Pro tip: artist Clark Filio, friend and producer of the show, just released a strategy RPG called “Erulean Angel: Fantasy Commander”. I did a studio visit with Clark last year to see it in development. You can wishlist the game on Steam now.
Welcome to Doomscroll. My guest is
and episode #26 is out today. We explore the emergence of AI, transhumanism and the sex industry (online and offline).Quick reminder, this is a subscriber supported project. If this program makes you think, laugh or cry, you can show your support by becoming a paid subscriber. For $6 you can unlock all bonus videos and help make new episodes of the best podcast on the internet:
This week, my guest is
, a writer, blogger and sex worker. You may know her from her outrageous survey’s on X.com or her many viral posts. She writes the highly popular blog Knowingless. She is a member of the Rationalist online community LessWrong. We discuss:The overlap of niche online politics and sexual fetishes. Today’s media environment has allowed fringe politics to flourish, but it seems unlikely that you can “deradicalize” someone from liking feet.
The early days of online debate culture, from New Atheism to the Woke Wars. Towards the end of this episode, we discuss the many rifts happening within these factions today.
Eugenics, gene modification, and morphological freedom. The ethics around embryo selection open up new possibilities for a transhumanist future.
Aella’s deeply religious upbringing, her job working in a factory and how she learned to navigate the secular world. We discuss the conflict between gov regulation and freedom of expression within the sex industry.
In 2021, Aella published an infamous survey that mapped sexual fetishes to various coordinates of the Political Compass. Since that time, I have followed her work closely.
is undisputedly one of the greatest posters in the history of social media. (To this day, she holds the record for the #1 ranked post on r/gonewild, a subreddit of over 5 million users.) No history of 2020’s internet culture will be complete without several of her posts from X, Substack and more.
In the past few years, it has become clear that among certain techno-libertarian circles there are people who privately hold far right ideals. In some cases, they may use the rhetoric of free speech and property rights to conceal their true beliefs. (We discuss this topic further in this week’s bonus episode.)
Aella is a truly curious individual who engages sincerely and earnestly. So earnestly that it at times took me by surprise. The following conversation is a lot of fun and has since become one of my favorite episodes.
There is literally no one better suited to debate the liberty and self-ownership of AI robot girlfriends. This episode accomplishes much of what I’d like to do with the show. If you enjoy this style, I encourage you to leave on a comment on the YouTube video today. This helps us reach new audience and lets me know how people feel about this format that falls a bit outside our more familiar commentary zone. You can watch the full video here:
Aella: Sex and Ideology in the 21st Century | Doomscroll
On this week’s bonus episode, Aella and I discuss the psychological and social origins of sexual fetishes, the dark side of internet pornography, and we bring clarity to the online debates around race and IQ. Due to TOS, some of these topics can’t be included on the YouTube episode. Other topics are better kept off of public channels. After social media, mainstream institutions no longer have a monopoly on political narratives. But as political actors, we can make better decisions about how to navigate the current discourse.
If you’ve made it all the way down here, you should probably become a paid subscriber. Honestly, where else are you going to get this line up:
 | A guest post by
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Her take on the Sambia (which she calls the Simbari?) seems pretty uninformed. Studies suggest that intimidation and fear of castration as a key element of this ritualized manhood — in other words trauma as integral to the experience.
While the term trauma or how we understand it in our culture might not be part of the language, differ or just not exist as a concept in another culture doesn’t equate that trauma wasn’t experienced.
Not being able to name the traumatic moment or any kind of emotional experience doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened.
Furthermore, WILD she would suggest that because members of this tribe who went through this ritual cause their own children to go through this that they must not experience trauma?!! Because surely those who experienced severe trauma never put their children or loved ones through similar experiences lmfao
Her argument could also be used to suggest FGM as a normal non-traumatic experience irregardless that many women in these cultures want and are resisting it.
I feel like Joshua is smarter than half these guests and he asks really interesting, often complex questions with a genuine curiosity but because of this sometimes the interviews fall flat because the answers by guests are so lacking and uninformed comparatively.
But I do understand that to also be the point. It seems more like a research project in that sense. But some more compelling than others.
I’m completely captivated.