

i mean, you just cannot make this up.

where else in the world can this happen?

when else do rabbits and cats ands mice get to truly mix on even footing with senators, celebrities, and robber barons?

where else do the proselytizing prats of wokedom and academia have to contend with the fenway bleacher bums only to discover that several of them are not only more intelligent but outright better educated than they themselves are?

(worst of all, they might be funnier. and then you are really in trouble.)

it’s just glorious.

it’s the best part of “right now.”

ivory towers are crumbling into ruin and the smug sili valley simplicos are not only hoisting themselves by their own petards, but doing it live as free performance art for the proles.

you could not buy amusement like this at any price.

i doubt this is the bread and circuses they had in mind.

“catiator”