Someone posted this on ssc with a warning about talking to cops, but really just marvel at what's going on here.

Aaronson manages to turn a story where he is briefly arrested for a theft (which he did commit on video!) into paragraphs and paragraphs of indulging in his persecution fantasies.

Zero empathy on display for the people he stole from, the people just doing their jobs, or reflection on the fact that it wasn't a simple little mistake anyone could make but rather... a fairly weird move? Do people usually put change in cups?

  • self@awful.systemsM
    ·
    1 year ago

    god damn, the only part of this post I’m sure happened as written is that this asshole absolutely stole $4 in change on purpose just to see what would happen

    But I try to remind myself every day that the human race doesn’t consist solely of Arthur Chus (or Amanda Marcottes, or Lubos Motls, or SneerClub posters, or Paul Manaforts or Donald Trumps). The world contains millions of women and men of every background and ideology who want actual dialogue, many of whom I’m lucky to count as friends, many of whom I met through this blog. Vulnerability is possible because the world is not uniformly evil.

    —but regardless, it’s absolutely somehow our fault. drink!

    also I found the actual reason why all of this happened, but Scott buried it in a giant block of text so I’m gonna have to reconstruct a little bullet point timeline:

    • when we did arrive, (barely) on time, the contemptuous American Airlines counter staff deliberately refused to check us in, chatting as we stewed impotently, so that we’d no longer be on time and they could legally give our seats away to others, and strand us in an airport with two young kids.
    • the only replacement flight was in a different terminal. * in the stress of switching terminals–everything is stressful with two kids in an airport–I lost our suitcase.
    • the only shuttle to get back to the terminal went around the long way, and was slow as molasses, and by the time I returned our suitcase had been taken by the bomb squad

    so this absolute dipshit started a fight with an airline employee over a flight he was too late to catch (for utterly dipshitted reasons I’ve omitted, see the original post), somehow lost a suitcase, left it unattended for so long that the fucking bomb squad had to be called (which involves automatic confiscation of the suitcase, shutting down the terminal it was left in, and usually detention and a stiff fine for the owner of the luggage — this is usually a big enough problem that it makes the local news), then was caught stealing from a shop after a long day of being belligerent and breaking TSA policy. how is our sweet child not in prison?

        • gerikson@awful.systems
          ·
          1 year ago

          He does seem like a sensitive type, and managed to get on the wrong side of some internet drama years ago (I think he derailed a discussion about sexual harassment with whining about how women didn't want to sleep with him?) and he doesn't seem to be thick-skinned enough to just ignore the haters.

            • gerikson@awful.systems
              ·
              1 year ago

              Thanks for the link.

              JFC, considering the amount of hate Penny and Marcotte have to contend with daily makes Scott having one unpleasant run-in with police then whining about it even more pathetic.

          • maol@awful.systems
            ·
            1 year ago

            That's the Amanda Marcotte incident. Here's an article about the incident (from the Atlantic's regular series, "annals of the nerd blogs we feel the need to share with the nation"). The article is very sympathetic to Scott A but some of it just cannot be made to sound sympathetic. He unironically believes (believed?) that nerd men are "some of society's least privileged males". He also refers to all non-nerd men as neanderthals....

    • self@awful.systemsM
      ·
      1 year ago

      addendum: the cops and TSA involved in the above are also absolute dipshits, I’m just shocked that they managed to be out-dipshitted by a single Scott Aaronson

      I also feel bad for the airline employee, who was more than likely just doing their best

    • Evinceo@awful.systems
      ·
      1 year ago

      we did arrive, (barely) on time, the contemptuous American Airlines counter staff deliberately refused to check us in, chatting as we stewed impotently

      Major 'I'd like to speak to your manager' vibes.

      No empathy for the employees, their little mistakes are assumed to be deliberate, but when the same is assumed of him, the big burley men are here to take the nerds away, I knew it.

    • Evinceo@awful.systems
      ·
      1 year ago

      how is our sweet child not in prison?

      Maybe he's not as persecuted as he thinks? Waving cash around helps apparently.