This weekly roundup thread is intended for all culture war posts. 'Culture war' is vaguely defined, but it basically means controversial issues that fall along set tribal lines. Arguments over culture war issues generate a lot of heat and little light, and few deeply entrenched people ever change their minds. This thread is for voicing opinions and analyzing the state of the discussion while trying to optimize for light over heat.
Optimistically, we think that engaging with people you disagree with is worth your time, and so is being nice! Pessimistically, there are many dynamics that can lead discussions on Culture War topics to become unproductive. There's a human tendency to divide along tribal lines, praising your ingroup and vilifying your outgroup - and if you think you find it easy to criticize your ingroup, then it may be that your outgroup is not who you think it is. Extremists with opposing positions can feed off each other, highlighting each other's worst points to justify their own angry rhetoric, which becomes in turn a new example of bad behavior for the other side to highlight.
We would like to avoid these negative dynamics. Accordingly, we ask that you do not use this thread for waging the Culture War. Examples of waging the Culture War:
-
Shaming.
-
Attempting to 'build consensus' or enforce ideological conformity.
-
Making sweeping generalizations to vilify a group you dislike.
-
Recruiting for a cause.
-
Posting links that could be summarized as 'Boo outgroup!' Basically, if your content is 'Can you believe what Those People did this week?' then you should either refrain from posting, or do some very patient work to contextualize and/or steel-man the relevant viewpoint.
In general, you should argue to understand, not to win. This thread is not territory to be claimed by one group or another; indeed, the aim is to have many different viewpoints represented here. Thus, we also ask that you follow some guidelines:
-
Speak plainly. Avoid sarcasm and mockery. When disagreeing with someone, state your objections explicitly.
-
Be as precise and charitable as you can. Don't paraphrase unflatteringly.
-
Don't imply that someone said something they did not say, even if you think it follows from what they said.
-
Write like everyone is reading and you want them to be included in the discussion.
On an ad hoc basis, the mods will try to compile a list of the best posts/comments from the previous week, posted in Quality Contribution threads and archived at /r/TheThread. You may nominate a comment for this list by clicking on 'report' at the bottom of the post and typing 'Actually a quality contribution' as the report reason.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
I was not familiar with this gentleman, and I'd call myself unusually steeped in rat culture, at least as close as you can get without knowing any in person. He's written a few minor SF anthologies, and has an unremarkable number of Twitter followers.
He's not a rationalist big name, nor even a major one. It's not like we hand out ID cards, anyone can call themselves a rationalist.
Despite being called a "disciple of Yud", the only evidence for that claim are is a blurb in his blog:
Is he a disciple of Watts? Am I, because I've read both him and Yudkowsky?
He's nobody. Not even on LessWrong. At best, he "promoted" a popular Medium post there, which I don't think he wrote.
That and running a HPMOR podcast that probably has like 10 listeners is all the real influence he has in the rationalist community.
I know no end of non-autistic people who have ridiculous beliefs. I have an uncle who's a fan of homeopathy despite being an acclaimed microbiologist. He's perfectly capable of switching off Science Mode when he leaves the lab and takes his sugar pills.
One swallow doesn't a summer make, and this is more of a chicken painted blue.
In general, yes. That doesn't mean that autistic people are infallible arbiters of truth. Especially social truths/lies, where they're perpetually perplexed by how people just seem to make shit up, when they realize the discrepancy.
At the very least, he wasn't deluding himself for social signaling. He's a victim of those who do, guilty of taking them at face value and lacking enough contact with the physical world to overcome that. He's not getting any status from this disclosure, quite the opposite, everyone is coming to laugh and sneer at him.
More options
Context Copy link