“which makes me think that it’s likely that Leverage at least for a while had a whole lot of really racist employees.”
“Leverage” seems to have employed at least 60 people at some time or another in different capacities. I’ve known several (maybe met around 15 or so), and the ones I’ve interacted with often seemed like pretty typical EAs/rationalists. I got the sense that there may have been few people there interested in the neoreactionary movement, but also got the impression the majority really weren’t.
I just want to flag that I really wouldn’t want EAs generally think that “people who worked at Leverage are pretty likely to be racist,” because this seems quite untrue and quite damaging. I don’t have much information about the complex situation that represents Leverage, but I do think that the sum of the people ever employed by them still holds a lot of potential. I’d really not want them to get or feel isolated from the rest of the community.
Yep, understood, and thanks for clarifying in the above comment. I wasn’t thinking you thought many of them were racist, but did think that at least a few readers may have gotten that impression from the piece.
There isn’t too much public discussion on this topic and some people have pretty strong feelings on Leverage, so sadly sometimes the wording and details matter more than they probably should.
“Leverage” seems to have employed at least 60 people at some time or another in different capacities. I’ve known several (maybe met around 15 or so), and the ones I’ve interacted with often seemed like pretty typical EAs/rationalists. I got the sense that there may have been few people there interested in the neoreactionary movement, but also got the impression the majority really weren’t.
I just want to flag that I really wouldn’t want EAs generally think that “people who worked at Leverage are pretty likely to be racist,” because this seems quite untrue and quite damaging. I don’t have much information about the complex situation that represents Leverage, but I do think that the sum of the people ever employed by them still holds a lot of potential. I’d really not want them to get or feel isolated from the rest of the community.
Ok actually I just reread this comment and now I think that the thing you quoted me as saying is way too strong. I am confused by why I wrote that.
Yep, understood, and thanks for clarifying in the above comment. I wasn’t thinking you thought many of them were racist, but did think that at least a few readers may have gotten that impression from the piece.
There isn’t too much public discussion on this topic and some people have pretty strong feelings on Leverage, so sadly sometimes the wording and details matter more than they probably should.
Yeah, I don’t think that people who worked at Leverage are pretty likely to be racist.