More new thoughts on Simplicius (updated)

I offered a fairly complete roundup of thoughts on the Russia-Ukraine warblogger (and writer about other things at a second Substack at the start of this year.

Turns out he has a second Substack (and maybe more?). And, that's about futurism and transhumanism. Keep that in mind when you read anything on his primary Substack.

And, he's got "subverticals" within that. On one of them? This, which both approaches conspiracy theory and shows that he's got an ultimately Eurocentric view of history.

But first, the conspiracy theory part:

Without losing ourselves down the rabbit hole, we can say that Milner and his cohort—the likes of which included Lord Nathaniel Rothschild, Cecil Rhodes, and every other influential baron and titan of the day—orchestrated conflicts from the Boer War to WW1 to advance their stake

Uh, no, dude. Gavrilo Princip, from a Serbian "emerging state" that was still 50 percent pig farmers, wasn't controlled by any of those people.

That alone, let alone the "futurism and transhumanism" at the second Substack, makes me wonder how much of it is background to his primary.

Just a few tidbits beyond that.

One? I think he's one of those war porn type dudes, per his May 7 "sitrep" update, which has a number of war porn videos, the ones with the repeated use of zooming crosshairs, the war porn version of 1990s porno-techno music and so on. 

Related? Besides the war porn music being dubbed in, how much editing is done on these videos? (Ditto for ones posted by blank-check pro-Ukrainian bloggers, Shitters, etc.)

Two? On talking about Russian offenses/counteroffenses (or Ukrainian ones, for that matter) none of his maps ever have a distance scale. "Glorious" offenses covering just yards/meters rather than miles/kilometers ain't all that. That's why claims in the header of this piece about "major frontline breakthrough" should be taken with major grains of salt.

Three, to give some flowers, his piece on North Korean support for Russia, and the quality of both soldiers and kit, confirms what I recently wrote. 

Fourth, his politics? Supporting the broad outlines of Trumpism while saying his Cabinet and Cabinet parallel staff is still too much "swamp players," as he does here, is a hand-tipper. (You hit the paywall at that point, so I can't write more.) Call him a non-isolationist paleoconservative on foreign policy, especially the more "muscular" parts of it. I have never seen him write about domestic policy issues, so can't tell you. 

And, I didn't think about his Substack (and Shitter) name before. I'm wondering if it's an homage to the Neoplatonist philosopher? That might partially explain some of the stuff on the second Substack. As well as his primary Substack. So does the war porn, etc.

He's got one foot, at least, in the tech dudebro world. But, is he someone disenchanted? Someone who got squeezed out? He seems to have edges of dystopianism.

Update, Sept. 23: If Simplicius still thinks he understands Trump on Ukraine, the fact that the Donald talked to Zelensky at the UN General Assembly and then said he thinks Ukraine can totally roll back Russia (story notes it isn't clear if he meant pre-2022 boundaries or even pre-2014) shows he doesn't.