Hi Nathan, thanks for the additional contextualisation.
I want to make it very clear that I am not against a productive and reasoned discussion on how best to manage trauma discussions within a social group, including on the possibility of someone claiming to be a victim in bad faith. But this article never gets to be that because it only considers the one scenario where the supposed victim is acting in bad faith.
The problem is precisely that the author never really considers the possibility that the “trauma junkies” might in fact be acting in good faith, until the very last section of the article (‘word of caution’), at which point he remarkably still advocates for banishing them from the group just like you would a ‘violent psychotic’ or ‘compulsive rapist’. There is no consideration of tradeoffs, e.g. what effect this may have on the so-called ‘trauma junky’ if they turned out to be sincere . Of course, we know that in such cases, the effects are quite disastrous, and you can read Fran’s recent post CEA’s response to sexual harassment to see what that’s like. So the article by Eneasz Brodski is not really an interesting, nuanced, substantiated and earnest discussion on a delicate topic, such as one that might be produced using a scout’s mindset, or indeed rationalist ideals. For an example of something that I think is exactly that, read Fran’s post, and you will find in it concrete examples where people who do think of themselves as rationalists and Effective Altruists did make mistakes that resulted in the effective dismissal of a serious case of sexual harassment. She explains the situation with a remarkable amount of calm and detachment and did so out of a genuine desire to see how similar situations can be handled better in the future.
I do think it would be genuinely concerning if prominent rationalists were generally dismissive of sexual assault and harassment.
Well… You may now be concerned.
Aside from the examples from Fran above, you might be interested in this article, which lists “views discussed involve racism, sexism, fascism, and other troubling ideologies” expressed at an EA afterparty. Full disclosure, I haven’t read this article in full, and I’m not fully briefed on the whole Manifold/Manifest drama from 2024, but from a brief skim the article seems to list quite a few ‘interesting’ statements from a few prominent rationalists (most of whom I must admit I had never heard of because I am quite new to learning about this… and don’t really feel a huge compulsion to explore, tbh). See for example this excerpt from Richard Hanania’s article The EA Movement Will Be Anti-Woke or Die:
As I’ve previously written, there are certain psychological dynamics that explain why wokeness has conquered western institutions and movements, and only the ones with antibodies to women’s tears will avoid drowning in them.
Does EA have the right antibodies? I once assumed it did based on its ideological and intellectual commitments. But I’m now realizing that the main reason rationalism has been relatively unwoke so far is that the movement has been new, and new movements attract adherents that are disproportionately highly intelligent, non-conformist, and male. But as it has grown in status, the movement has diversified, which has brought all the usual problems.
(Again, full disclosure, haven’t particularly felt that keen to read the full article, so I haven’t. I don’t know who this Richard Hanania is in much detail but he clearly is quite involved in the EA / Rationalist community).
These dangerous rationalisations of harmful -ims are not surprising to me as I don’t place ‘rationalists’ a cut above any other category of people in their ability to reason and avoid bias. Even when one tries really hard not to make a mistake, everyone makes mistakes and no one is above making a mistake. But mistakes can have very real negative ethical consequences, which is why I advocated for calling them out early, in a genuine, respectful, and earnest manner in order for us to all flourish as a group. ⭐️
Hi Nathan, thanks for the additional contextualisation.
I want to make it very clear that I am not against a productive and reasoned discussion on how best to manage trauma discussions within a social group, including on the possibility of someone claiming to be a victim in bad faith. But this article never gets to be that because it only considers the one scenario where the supposed victim is acting in bad faith.
The problem is precisely that the author never really considers the possibility that the “trauma junkies” might in fact be acting in good faith, until the very last section of the article (‘word of caution’), at which point he remarkably still advocates for banishing them from the group just like you would a ‘violent psychotic’ or ‘compulsive rapist’. There is no consideration of tradeoffs, e.g. what effect this may have on the so-called ‘trauma junky’ if they turned out to be sincere . Of course, we know that in such cases, the effects are quite disastrous, and you can read Fran’s recent post CEA’s response to sexual harassment to see what that’s like. So the article by Eneasz Brodski is not really an interesting, nuanced, substantiated and earnest discussion on a delicate topic, such as one that might be produced using a scout’s mindset, or indeed rationalist ideals. For an example of something that I think is exactly that, read Fran’s post, and you will find in it concrete examples where people who do think of themselves as rationalists and Effective Altruists did make mistakes that resulted in the effective dismissal of a serious case of sexual harassment. She explains the situation with a remarkable amount of calm and detachment and did so out of a genuine desire to see how similar situations can be handled better in the future.
Well… You may now be concerned.
Aside from the examples from Fran above, you might be interested in this article, which lists “views discussed involve racism, sexism, fascism, and other troubling ideologies” expressed at an EA afterparty. Full disclosure, I haven’t read this article in full, and I’m not fully briefed on the whole Manifold/Manifest drama from 2024, but from a brief skim the article seems to list quite a few ‘interesting’ statements from a few prominent rationalists (most of whom I must admit I had never heard of because I am quite new to learning about this… and don’t really feel a huge compulsion to explore, tbh). See for example this excerpt from Richard Hanania’s article The EA Movement Will Be Anti-Woke or Die:
(Again, full disclosure, haven’t particularly felt that keen to read the full article, so I haven’t. I don’t know who this Richard Hanania is in much detail but he clearly is quite involved in the EA / Rationalist community).
These dangerous rationalisations of harmful -ims are not surprising to me as I don’t place ‘rationalists’ a cut above any other category of people in their ability to reason and avoid bias. Even when one tries really hard not to make a mistake, everyone makes mistakes and no one is above making a mistake. But mistakes can have very real negative ethical consequences, which is why I advocated for calling them out early, in a genuine, respectful, and earnest manner in order for us to all flourish as a group. ⭐️