Robin Hood

Article

Robin Hood is a recurring person in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 2 times across 2 issues between September 29, 2022 and May 26, 2023. The archive places it in contexts such as “like Robin Hood”; “Davies remarks on the possibility that fraudsters may delude themselves into believing they are like Robin Hood (the 13th century outlaw, not the 21st century trading app)“. It most often appears alongside Boston, /r/wallstreetbets, 1 Kings 10-11.

Metadata

  • Category: People
  • Mention count: 2
  • Issue count: 2
  • First seen: September 29, 2022
  • Last seen: May 26, 2023

Appears In

Source Context

Recovered passages from the original issue text. When the raw archive preserved outbound links inside the source passage, they are listed directly under the quote.

September 29, 2022 · Original source
I guess this is the QAnon thing (though he has some kind of complicated objection to that terminology). And QAnon is among the most over-covered phenomena of our time, so much so that it’s hard to have a novel or interesting take on it. But I’ll try: I think the right genre for Trump is “outlaw prince” - like Robin Hood, or Song Jiang, or your better class of pirate captain. Realistically he’s just out to enrich himself. But he defeats and embarrasses so many people along the way that he becomes a legend, inextricably tied to the very idea that the establishment can be beaten. He develops a cult following, his relatively meager real accomplishments get exaggerated in song and legend, and everyone assumes that he was only stealing from the rich in order to give to the poor or something. He can’t be caught, he can’t be defeated; like Elvis, he won’t even be able to die. He has ascended to the realm of archetypes. I guess that is a kind of winning a #SoulWAR.
May 26, 2023 · Original source
Davies remarks on the possibility that fraudsters may delude themselves into believing they are like Robin Hood (the 13th century outlaw, not the 21st century trading app): your victims are often "rich people," and you get to do it without violence (when toxic waste isn't involved). In the case of abstract "market crimes," people may even believe they are committing a "victimless crime." However, these crimes aren't truly victimless: