And even if it were possible to “balance out”, the examples given don’t exactly fill me with confidence this was given serious consideration. Someone known primarily[1] for being an angry culture warrior like Hanania isn’t “balanced out” by the presence of “gracious” longtermists who are unlikely to have written anything racist,[2] he’d “balanced out” by getting a culture warrior from the other side, whether in open debate or purely speaking about markets but making it clear the organizers definitely weren’t endorsing a particular side...
The Guardian may not always capture the nuance, but there’s a difference between inviting someone known primarily for his controversial views who incidentally also favours prediction markets and inviting, say, notable prediction market proponent Robin Hanson who incidentally also said questionable things in the past
Indeed if I wanted to organize a conference with the explicit purpose of covertly promoting fringe views to a largely unrelated audience (which I don’t think was actually the case here FWIW), this is exactly how I’d stack the speakers for faux balance: a few people on my side to insinuate the fringe views and a bunch of harmless intellectuals talking about unrelated subject matter to lend the fringe views an air of respectability.
I agree. I think we have to understand that “balancing out” Hanania plays into his game. He’s an intentional provocateur—he says edgy things for attention.
And then he uses that attention to build a platform.
And his explicit intention with that platform is to overturn the US Civil Rights Act.
I don’t want to play any part in enabling that and that’s what “balancing out” does.
The Guardian may not always capture the nuance, but there’s a difference between inviting someone known primarily for his controversial views who incidentally also favours prediction markets and inviting, say, notable prediction market proponent Robin Hanson who incidentally also said questionable things in the past
It’s been a long time since AP Chemistry, but to deploy an imperfect metaphor: Adding water to a strong acid merely makes the solution somewhat less acidic; it does not make it balanced in pH.
And even if it were possible to “balance out”, the examples given don’t exactly fill me with confidence this was given serious consideration. Someone known primarily[1] for being an angry culture warrior like Hanania isn’t “balanced out” by the presence of “gracious” longtermists who are unlikely to have written anything racist,[2] he’d “balanced out” by getting a culture warrior from the other side, whether in open debate or purely speaking about markets but making it clear the organizers definitely weren’t endorsing a particular side...
The Guardian may not always capture the nuance, but there’s a difference between inviting someone known primarily for his controversial views who incidentally also favours prediction markets and inviting, say, notable prediction market proponent Robin Hanson who incidentally also said questionable things in the past
Indeed if I wanted to organize a conference with the explicit purpose of covertly promoting fringe views to a largely unrelated audience (which I don’t think was actually the case here FWIW), this is exactly how I’d stack the speakers for faux balance: a few people on my side to insinuate the fringe views and a bunch of harmless intellectuals talking about unrelated subject matter to lend the fringe views an air of respectability.
I agree. I think we have to understand that “balancing out” Hanania plays into his game. He’s an intentional provocateur—he says edgy things for attention.
And then he uses that attention to build a platform.
And his explicit intention with that platform is to overturn the US Civil Rights Act.
I don’t want to play any part in enabling that and that’s what “balancing out” does.
Yeah I dislike being part of something that rewards Hanania for the worst of his behaviour, which on balance I would guess Manifest currently does.
Well put.
It’s been a long time since AP Chemistry, but to deploy an imperfect metaphor: Adding water to a strong acid merely makes the solution somewhat less acidic; it does not make it balanced in pH.