Iterative Chaos Wiki - User contributions [en]

Last Alarm

2025-10-25T01:56:35Z

RobertBushman:

[[Category:Stories]]
I intend for this to be my last alarm. I think this is as clear as it needs to be. We'll see if I can stick to that.

After this, I hope to shift my focus to "how to prepare and how to guide."

* https://old.reddit.com/r/MurderedByWords/comments/1o1j4op/we_would_have_won_if_the_soldiers_werent_like_you/
* https://old.reddit.com/r/CringeTikToks/comments/1ny24u3/trump_declares_war_on_his_own_country/
* https://old.reddit.com/r/WhitePeopleTwitter/comments/1nv5jov/bookmark_this/
** In that speech is also the "gloves off" stuff.
* https://old.reddit.com/r/news/comments/1o2bl9r/us_antifascism_expert_blocked_from_flying_to/
* https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-chicago-national-guard
** Chicago judge says no National Guard, but suggests ICE is in bounds.
* https://old.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/1o9erhh/trump_commutes_prison_sentence_of_exgop_rep/
** In his post, Trump justified the move by criticising a Democratic lawmaker, Senator Richard Blumenthal, whom he accused of fabricating his US military service. "This is far worse than what George Santos did, and at least Santos had the Courage, Conviction, and Intelligence to ALWAYS VOTE REPUBLICAN!" Trump wrote.
* Trump sues DoJ for $250m, says he gets to decide if the DoJ should pay him.
** https://old.reddit.com/r/law/comments/1odcgiw/trump_says_he_has_final_say_on_paying_himself/
* Miller ICE Immunity: https://old.reddit.com/r/law/comments/1ofd2z9/stephen_miller_threatens_to_arrest_jb_pritzker/
* Election Manipulation Overview: https://youtu.be/TiZbOACdXqs?si=oQBWS0Zxx2BxwA01
* Adjacent
** Chemical Safety Example: https://youtu.be/BeaX0IRjyd8?si=ULFrm7HSwaC3X7GE&t=594
*** Dive Started From: https://old.reddit.com/r/news/comments/1o47s93/there_are_no_survivors_in_the_blast_at_a/
** Breakdown of social contract.
** Not a MAGA thing: https://old.reddit.com/r/antiwork/comments/1oaelo9/report_reveals_over_the_past_50_years_the_1_has/
*** https://www.rand.org/pubs/working_papers/WRA516-2.html
**** See: Documents/hacking/socioeconomics/RAND_WRA516-2...
= Plenary Authority =
* https://old.reddit.com/r/WhitePeopleTwitter/comments/1o19z7o/that_awkward_moment_when_you_accidentally/

I have a copy of the original, unedited video. The transcript still has the "plenary authority" line, for now: https://transcripts.cnn.com/show/cnc/date/2025-10-06/segment/10

This answers why so much emphasis has been placed on ICE: the most clear establishment of Presidential plenary authority is regarding immigration. And that's probably why they told CNN to censor it from the news. It's their ace in the hole. They're trying the national guard stuff, but know that the law is against them if they run into an honorable judge.

That's also why they're shifting to military equipment and training for ICE: https://old.reddit.com/r/nottheonion/comments/1o17vxa/ice_agents_rappel_from_black_hawk_helicopters/

Trump / Miller / Thiel / Project 2025 are confident that they can get SCOTUS support to operate a heavily militarized ICE presence anywhere that there are suspected illegal immigrants (IE: any city). They just don't want to boil that frog too quickly.

= Dominion Sold =
* https://old.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/1o2e65n/dominion_voting_sold_to_company_run_by_exgop/nin4sgo/

<blockquote>
As part of its deal with Dominion, Liberty officials asked Dominion to settle several other defamation lawsuits against Trump allies who attacked the company over the 2020 election results.

In recent weeks, Dominion has reached undisclosed settlements with former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Trump lawyer Sidney Powell and One America News Network.

Dominion had sued Giuliani and Powell for $1.3 billion each. It had sued OANN for $1.6 billion.
</blockquote>

Nothing shady about a bunch of shady people reaching a shady deal with the company they accused of rigging the election just before it gets bought by a guy who totally-pinky-swear isn't going to rig the election. Nothing shady at all.

= Argentina v. USAID =
The closure of USAID is projected to lead to more than 14 million additional deaths globally by 2030, including over 4.5 million children under five, due to the loss of vital health and humanitarian programs. This follows the agency's history of preventing an estimated 91 million deaths from 2001 to 2021 through its various initiatives.

* https://ph.ucla.edu/news-events/news/research-finds-more-14-million-preventable-deaths-2030-if-usaid-defunding
* https://old.reddit.com/r/MurderedByWords/comments/1o8d24m/making_argentina_great_again/
* https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-argentina-bailout
* https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/09/us/politics/argentina-bailout-investors.html
* https://time.com/7298994/usaid-deaths-studies-estimates-foreign-aid-hiv-aids-malaria-sudan/
* https://www.bu.edu/sph/news/articles/2025/tracking-anticipated-deaths-from-usaid-funding-cuts/

Need Engineering

2025-10-23T11:07:44Z

RobertBushman: /* Financial Need Engineering */

[[Category:Stories]]

Dysfunctional capitalism brings people to the edge of desperation. It is a consequence of highly proficient profit maximization where labor is an expense and there are a small number of large employers.

Short Version: Need Engineering is the process of keeping people on the edge of desperation. It is rarely an objective in itself, at least not in those terms, but it is an unavoidable consequence of highly proficient profit maximization when labor is universally calculated as an expense and there are a relatively small number of large employers.

I'm not sure "Need Engineering" is the right term for this, but it fits with "Avarice Engineering" as a thematic title, so let's start here.

[Avarice Engineering] is how you get people to buy crap they don't need.

Need engineering is how you keep people on the edge of desperation so they are unwilling to resist.

I had intended to make this page "Wealth Concentration." But I don't really have a problem with wealth concentration in itself.

If we could, for example, gradually approach a wealth concentration of 99.99% held by one person and 0.01% shared among everyone else - but "everyone else" was living their "dream the impossible dream" life - I wouldn't mind.

I think there are physics reasons why we won't get there in the foreseeable future, but that isn't about whether it could work; just about whether it would. It's just a belief about tomorrow resembling today; subject to change.

Anyway, I want to focus on the bad thing: The intentional and malevolent generation of a state of desperate craving that results in a society unwilling to resist simultaneously for months, when a long train of abuses becomes destructive of the pursuit of happiness.

= Financial Need Engineering =
Keep them a couple paychecks away from disaster. Keep them thinking they're about to get fired. Keep them thinking they're replaceable. Keep them thinking resistance is a fire-able offense and toadying leads to advancement.

= Culture War Need Engineering =
Make people believe that if they let up on trans rights or gun ownership or religious freedom or reproductive health care - even for a moment - they will lose. Then convince them it's the other commoner they must fight.

Need Engineering

2025-10-23T11:05:57Z

RobertBushman: /* Culture War Need Engineering */

[[Category:Stories]]

Dysfunctional capitalism brings people to the edge of desperation. It is a consequence of highly proficient profit maximization where labor is an expense and there are a small number of large employers.

Short Version: Need Engineering is the process of keeping people on the edge of desperation. It is rarely an objective in itself, at least not in those terms, but it is an unavoidable consequence of highly proficient profit maximization when labor is universally calculated as an expense and there are a relatively small number of large employers.

I'm not sure "Need Engineering" is the right term for this, but it fits with "Avarice Engineering" as a thematic title, so let's start here.

[Avarice Engineering] is how you get people to buy crap they don't need.

Need engineering is how you keep people on the edge of desperation so they are unwilling to resist.

I had intended to make this page "Wealth Concentration." But I don't really have a problem with wealth concentration in itself.

If we could, for example, gradually approach a wealth concentration of 99.99% held by one person and 0.01% shared among everyone else - but "everyone else" was living their "dream the impossible dream" life - I wouldn't mind.

I think there are physics reasons why we won't get there in the foreseeable future, but that isn't about whether it could work; just about whether it would. It's just a belief about tomorrow resembling today; subject to change.

Anyway, I want to focus on the bad thing: The intentional and malevolent generation of a state of desperate craving that results in a society unwilling to resist simultaneously for months, when a long train of abuses becomes destructive of the pursuit of happiness.

= Financial Need Engineering =
= Culture War Need Engineering =
Make people believe that if they let up on trans rights or gun ownership or religious freedom or reproductive health care - even for a moment - they will lose. Then convince them it's the other commoner they must fight.

2025-10-21T01:32:56Z

RobertBushman:

<blockquote>
I don't see how it's wall streets fault that americans can't afford the cars. The manufactures are making vehicles based on 'what people want'

Along with gov policies which drive development of vehicles. This has pushed pricing higher and higher. lets be real a lot of people don't need a full size f150 with all the bells and whistles.

If more people pushed for afforadable sedans the avg car size and price may be cheaper.
</blockquote>

"What people want" is more. That's what everyone wants, all the time. It is hard wired into our lizard brains to want more.

Above that we have norms that regulate our behavior with rules and a rational mind that challenges the lizard brain and the rules.

If Wall Street were only reacting to the market, there may be no problem. I say "may" because I haven't considered it much. My career was helping Wall Street manipulate people. Wall Street does not take a hands-off approach to consumer demand.

I was an avarice engineer. I used machine learning to put the right stimulus in front of a vulnerable person at their weakest moment to get them to spend money.

Wall Street has also invested heavily in a corrupt political system to steadily reduce the friction (taxes) on cashflow to the wealthiest. Reducing friction on one channel in a system increases flow down that channel relative to the others. IE: Wall Street actively reduces compensation to the consumers of its goods.

Wall Street Cars

2025-10-21T01:23:20Z

RobertBushman:

2025-10-21T00:50:53Z

RobertBushman: RobertBushman moved page Story:Avarice Engineer to Avarice Engineer

[[Category:Stories]]

The strength I leaned on in my career was avarice engineering. I mostly worked for advertising, marketing, or retail companies. My job was to increase revenue. And I was on the leading edge of altering people's desires, algorithmically.

At its core, it is simple. Look at every behavior you have seen from a person, quantify that data into an embedding - a list of floating point numbers, or vector of scalars - and based on that understanding of a person and how they react, you put the stimuli in front of them that will make them do what you want.

In 2008, for a few months, I may have been the best in the world.

I created and deployed a new method of ad targeting that intentionally used machine learning to manipulate people's emotions to increase their spending. I tripled sales compared to our cube farm of demographic targeting experts.

For years, I dined out on the following story:

We could, right now, create an algorithm that looks at your phone's historic location on Google Maps, and determine whether you attend alcoholics anonymous meetings. I can infer when you have a moment of weakness and miss a few meetings.

There already exist, deployed as clients and built-in to many services, systems that monitor people's emotional states in real time, based on their social media postings. Those two identities are tied to each other in various ways, most easily because your cell phone just tells everyone your unique ID, across domain boundaries.

I can know when you have had a weakness for drink, and what was the sequence of your emotional states leading up to that moment. I can look at your browsing history and see what stories you read in Google News that day. I can build that emotional state over the course of days by putting the right stimulus in front of you, and I can spring the trap when I feel your vulnerability via your clickstream.

I can surface the Gaza story, or the Ukraine story, or the Noem story. I have dozens of versions of each story and I know the emotional and motivational palette of each with dozens of degrees of freedom. I can make you self-conscious if I want you to buy cosmetics or male enhancement pills. Angry if I want you to lash out. Morose if I want you to disengage. Happy if I want you to be receptive. Cynical if I want you to question your own team.

Avarice Engineer

2025-10-21T00:50:44Z

RobertBushman:

Story:Need Engineering

2025-10-21T00:49:53Z

RobertBushman: RobertBushman moved page Story:Need Engineering to Need Engineering

#REDIRECT [[Need Engineering]]

Need Engineering

2025-10-21T00:49:53Z

RobertBushman: RobertBushman moved page Story:Need Engineering to Need Engineering

[[Category:Stories]]

I'm not sure "Need Engineering" is the right term for this, but it fits with "Avarice Engineering" as a thematic title, so let's start here.

[Avarice Engineering] is how you get people to buy crap they don't need.

Need engineering is how you keep people on the edge of desperation so they are unwilling to resist.

I had intended to make this section "Wealth Concentration." But I don't really have a problem with wealth concentration in itself.

If we could, for example, gradually approach a wealth concentration of 99.99% held by one person and 0.01% shared among everyone else - but "everyone else" was living their "dream the impossible dream" life - I wouldn't mind.

I think there are physics reasons why we won't get there in the foreseeable future, but that isn't about whether it could work; just about whether it would. It's just a belief about tomorrow resembling today; subject to change.

Anyway, I want to focus on the bad thing: The intentional and malevolent generation of a state of desperate craving that results in a society unwilling to resist simultaneously for months, when a long train of abuses becomes destructive of the pursuit of happiness.

Need Engineering

2025-10-21T00:49:38Z

RobertBushman:

Need Engineering

2025-10-21T00:47:01Z

RobertBushman:

I'm not sure "Need Engineering" is the right term for this, but it fits with "Avarice Engineering" as a thematic title, so let's start here.

[Avarice Engineering] is how you get people to buy crap they don't need.

Need engineering is how you keep people on the edge of desperation so they are unwilling to resist.

I had intended to make this section "Wealth Concentration." But I don't really have a problem with wealth concentration in itself.

If we could, for example, gradually approach a wealth concentration of 99.99% held by one person and 0.01% shared among everyone else - but "everyone else" was living their "dream the impossible dream" life - I wouldn't mind.

I think there are physics reasons why we won't get there in the foreseeable future, but that isn't about whether it could work; just about whether it would. It's just a belief about tomorrow resembling today; subject to change.

Anyway, I want to focus on the bad thing: The intentional and malevolent generation of a state of desperate craving that results in a society unwilling to resist simultaneously for months, when a long train of abuses becomes destructive of the pursuit of happiness.

Need Engineering

2025-10-21T00:39:21Z

RobertBushman:

2025-10-09T21:26:18Z

RobertBushman: Created page with "Category:Stories I intend for this to be my last alarm. I think this is as clear as it needs to be. We'll see if I can stick to that. After this, I hope to shift my focus to "how to prepare and how to guide." = Plenary Authority = * https://old.reddit.com/r/WhitePeopleTwitter/comments/1o19z7o/that_awkward_moment_when_you_accidentally/ I have a copy of the original, unedited video. The transcript still has the "plenary authority" line, for now: https://transcripts...."

[[Category:Stories]]
I intend for this to be my last alarm. I think this is as clear as it needs to be. We'll see if I can stick to that.

After this, I hope to shift my focus to "how to prepare and how to guide."

= Plenary Authority =
* https://old.reddit.com/r/WhitePeopleTwitter/comments/1o19z7o/that_awkward_moment_when_you_accidentally/

I have a copy of the original, unedited video. The transcript still has the "plenary authority" line, for now: https://transcripts.cnn.com/show/cnc/date/2025-10-06/segment/10

This answers why so much emphasis has been placed on ICE: the most clear establishment of Presidential plenary authority is regarding immigration. And that's probably why they told CNN to censor it from the news. It's their ace in the hole. They're trying the national guard stuff, but know that the law is against them if they run into an honorable judge.

That's also why they're shifting to military equipment and training for ICE: https://old.reddit.com/r/nottheonion/comments/1o17vxa/ice_agents_rappel_from_black_hawk_helicopters/

Trump / Miller / Thiel / Project 2025 are confident that they can get SCOTUS support to operate a heavily militarized ICE presence anywhere that there are suspected illegal immigrants (IE: any city). They just don't want to boil that frog too quickly.

= Dominion Sold =
* https://old.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/1o2e65n/dominion_voting_sold_to_company_run_by_exgop/nin4sgo/

<blockquote>
As part of its deal with Dominion, Liberty officials asked Dominion to settle several other defamation lawsuits against Trump allies who attacked the company over the 2020 election results.

In recent weeks, Dominion has reached undisclosed settlements with former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Trump lawyer Sidney Powell and One America News Network.

Dominion had sued Giuliani and Powell for $1.3 billion each. It had sued OANN for $1.6 billion.
</blockquote>

Nothing shady about a bunch of shady people reaching a shady deal with the company they accused of rigging the election just before it gets bought by a guy who totally-pinky-swear isn't going to rig the election. Nothing shady at all.

What Can I Do

2025-10-08T14:30:38Z

RobertBushman:

[[Category:Stories]]
I see people ask "what can I do?" occasionally on the Internet. It is a question best seen as a sincere request for ideas.

Formatted for Reddit:
<pre>
Some options:

* **Leave:** I'm moving to France, denying them my skilled labor and their influence over my freedom of expression. It's hard. My people, my life; gone. Starting from scratch in my 50s. Do it anyway, unless it is impossible.
* **Boycott:** Every purchase from an American company should make you stop and question it. Shut down your streaming. Stop using Gmail. Switch to Canadian whiskey (it's better than bourbon anyway).
* **Reduce Consumption:** The rich only care about money. Keep your pennies out of their hands. Learn to cook, cook for your friends instead of going to bars and restaurants. Go to the library, the park, or see a lecture at the university.
* **Learn:** Choose your own adventure; first aid, tactics, chemistry; there are lots of options. Learning is always good, even if it (hopefully) is never necessary.
* **Influence:** Tell others how to resist. Teach them what you learn. Show others who feel what you are feeling right now that it is possible to take small steps toward something better.
* **Drill Together:** Put together a group of people to go to the park on Saturday morning and march in formation with broom handles. Do a half hour of calisthenics. Sing patriotic resistance songs like "This Land Is Your Land" and "Killing In The Name." Show people they are not alone.
* **Be Ready:** Hopefully none of this will ever be necessary. But if things go bad, they might go bad suddenly. Each thing you do now is a thing you will be glad you did.
* **Consider History:** Learn about the Maquis. See if your library has a "A French Village" on streaming. Read "They Thought They Were Free."

Start small, it only takes a spark, spread some embers. Do a little thing each day, and when you are ready to rest each night, you can reflect on the fact that you are one small step closer to your goal.
</pre>

What Can I Do

2025-10-08T14:30:14Z

2025-09-30T13:36:27Z

RobertBushman:

Clumsy Fascism

2025-09-30T13:20:57Z

RobertBushman: