“Consider the claim that there will be 2.76 billion Muslims by 2050. Now, 1% of this number equals 27.6 million people, roughly 26.2 million more than the number of military personnel on active duty in the US today. It follows that if even 1% of this figure were to hold “active apocalyptic” views, humanity could be in for a catastrophe like nothing we’ve ever experienced before.”
Firstly, this is nonsense. The proposition that 1% of Muslims would hold “active apocalyptic” views and be prepared to act on it is pure nonsense. And “if even 1%” suggests this is the author lowballing.
Secondly, this is fear-mongering against one of the most feared and discriminated-against communities in the West, being written for a Western audience.
Thirdly, it utilises another standard racism trope, population replacement—look at the growing number of scary ‘other’. They threaten to over-run the US’s good ’ol apple pie armed forces.
This was not a paragraph in a thesis. It was a public article, intended to reach as wide an audience as possible. It used to be prominently displayed on his now-defunct website. The article above was written several years more recently than Beckstead’s thesis.
I will say, to Torres’s credit, that his views on Islam have become more nuanced over time, and that I have found his recent articles on Islam less problematic. This is to be praised. And he has moved on from attacking Muslims to ‘critiquing’ right-wing Americans, the Atheist community, and the EA community. This is at least punching sidewards, rather than down.
But he has not subject his own body of work, or other more harmful materials, to anything like the level of critique that he has subjected Beckstead, Mogensen etc al. I consider this deeply problematic in terms of scholarly responsibility.
Here is an article by Phil Torres arguing that the rise of Islam represents a very significant and growing existential risk.
https://hplusmagazine.com/2015/11/17/to-survive-we-must-go-extinct-apocalyptic-terrorism-and-transhumanism/
I will quote a key paragraph:
“Consider the claim that there will be 2.76 billion Muslims by 2050. Now, 1% of this number equals 27.6 million people, roughly 26.2 million more than the number of military personnel on active duty in the US today. It follows that if even 1% of this figure were to hold “active apocalyptic” views, humanity could be in for a catastrophe like nothing we’ve ever experienced before.”
Firstly, this is nonsense. The proposition that 1% of Muslims would hold “active apocalyptic” views and be prepared to act on it is pure nonsense. And “if even 1%” suggests this is the author lowballing.
Secondly, this is fear-mongering against one of the most feared and discriminated-against communities in the West, being written for a Western audience.
Thirdly, it utilises another standard racism trope, population replacement—look at the growing number of scary ‘other’. They threaten to over-run the US’s good ’ol apple pie armed forces.
This was not a paragraph in a thesis. It was a public article, intended to reach as wide an audience as possible. It used to be prominently displayed on his now-defunct website. The article above was written several years more recently than Beckstead’s thesis.
I will say, to Torres’s credit, that his views on Islam have become more nuanced over time, and that I have found his recent articles on Islam less problematic. This is to be praised. And he has moved on from attacking Muslims to ‘critiquing’ right-wing Americans, the Atheist community, and the EA community. This is at least punching sidewards, rather than down.
But he has not subject his own body of work, or other more harmful materials, to anything like the level of critique that he has subjected Beckstead, Mogensen etc al. I consider this deeply problematic in terms of scholarly responsibility.