It would be helpful to know more about the sorts of things they typically post about, but I understand you probably don’t want to inadvertently reveal the smart-wrong individuals you have in mind.
The reason I say this is because there are probably a lot of people out there like me—people who, while liking the LessWrong community and its stewards overall, have some serious bones to pick with some of the “core” “rationalist” beliefs and approaches to various questions. These two things in combination beget an urge to respectfully but persistently voice disagreement with things most others here take as received wisdom. I haven’t ever really posted here, for instance, but if I did, I know that I would mainly only do so when I disagreed with something I felt most people here took to be obvious. Or, to put a more positive spin on it, I would only post when I stood an unusually high chance of being corrected-if-wrong. Since the opinions of mine that stand the best chance of this here are those that are far out of line with the beliefs of the average LessWrong user, it follows that if your stance is sufficiently close to that of the average LWer, most of what I’d post you’d disagree with.
Of course, I may not count, because I may not be smart! And you may deviate greatly from the average. But in that case, it should be pretty obvious why you find smart people you persistently disagree with on this site.
(NB: I put the quotes around the word “rationalist” not to cast aspersions on its use by people here, but because I wouldn’t consider myself an LW-style rationalist despite being someone who cares deeply about thinking rationally. Kind of like how an agnostic might opt out of calling atheists “brights” on account of not being an atheist while still considering himself bright.)
It would be helpful to know more about the sorts of things they typically post about, but I understand you probably don’t want to inadvertently reveal the smart-wrong individuals you have in mind.
The reason I say this is because there are probably a lot of people out there like me—people who, while liking the LessWrong community and its stewards overall, have some serious bones to pick with some of the “core” “rationalist” beliefs and approaches to various questions. These two things in combination beget an urge to respectfully but persistently voice disagreement with things most others here take as received wisdom. I haven’t ever really posted here, for instance, but if I did, I know that I would mainly only do so when I disagreed with something I felt most people here took to be obvious. Or, to put a more positive spin on it, I would only post when I stood an unusually high chance of being corrected-if-wrong. Since the opinions of mine that stand the best chance of this here are those that are far out of line with the beliefs of the average LessWrong user, it follows that if your stance is sufficiently close to that of the average LWer, most of what I’d post you’d disagree with.
Of course, I may not count, because I may not be smart! And you may deviate greatly from the average. But in that case, it should be pretty obvious why you find smart people you persistently disagree with on this site.
(NB: I put the quotes around the word “rationalist” not to cast aspersions on its use by people here, but because I wouldn’t consider myself an LW-style rationalist despite being someone who cares deeply about thinking rationally. Kind of like how an agnostic might opt out of calling atheists “brights” on account of not being an atheist while still considering himself bright.)
Out of curiosity, what are some of the bones you have to pick?