Want to wade into the snowy surf of the abyss? Have a sneer percolating in your system but not enough time/energy to make a whole post about it? Go forth and be mid: Welcome to the Stubsack, your first port of call for learning fresh Awful youāll near-instantly regret.
Any awful.systems sub may be subsneered in this subthread, techtakes or no.
If your sneer seems higher quality than you thought, feel free to cutānāpaste it into its own post ā thereās no quota for posting and the bar really isnāt that high.
The post Xitter web has spawned soo many āesotericā right wing freaks, but thereās no appropriate sneer-space for them. Iām talking redscare-ish, reality challenged āculture criticsā who write about everything but understand nothing. Iām talking about reply-guys who make the same 6 tweets about the same 3 subjects. Theyāre inescapable at this point, yet I donāt see them mocked (as much as they should be)
Like, there was one dude a while back who insisted that women couldnāt be surgeons because they didnāt believe in the moon or in stars? I think each and every one of these guys is uniquely fucked up and if I canāt escape them, I would love to sneer at them.
(Last substack for 2025 - may 2026 bring better tidings. Credit and/or blame to David Gerard for starting this.)
Neom update:
Description:
A Lego set on the clearence shelf. Itās an offroad truck that has Neom badges on it.
So Neom is one of those zany planned city ideas right?
Whyā¦ why do they need a racing team? Why does the racing team need a lego set? Who is buying it for 27 dollars? (Well apparently the answer to that last question is nobody).
Anyway a random thought I had about these sorts of silly city projects. Their website says:
(emphasis mine)
This is a weird worldview. The idea that you can sweep existing problems under the rug and start new with a blank slate.
No pollution (but donāt ask about how Saudi Arabia makes money), no existing costly ālegacyā infrastructure to maintain (but donāt ask about how those other cities are getting along), no undesirables (but donāt worry theyāre ācomplying with international standards for resettlement practicesā*).
They assumes thereās some external means of supplying money, day workers, solar panels, fuel, food, etc. As long as their potemkin village is āsustainableā and ādiverseā on the first order they donāt have to think about that. Out of sight, out of mind. Pretty similar to the libertarian citadel fever dreams in a way.
* Actual quote from their website eurrgh, which even itself looks like a lie
lol, this is saudi, they found a way to make half of their water supply to riyadh nonrenewable
The best way of conserving nature is to build a ginormous wall 110 miles long and 1,600 feet high that utterly destroys wildlifeās ability to traverse territory it has been traversing for eons. It is known.
NEOM is a laundry for money, religion, genocidal displacement, and the Saudi reputation among Muslims. NEOM is meant to replace Wahhabism, the Saudi familyās uniquely violent fundamentalism, with a much more watered-down secularist vision of the House of Saud where the monarchs are generous with money, kind to women, and righteously uphold their obligations as keepers of Mecca. NEOM is not only The Line, the mirrored city; it is multiple different projects, each set up with the Potemkin-village pattern to assure investors that the money is not being misspent. In each project, the House of Saud has targeted various nomads and minority tribes, displacing indigenous peoples who are inconvenient for the Saudi ethnostate, with the excuse that those tribes are squatting on holy land which NEOMās shrines will further glorify.
They want you to look at the smoke and mirrors in the desert because otherwise you might see the blood of refugees and the bones of the indigenous. A racing team is one of the cheaper distractions.
aiui they also really donāt like eyes on the modern slave labour theyāre using to build it all
āWhyā¦ why do they need a racing team? Why does the racing team need a lego set? Who is buying it for 27 dollars? (Well apparently the answer to that last question is nobody).ā
Apparently NEOM is sponsoring some McLaren Formula E teams. (Formula E being electric). Google Pixel, Tumi luggage, and the UK Ministry of Defence are other sponsors, but NEOM seems to be the major sponsor.
I assume the market for these is not so much NEOM fans but rather McLaren fans.
As to why NEOM is sponsoring it, I think itās a bit of Saudi boosterism or techwashing to help MBS move past the whole bone saw thing.
Dubai famously doesnāt have a sewage pipe system, human waste is loaded onto tanker trucks that spend hours waiting to offload it in the only sewage treatment plant available.
Dubai is in the United Arab Emirates, not Saudi Arabia.
Iād wager an ounce of gold that the general attitude towards sustainability and the environment is 100% aligned among the rulers of both states.
The Soylent meal replacement thing apparently forgot some important micro nutrients.
I hear ya!
I guess Neom is what happens when a billionaire in the desert gets infected by the seastedding brainworms.