As has been said elsewhere by William Bradshaw, this threat makes me a lot (perhaps even something near his 98%) less likely to sympathize and want to support them with where they’re at.
Oliver seems to be handling the threat super well, but as he mentions, those who made this complaint likely don’t have the resources to fend off such an attack, seeming to prove Ben’s point that he had to do it, because how could anyone expect them to if Emerson is still willing to lash out and attack a respected EA org?
But I’m also biased perhaps, because I agree with Rockwell’s plea that we don’t turn into a group that uses litigation to settle our differences. Prove Ben was wrong and said this to hurt Nonlinear in a forum post, or in argument, and I’ll happily come to your cause. Use the money that you have to sue him and Lightcone “to the maximum legal amount” and you’ve given me nearly no pathway to believe in you or your cause.
Geoffrey Miller does point out that the law exists to keep good norms around sharing negative information widely, but I’m apt to agree with Oliver that this more often likely has a chilling effect, and that those norms should be incorporated at the level of the community, in the court of EA public opinion.
One thing I’m confused about: Emerson is the one making threats, so how do I update on the rest of the Nonlinear team? The negative view is that they are moving in different ways in lockstep, hoping if they attack the issue from all sides (from being nice to threatening legal action) it will be more likely to go away. The charitable view is that both Drew and Kat have gotten involved with someone who has some deep personal issues, but who likely has done much positive and good in their lives and has played a big part of it for awhile now, thus wanting to support him is a behavior any good family would undertake, working privately to reign in the more negative outbursts.
Yeah I agree. One update for me: Ben’s new post seems to imply that Drew is not implicated in most of this, and that seems in line with some of the comments, so I’m really tentative in updating at all on him and where he’s at.
As has been said elsewhere by William Bradshaw, this threat makes me a lot (perhaps even something near his 98%) less likely to sympathize and want to support them with where they’re at.
Oliver seems to be handling the threat super well, but as he mentions, those who made this complaint likely don’t have the resources to fend off such an attack, seeming to prove Ben’s point that he had to do it, because how could anyone expect them to if Emerson is still willing to lash out and attack a respected EA org?
But I’m also biased perhaps, because I agree with Rockwell’s plea that we don’t turn into a group that uses litigation to settle our differences. Prove Ben was wrong and said this to hurt Nonlinear in a forum post, or in argument, and I’ll happily come to your cause. Use the money that you have to sue him and Lightcone “to the maximum legal amount” and you’ve given me nearly no pathway to believe in you or your cause.
Geoffrey Miller does point out that the law exists to keep good norms around sharing negative information widely, but I’m apt to agree with Oliver that this more often likely has a chilling effect, and that those norms should be incorporated at the level of the community, in the court of EA public opinion.
One thing I’m confused about: Emerson is the one making threats, so how do I update on the rest of the Nonlinear team? The negative view is that they are moving in different ways in lockstep, hoping if they attack the issue from all sides (from being nice to threatening legal action) it will be more likely to go away. The charitable view is that both Drew and Kat have gotten involved with someone who has some deep personal issues, but who likely has done much positive and good in their lives and has played a big part of it for awhile now, thus wanting to support him is a behavior any good family would undertake, working privately to reign in the more negative outbursts.
I was also uncertain about this, but Kat’s comment above seems to indicate (though not outright say) that she supports the threat to sue.
Yeah I agree. One update for me: Ben’s new post seems to imply that Drew is not implicated in most of this, and that seems in line with some of the comments, so I’m really tentative in updating at all on him and where he’s at.