The memetic shadow war over the slur "doomer" (the D-word) What’s happening? "Imagine how many more people would have died of lung cancer if the cigarette companies had invented a slur for the people who tried to explain about lung cancer." It began a few years ago - accelerationists/successionists skilled in memetic warfare started pushing it HEAVILY, explicitly trying to discredit us by painting AI risk falsely as a few fringe extremists (It's the OPPOSITE, in fact - we have the support of the world's most credible people! Godfathers of AI, dozens of Nobel laureates, prime ministers, presidents, the world's richest man, the fucking POPE etc etc. It's a dream come true list.) The D-word screams "they're tinfoil hat crazies, not serious people, so you can safely ignore their actual arguments." When you say the D-word, you're repeating THEIR propaganda that we're just some fringe extremists. It's a HUGE own goal. TONS of groups don't have a 'good word' to name themselves. AND THAT'S FINE, ACTUALLY. It's better than wearing a tinfoil hat as a nametag! The people warning about lung cancer didn't have a single word label either. This is normal! HOW YOU CAN HELP: Whenever you see someone using the D-word, call it out as the "D-word" Many new people, including journalists, are picking it up because they don't know it's a slur - they aren't trying to insult anyone, they’re just repeating what they heard others say. It spreads because it's memetically fit (it rhymes with zoomers/boomers) - so we must kill it with stigma. Most people won't use words that are stigmatized. NOTE TO AUTISTIC RATIONALISTS: if you can't see how doomer is a slur, you're playing a simulacrum level 1 game against vastly more skilled memetic warriors operating at higher levels. Your autism is a superpower in some areas, but it blinds you to the games being played here.

Just because your enemies found a memetically fit insult doesn't mean you should just lay down and take it. Fuck that. Politicians spend half their time just trying to get negative labels pinned to their enemies, who fight back. You RARELY should "just own" insulting names.