I’m a bit surprised by this decision. This is the EA forum and this is an emerging area which could be important to discuss (personally I’m super skeptical of tractability but keen to hear ideas). It doesn’t seem very “EA” to censor topics because they might be difficult—heck I’ve been downvoted for suggesting that at time before.
If the topic is specifically about “countering democatic backsliding”vs. other long termist concerns, I think we could (almost) discuss this without violating the forum norms tooooo much. And you even say at the bottom of the page
”we reserve the right to make exceptions in exceptional circumstances. For example, if the favored candidate of the “Destroy Human Civilization” party is leading the polls in a nuclear-armed nation, that seems to merit a Frontpage post about how to stop them”. We’re not there right now, but things are starting to look a bit hairy ;).
And if it turns nasty or into partisan debate, you could just shut it town and say “I told you so” ..
I’m a bit surprised by this decision. This is the EA forum and this is an emerging area which could be important to discuss (personally I’m super skeptical of tractability but keen to hear ideas). It doesn’t seem very “EA” to censor topics because they might be difficult—heck I’ve been downvoted for suggesting that at time before.
If the topic is specifically about “countering democatic backsliding” vs. other long termist concerns, I think we could (almost) discuss this without violating the forum norms tooooo much. And you even say at the bottom of the page
”we reserve the right to make exceptions in exceptional circumstances. For example, if the favored candidate of the “Destroy Human Civilization” party is leading the polls in a nuclear-armed nation, that seems to merit a Frontpage post about how to stop them”. We’re not there right now, but things are starting to look a bit hairy ;).
And if it turns nasty or into partisan debate, you could just shut it town and say “I told you so” ..