It's basically the Torment Nexus meme: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torment_Nexus

... but I guess some people took this as positive reinforcement.

Yeah. A bit overused by now I refrained from quoting it.

Someone here on HN crowned Sam Altman as a "sociopat sociapat" i.e. playing sociopats for money. I think that was the insight of years for me.

Battle Royal explodeing collars for the working class in his doomsday bunker. Or was that Seth of Reddit?

It is a especially visible concept in the new tech sector war industry. Edgelord as a Service.