Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley):

I saw a fascinating tweet by BloomTech CEO Austen Allred the other day that stirred up a lot of thoughts here.

“Of the Silicon Valley founders I know who went on some of the psychedelic self-discovery trips, almost 100% quit their jobs as CEO within a year,” Allred said, adding, “Could be random anecdotes, but be careful with that stuff.”

Allred tweeted this in response to writer Ashlee Vance sharing that he’d been told by a venture capitalist, “We’ve lost several really good founders to ayahuasca. They came back and just didn’t care about much anymore.”

There’s some very useful information in those words. They reveal a lot about the insane mess our species finds itself in in today’s world, and provide insight into how we might find our way out.

  • Lime Buzz@beehaw.orgEnglish
    53·
    2 months ago

    Bad take in the title alone.

    Seems very ableist to assume that cpitalism is caused by mental illness, I know many mentally ill people who are very much against capitalism and harmed by it.

    Also, not surprised they would use the ableist word “Insane” in there.

    • webghost0101@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      5·
      2 months ago

      I understand where this is coming from but is there a better term to refer to this?

      Psychological trait that can emerge in any humans but is perceived (culturally understood) to be harmful by humanity at large and is solvable with therapy, medication and general education.

      Both greed and hate follow this pattern. I do not believe in inherent evil, showing compassion as they are sick just makes nonjudgmental sense to me.

      I am autistic myself have experience plenty of ableist rhetoric, but an example would be people assuming i can conform to their speech, avoiding their list of banned words while still expect me to communicatie coherently.

      • Lime Buzz@beehaw.orgEnglish
        2·
        2 months ago

        If you are asking what I think you are asking then “harmful adaptation” might be a good way of putting it.

        Yes, you humans are like that sometimes and I have seen how what you are suggesting can help humans.

        Indeed I agree that they can, I do not believe in inherent evil either, in you humans or other species.

        Autism is so cool, I too am autistic, in my species it is considered pretty normal to think and behave in such a way though. Yes, indeed, it is difficult sometimes, but it is helpful to learn what words harm and what do not so we do not do harm with them, I have found thinking of them like that rather than evocative words like ‘banned’ is more useful.

    • degenEnglish
      51·
      2 months ago

      Sure it’s clickbait, but it’s not inherently wrong. Some mental illness, not all. At the very least we should consider such greed and ruthlessness as unwell. If anything it’s sympathetic and humanizing to a very unaccountable section of society.

      • Lime Buzz@beehaw.orgEnglish
        31·
        2 months ago

        Yes, sure, I can see that.

        Hmm, I’m not sure how a system founded on those things can accept those things as unwell.

        I do agree to some degree, just not sure how to make it be seen by others or by the system itself, it would require destroying it in one way or another and getting these people help which can be difficult to do whilst the system still exists because most of them won’t even ever admit it and nor will the system.

        • degenEnglish
          21·
          2 months ago

          It’s a bit of a chicken and the egg situation, I suppose, both encouraging and empowered by antisocial behavior. It’s hard enough to convince someone there’s a problem to begin with given the culture.

          I do wonder how any transition could be made under an inherently opposed system, but that’s also a key point of Marx with respect to revolution.

    • Lime Buzz@beehaw.orgEnglish
      11·
      2 months ago

      Oh and what’s this, a fascist sounding video embeded inbetween the text?

      Why is this so sadly unsurprising?

      • stabby_cicada@slrpnk.netOPEnglish
        2·
        2 months ago

        Here’s the beginning of the “fascist sounding video” you mention:

        The west is a dystopian wasteland of moral degeneracy.

        Usually when you hear a white person talk about moral degeneracy it’s some wingnut denouncing LGBTQ rights or women’s reproductive rights or whatever, but that’s not what I mean. I’m talking about real things here.

        The real moral decay of our society is illustrated in the way all mainstream political candidates can openly support war crimes currently being inflicted on people in the global south without being immediately removed from power. The way monstrous war criminals of past administrations can endorse a liberal candidate without causing self-proclaimed progressives to recoil from that candidate in horror. The way you can have the two viable candidates for the world’s most powerful elected position both pledge to continue an active genocide without instantly sparking a revolution.

        The moral degeneracy of this civilization looks like living lives of relative comfort built on the backs of workers in the global south whose labor and resources are extracted from their nations at profoundly exploitative rates, while raining military explosives on impoverished populations who dare to disobey the dictates of our government, day after day, year after year, decade after decade, and acting like this is all fine and normal.

        Sounds just like Hitler, don’t it?