Finally, I do think that there is a risk of updating too quickly the other way. Back on the original post, some users have responded this comment saying that it’s ‘entirely correct’[1], but I don’t think it’s reasonable to view Expo’s piece a ‘major misrepresentation’ of what happened—their reporting on the case seems to have been accurate. While ‘Option 1’ seems to be what happened there is still a question of how the grant made it to stage 5 out of 7 on FLI’s grant-making procedure. It’s not the major scandal we feared, but it’s ramifications are more than being ‘mildly embarrassing’.
Similarly, I think EA’s response to the first apology was reasonable, because FLI and Tegmark gave a terrible apology, essentially amounting to a non-apology. It was at least reasonable to suspect that they didn’t actually have much of a problem with Nazism.
Now, a better apology has been produced, but it almost certainly required the criticism of FLI to stick.
Similarly, I think EA’s response to the first apology was reasonable, because FLI and Tegmark gave a terrible apology, essentially amounting to a non-apology. It was at least reasonable to suspect that they didn’t actually have much of a problem with Nazism.
Now, a better apology has been produced, but it almost certainly required the criticism of FLI to stick.