42 Comments

I subscribed when I saw that was being offered.

I'm pretty sure that article was clickbait intended to drive traffic from enraged Taylor Swift fans and I'd have known nothing of it had you not took the time to dismantle it so well.

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Thank you, Invisigoth.

I would imagine that you are correct, and it was fun to go through and debunk.

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This article seems to be part of the republican outrage generation machine. The republicans have been unhappy with Taylor Swift for a while. They became especially angry when Swift urged young people to vote at one of her events.

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The article is several years old

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Oh, I see. Okay then, just a narcissist doing massive projection, I guess.

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Very thorough dissection of the article. you exposed that the article was muddled and confused. One thing occurred to me as I read it. How about a medical definition of the factors that are necessary (and sufficient?) for what we know as psychopathy and then labeling it as "Neurodivergence-Type P" to distinguish it from the behavioral sieve that psychologists (and amateur psychologists) seem to utilize to "diagnose" it. That behavioral net seems to be enough of a mandelbrot that some distinguished professor told me there is a strong comorbidity of psychopathy and narcissism. With a net like that you'd definitely catch fish, plus diatoms, copepods, the wandering amoeba, pond scum and water molecules...

So with the possible loss of the dashingly romantic label of "psychopath" to something that might be eventually abbreviated as "ND-P" and which can be diagnosed with tests involving some interesting equipment and markers, what have we to lose? There might be a spectrum of ND-P people to be discovered much like autism. I am not sure I am a psychopath but I am fairly certain I fall somewhere in the Asperger's part of the autism spectrum.

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I absolutely agree that as a term, "psychopathy" is irredeemable. I have had, "anaffective" suggested to me as a term as well, however, "psychopath" should be ditched and the entire concept rethought through with a focus on things that can be defined in a scientific way, and not through subjective behavior.

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Would " downaffective" with down as the prefix as in downgrade work? It looks funny but we're not totally devoid of emotion just mostly

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I think people would associate it with Down Syndrome if that was the choice

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That actually made me laugh. Yeah probably don't want to go there

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It's irredeemable even semantically. You can hardly use a word that means "sickness of the psyche" as a foundation for unbiased examination.

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I'm looking forward to be able to subscribe. god grant that my current poverty is only temporary due to ineffective use of my time and strength. Otherwise, I will continue to recommend your thoughtful articles anyway.

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It's always nice to see you here, Joe

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Joe, I live as basically a hermit. I don't interact with people much, that is to say "at all", etc. So I often get things wrong. It is always my fault, partly bc I hear the words in a different way.

I like to read Athena and I read the comments, like yours:

Can I ask you about this sentence? "god grant that my current poverty...."

To me, it is fascinating and I want to ask you about it but also not to be a dick or inadvertently insult you.

Maybe you didn't over-think your words. Likely. And Likely I am just reading and allowing to play in my head.

Do you mean the words literally? Maybe these are words that you, and others, "just say"?

Please dont take me too seriously! And be free to ignore entirely!!

Best wishes.

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Your question is welcome on at least 2 counts. Let me count the ways...

1) I just got back from a mission trip to Nicaragua. Considering poverty, I am busy eating my words. The trip was breath-taking and life-changing, because it was spiked with a short vacation at a relaxed oceanside resort with a gifted chef and eager, cheerful hosts. Immediately Before that, I was teaching a decently sized group of adults and children in a village that grew on the ruins of a factory massacred and burned by the Contras.

Note that I didn't go on the vacation in a premeditated fashion. I was talked into a parishioner of mine to go on the mission trip, and was reluctanct because there is no way I can afford the trip on what I make. (I'm running almost 1k in the red a month.) He is not a rich man himself (he's a worker at a feed mill) but he fronted me money to go. What can I say? I have resolved to make my app business idea a reality, because otherwise he's never getting paid back...

2) In my rush, I didn't check my spelling. I meant "God grant" seriously. I have trusted in the one I've come to know as my creator, savior and sanctifier for all kinds of things which I also ended up getting. Why not the business idea? I'm putting it in his hands. I may let you know if it ever goes on the market, e.g. Google Play or something. The idea is solid and whenever I mention it to my colleagues in the ministry, they say they'd buy it. So here we go.

3) I'm not in the least offended by your curiosity. In fact, I thank you for your attention and I wish you all the best, for keeping me honest, and I hope that your interest and input will be richly repaid one way or another.

In brief: "Thank you, actually. Feel free to reach out."

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Hey! TY for your kind and thoughtful reply. Obviously we are both guests on Athena's thread and we don't want to take anything from her efforts or distract her. I owe her. Her work helped so much: I can never pay her back.

But I was really struck by your original post! You know, as if we were in a bar someplace talking it over!!!

Super congrats on your Nicaragua trip. "Poverty"- hmmm.

If you lived in Nicaragua, just by your status and access to capital and past experience, you would be seen as wealthy.

Right?

Well, here is the thing: You also would be. You would be wealthy relative to those around you.

Were you teaching English?

How is it you are coming up short a thousand (I assume USD) a month. That is hard to sustain.

Perhaps just thank the kind man who sponsored your trip? He gave you education and experience. Maybe he hoped it would change you (in a good way). Maybe he wanted you to see how rich you really are?

Rather than pay him back, consider taking him for coffee and really telling him how much it changed you!!! Ask him if he thinks his money well invested and if you should pay him back.

Maybe he prefer taking his chance that his gift will be rewarded by someone other than you?

Right? If he believes in God who rewards people in this life. Maybe he is doing business on that level. If so, you are a bit in the way, by not letting it go. If his intent is to just give it to you, just thank him.

Business App

For reasons far beyond Athena's thread, you are far more likely to sell the idea, rather than create a profit from an ap.

Perhaps take a look around your home?

Do you use a Waterpik? Improve it (with a digital readout and record of time it was used: Add a print function to take to the dental hygenist) and license your improvements with the manufacturer, for example.

But do it "down and dirty" where you are creating intellectual property.

You are a Christian leader of some nature. Why not create (either write yourself or work with a group to do so) some really cool -non cheesy- Uplifting Christian novels or the like. Movies, plays, songs.

Imagine Battle of the Bulge being fought (weren't the Americans heros in that? I think so) but recast it as outposts preventing demons from entering the City of God (hehehe- not in a St Augustine sort of way!!) where the demons appear as Zombies. They come in groups bc the "carrier"- the human renegade soul, doesn't realize they are attached to him!! Hehehe.

Instead of being all cheesy, and preachy, and doctrinal, and sectarian? You get a product more like "Uncle Tom's Cabin" than a Hal Lindsey scare them up.

Lindsey's material is considered "trash" by now right? If Lindsey is a bad example, maybe I mean Mike, Brother Mike Warnke!! haha. The George Santos of Christian writers.

The cool thing about writing is it can be done in very short time. It can often be sold or monetized quickly also.

If you are the pastor, and this guy is your parishioner?

Consider going to this man. This cool decent man. And tell him like you would your father or at least your brother: A person who would send you to Nicaragua? Probably is ready to help you in ways you don't know at the moment.

You have to stop the bleeding (the $1k monthly) AND either reduce your outflow or increase your inflow.

If you increase the inflow, do it in such a way that it is a "Big Idea". Get others involved.

If you are a pastor or the like, go past "my church" and go for "my community". Please read Ezekiel 16: 48. See what those people were doing (not the bad people, the good ones)

Then do that. No Christian in the USA is. You know? The Christian Country? Helping others?

We laugh at Christians for many reasons, but often is while they are indeed "more correct" in doctrine, that only makes them Pharisees!!! hehehe.

We all agree Pharisees are funny!@!@

Best Wishes. I hope you will go back to Nicaragua soon.

I am laughing so hard right now!!

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Lots to think about.

I'm actually from Canada, the northern banana republic that sells oil, wheat, lumber, fertilizer, engineers and comedians for maybe a 40% haircut. Reliable pension checks and keeping Quebec in the fold, you see?

As for community involvement, I certainly am interested. We actually helped a Tanzanian graduate student finish her studies through an unplanned pregnancy after sexual assault (having an abortion was out of the question for her - she wanted to keep the baby). She's in a coop with an actuarial consulting firm in Toronto now. We also were helping a Ukrainian refugee family, but they eventually had to go to the States instead. Given my explanation above, I don't find it a stretch.

Regarding your caution about the business idea, please reach out to me directly over substack in Notes. I'm taking to heart what you said. I have an indirect affiliation with a nonprofit organization which may be willing to acquire my technology.

As for Pharisees? Well, I'm a prophet among my own kind, too liberal for the culture warriors, and attacked by the left by association. Truth is, well, subordinate to other concerns only they know. Money? Tribal affiliation? Will to power and redical autonomy? Only they know - or not.

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Jan 31Edited

Athena, I did not know about "notes". Apparently, it is like PMs. Perhaps it is a new feature?

Your "Notes" include all your work, all your major posts, in one place!!

WOW@.

Also, you have more than 1,000 subscribers.

To Joe Das, I easily sent a message, but NOT to you, as the system may not allow it.

Best wishes always: Look forward to your work!!

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Sure, it does sound like a new feature. I am unfamiliar with it.

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What does it mean: "Directly over substack in Notes"?

I do have alot to say about Canada, all of it good. But, yes, please help me to reach out.

Thanks!!!

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And here we are.

I wonder if this is appearing in the thread on the article anyway? I saw a message from you. Let me check.

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As much as I enjoyed your writing, the’Jamie’ character sounds like a child and you have a lot of patience.

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I do try

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Okay so I know the article written by this person was almost a decade ago but for anyone not familiar with Swift: the person that wrote this article, unfortunately, isn’t just an outlier. People shat ALL over Taylor Swift. Why? Because she wrote songs about boys, because she was beautiful / rich, because her fanbase is mostly young girls?

I can’t say I know. What I do know is that Taylor Swift was more than aware of the vitriol and accusations people were making about her. In fact, she addresses them in a lot of her song lyrics, the people who think she’s some sort of crybaby slut or a master manipulator.

“I go on too many dates, but I can’t make them stay, at least that’s what people say.”

She also directly leaned into the people calling her a psychopath, a narcissist, a manipulator, etc. after a breakdown in which she disappeared from the public for about a year, she came out with her album ‘Reputation’ which included such not so subtle call-outs to the media / haters such as this:

“I never trust a narcissist, but they love me. So I play them like a violin, and I make it look oh so easy.” <— mocking people that think she’s somehow brainwashed the people that like her.

“They’re burning all the witches even if you aren’t one. So go ahead, light me up.”

“I swear I don’t love the drama, it loves me.”

“…For every lie I tell them, they tell me three.”

“They say I did something bad, why’s it feel so good?”

“My reputation’s never been worse, so you must like me for me.”

“Honey, I rose up from the dead. I do it all the time.”

“I don’t trust nobody and nobody trusts me.”

“And therein lies the issue, friends don’t try to trick you, get you on the phone and mind-twist you.” <— this one is about Kim and Kanye acting nice to her to get her on the phone so they could record what they thought was a ‘gotcha’ moment without her consent.

I did really like her music for a long time as a teen because it catered to teen feelings - boys, school, bullying, etc. then I lost interest, but people aren’t kidding when they said she reinvented herself. When people decided to hate her and act like she was an evil seductress witch, she took that shit and wore it with pride, and it WORKED. Reputation sold 700,000 copies on the first day of release in the U.S. alone, and over 2 million copies worldwide in its first week. Honestly? Good for her. People that write shitty, malinformed think pieces like the one Athena broke down here are what gives artists new motivation to keep coming out with new and better stuff. Taylor’s Reputation & Folklore albums are LEAGUES better then the teen girl pop she was releasing a decade ago.

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If we can learn something that we can put into practice and see results from then I might be more inclined to pay for it. I.e. your articles about how people usually manipulate with what usually works on them was a massive insight for me.

I would love to know more about practical social skills basically. The more nuances or niche aspects like networking, negotiations, etc.

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All right, thank you for letting me know

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'not to simp for Taylor Swift, but...' is not a phrase I ever saw coming on a post from Athena 🤣🤣🤣😭

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It wasn't one I ever anticipated writing either

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Looks like she went after someone legally for creating AI deepfakes of her -- good on her for setting that precedent

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She has the bankroll to facilitate change on the issue, but it will make no difference. Anyone can make those deepfakes, from any country, and whatever laws get put in place to stop it can simply be circumvented by doing so in another country where those laws do not apply.

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That’s a bummer

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Indeed it is, but it is wise to see the whole picture. If people had bothered doing so from the get go, they would have seen the pitfalls.

I recently watched an anime that had a former adventurer opening his own apothecary in a small isolated town. He had a couple of unique things that he thought might bring people into his business. One was a new pain killer that wasn't nearly as addictive as what was currently on the market, and one was an additive that could be added to potions and basically make them multiply by four.

He thought that the multiplier would be the unique item that would attract business, and was leaning in that direction. His business partner, however, also happened to be a princess, so she was used to dealing with affairs of state. Her response to his multiplier was that it would harm the population of the small town that he was in. He would essentially collapse the potion making market, which would affect the employment of many people in the area, and cause great harm to the economy of their town.

She had the foresight to see what would come of the decision to make the multiplier available to everyone. He didn't even consider it, and would have put the multiplier to market not seeing the negative consequences that were actually fairly obvious.

This sort of thing happens all the time, and this AI situation is simply one example of it. People tried warning about turning AI lose on the internet and making it available to all for many reasons, the situation with Taylor Swift being one of them. Instead of paying attention, the developers were too encompassed in their own desire to be the first and best AI, ignored these warnings. It wasn't difficult to know that the genie was never going back in the bottle, and while it would be nice that Taylor's legal response to this would have some impact on the situation, the time to stop it was before it was started in the first place. Now, it's too late.

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How would it be stopped? Is it possible for structures to be put in place in a given society to stop these things? Seems like at the very point that the technology is there, there is already no take-back.

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Yes, exactly, we are past the point of return. Now all that can be done is to make software that can identify other software and hot it not only stays up to date, but the software itself, as well as those running it, are worthy of a modicum of trust that it and they are doing what they claim.

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All the PhD degrees and accolades accumulated by these AI researchers and developers don't necessarily seem to confer wisdom

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I would certainly be interested in subscribing. I would be interested in something something to do with staying ahead of safety/bad news (in addition to all the other interesting stories and writings of any kind of course), as you’d be much better than we are at spotting the next MV Sewol if the signs are there in the news

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That would be interesting, I could do that

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All this article is is gossip. I will admit, I find it morally reprehensible to try and speculate about someone’s neurology like this. Mere rumours of having a neurological condition or mental disorder can screw up someone’s life.

While I do like to head canon fictional characters as having mental conditions occasionally, I know for a fact that whatever I say about them won’t cause them to lose custody of their kids, because they’re not real.

Speculating about someone’s cognition like this is a lot like shipping people in real life. Can you imagine how awkward your personal relationships would be if you knew a whole bunch of people “shipped” them?

I truly do not envy celebrities.

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Indeed, I don't either. I always find it particularly weird when people try to "diagnose" those that are famous for some sort of emotional satisfaction.

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You suggest a "Taylor Swift sexy" google search: I'm on it!

There are dozens of variations of "Taylor Swift- Sexy" usually 3-4 minutes in lenght featuring TS being "sexy" without limit.

The article (Taylor is NOT sexy) could NOT be more wrong.

Right now, Taylor owns, in her industry, the label "sexy".

Not "flithy, nasty, kinky, etc"- Not Group Sex, nor Bondage, nor Threeways,..

"Sexy", one on one, belongs to Taylor Swift.

Girl Next Door, Possibly working some evenings part time in a local exotic club (a la Jennifer Beals in Flashdance?)

America's reaction: "Oh, really. Do you think she is working tonight?"

Thanks for this assignment!! I best return to my "research" hahaha

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Hi Tim! This is Joe. I am leaving a note here. I will try to Direct message you, to demonstrate. Now if you leave a note in this your space, I can reply to it as well.

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