[HN Gopher] Straussian Memes
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       Straussian Memes
        
       Author : kp1197
       Score  : 6 points
       Date   : 2026-01-01 21:24 UTC (1 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.lesswrong.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.lesswrong.com)
        
       | cathyreisenwitz wrote:
       | Did I miss something, or are none of the examples both Straussian
       | and memetic/memes? I feel like if this were a real thing, one
       | could imagine one example. Also, that's not how churches
       | generally work.
        
         | PaulHoule wrote:
         | It's classic Bay Area monoculture, like that Paul Graham essay
         | about "things you can't say". People are deferential to it
         | because LessWrong is a hugbox or because Graham is rich but in
         | that monoculture people are used to laughing at jokes that lack
         | a punch line and thinking that makes them "insiders", "cool",
         | or "smart", compared to people in flyover states, the East
         | Coast, and the rest of California who can't see the Emperor's
         | clothes.
         | 
         | The article itself is an example of something that overlaps to
         | some extent with its subject without being an example of the
         | subject, like all the examples in it. It's an intriguing idea,
         | like "things you can't say" but without examples it falls flat
         | but that won't bother the rationalists anymore than they are
         | bothered by Aella's "experiments" or allegedly profound fanfics
         | or adding different people's utility functions or reasoning
         | about the future without discounting. It's a hugbox.
         | 
         | Or maybe it is something they can't find any examples of it
         | because humans can't make them, only hypothetical superhuman
         | AI.
         | 
         | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyOEwiQhzMI
        
           | UniverseHacker wrote:
           | Your rant about Bay Area subcultures is suspiciously written
           | in jargon that only someone deep in these subcultures would
           | recognize- well done, very Straussian.
        
         | UniverseHacker wrote:
         | Religions themselves are a great example of a Straussian meme,
         | it's shocking how close they got to using that example but
         | instead went somewhere else with it that made zero sense.
         | 
         | I suspect that the use of incredibly bad examples is some sort
         | of intentional Straussian joke, and that the entire article
         | itself, and not the examples in it, is supposed to be the real
         | example of a Straussian meme.
        
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