Well we agree that it doesn’t feel great to feel misunderstood.
It has been surprisingly common for me to make what I perceive to be totally sensible point that isn’t even particularly demanding (about, e.g., maybe not tolerating actual racism) and then the “pro truth-seeking faction” seem to lump me together with social justice warriors and present analogies that make no sense whatsoever.
Okay, what does not tolerating actual racism look like to you? What is the specific thing you’re asking for here?
Okay, what does not tolerating actual racism look like to you? What is the specific thing you’re asking for here?
Up until recently, whenever someone criticized rationality or EA for being racist or for supporting racists, I could say something like the following:
“I don’t actually know of anyone in these communities who is racist or supports racism. From what I hear, some people in the rationality community occasionally discuss group differences in intelligence, because this was discussed in writings by Scott Alexander, which a lot of people have read and so it gives them shared context. But I think this doesn’t come from a bad place. I’m pretty sure people who are central to these communities (EA and rationality) would pretty much without exception speak up strongly against actual racists.”
It would be nice if I could still say something like that, but it no longer seems like I can, because a surprising number of people have said things like “person x is quite racist, but [...] interesting ideas.”
Edited to be about 1 thing.
Well we agree that it doesn’t feel great to feel misunderstood.
Okay, what does not tolerating actual racism look like to you? What is the specific thing you’re asking for here?
Up until recently, whenever someone criticized rationality or EA for being racist or for supporting racists, I could say something like the following:
“I don’t actually know of anyone in these communities who is racist or supports racism. From what I hear, some people in the rationality community occasionally discuss group differences in intelligence, because this was discussed in writings by Scott Alexander, which a lot of people have read and so it gives them shared context. But I think this doesn’t come from a bad place. I’m pretty sure people who are central to these communities (EA and rationality) would pretty much without exception speak up strongly against actual racists.”
It would be nice if I could still say something like that, but it no longer seems like I can, because a surprising number of people have said things like “person x is quite racist, but [...] interesting ideas.”