I think the issue here is attempting to unilaterally disarm in a culture war. If your attitude is “let’s through different elements of the situation and see it through the eyes of the people” , and their attitude is “let’s use the most effective memetic superweapons we have access to to destroy everyone we disagree with”, then you’re going to lose and they are going to win.
A stark conclusion of “you’re going to lose” seems like it’s updating too much on a small number of examples.
For every story we hear about someone being cancelled, how many times has such an attempt been unsuccessful (no story) or even led to mutual reconciliation and understanding between the parties (no story)? How many times have niceness, community, and civilization won out over opposing forces?
(I once talked to a professor of mine at Yale who was accused by a student of sharing racist material. It was a misunderstanding. She resolved it with a single brief email to the student, who was glad to have been heard and had no further concerns. No story.)
I’m also not sure what your recommendation is here. Is it “refuse to communicate with people who espouse beliefs of type X”? Is it “create a centralized set of rules for how EA groups invite speakers”?
I think the issue here is attempting to unilaterally disarm in a culture war. If your attitude is “let’s through different elements of the situation and see it through the eyes of the people” , and their attitude is “let’s use the most effective memetic superweapons we have access to to destroy everyone we disagree with”, then you’re going to lose and they are going to win.
A stark conclusion of “you’re going to lose” seems like it’s updating too much on a small number of examples.
For every story we hear about someone being cancelled, how many times has such an attempt been unsuccessful (no story) or even led to mutual reconciliation and understanding between the parties (no story)? How many times have niceness, community, and civilization won out over opposing forces?
(I once talked to a professor of mine at Yale who was accused by a student of sharing racist material. It was a misunderstanding. She resolved it with a single brief email to the student, who was glad to have been heard and had no further concerns. No story.)
I’m also not sure what your recommendation is here. Is it “refuse to communicate with people who espouse beliefs of type X”? Is it “create a centralized set of rules for how EA groups invite speakers”?