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November 18, 2025 · 1 min read

An amusing video chat with energy writer Irina Slav

Tom KirkmanIndependent Project Manager

Just got off an amusing video chat with Irina Slav.
If you don’t know who she is, you might want to read some of her dry wry wit.

I’ve known her online for a decade, although we have never met in person.

We used to have fun crossing verbal nuances back in the the day of the Oil Price forum, where I was volunteer moderator, and where she still writes feature articles.
oilprice.com ↗

substack.com ↗
[ https :// substack . com / @ irinaslav ]

and on X @IrinaSlav1

So many of my connections already know who Irina is, she is an intellectual in Bulgaria who combines humor with scathing rapier wit, and an abundance of knowledge about international energy.

< no, I didn’t get paid for writing this >

< heh heh, SURPRISE Irina 🤣 >

FROM THE THREAD

Tom's notes 1

  1. Tom Kirkman

    "Conformism is one of the pillars on which a totalitarian society stands.

    The state enforces it with any means available to it, from propaganda to repression, or, best of all, both, as we have all had the dubious pleasure of witnessing in the past five years.

    Many of us here would instinctively see conformism as something negative and that’s because of the respective connotation in the historical context of totalitarian societies.

    In truth, we all want to conform.
    It’s evolutionary.
    We’re always part of a tribe.

    This is where the problem with conformism lies: we don’t all want to be part of the same tribe —yet there are mighty forces at work trying to convince us we must all want to be part of certain tribes — megatribes, if you will.

    Alas, these mighty forces seem prone to underestimation of some things and overestimation of others, and you can see I’ve dropped the pompous style because it’s a bit too conformist for me.

    I’m afraid I’ll have to start today’s diatribe with mentioning the abbreviation AI. ...

    https://open.substack.com/pub/irinaslav/p/by-the-pricking-of-my-thumbs?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

    .

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