The reason my tone was much more aggressive than normal is that I knew I’d be too conflict averse to respond to this post unless I do it immediately, while still feeling annoyed. (You’ve posted similar things before and so far I’ve never responded.) But I stand by all the points I made.
The main difference between this post and Graham’s post is that Graham just points out one phenomenon, namely that people with conventional beliefs tend to have less of an issue stating their true opinion. That seems straight-forwardly true. In fact, I have several opinions that most people would find very off-putting, and I’ve occasionally received some mild social punishment for voicing them.
But Graham’s essay doesn’t justify the points you make this post. It doesn’t even justify the sentence where you linked to it (“Any attempt to censor harmful ideas actually suppresses the invention of new ideas (and correction of incorrect ideas) instead.”) since he doesn’t discuss censorship.
What bothers me emotionally (if that helps) is that I feel like this post is emotionally manipulative to an extent that’s usually not tolerated on LessWrong. Like, it feels like it’s more appealing to the libertarian/free-speech-absolutism/independent-thinker vibe than trying to be truthseeking. Well, that and that it claims several things that apply to me since I think some things should be censored. (E.g., “The most independent-minded people do not censor anyone at all.” → you’re not independent-minded since you want to censor some things.)
I hadn’t, but did now. I don’t disagree with anything in it.
Fascinating. You’re one of the names on Less Wrong that I associate with positive, constructive dialogue. We may have a scissor statement here.
The reason my tone was much more aggressive than normal is that I knew I’d be too conflict averse to respond to this post unless I do it immediately, while still feeling annoyed. (You’ve posted similar things before and so far I’ve never responded.) But I stand by all the points I made.
The main difference between this post and Graham’s post is that Graham just points out one phenomenon, namely that people with conventional beliefs tend to have less of an issue stating their true opinion. That seems straight-forwardly true. In fact, I have several opinions that most people would find very off-putting, and I’ve occasionally received some mild social punishment for voicing them.
But Graham’s essay doesn’t justify the points you make this post. It doesn’t even justify the sentence where you linked to it (“Any attempt to censor harmful ideas actually suppresses the invention of new ideas (and correction of incorrect ideas) instead.”) since he doesn’t discuss censorship.
What bothers me emotionally (if that helps) is that I feel like this post is emotionally manipulative to an extent that’s usually not tolerated on LessWrong. Like, it feels like it’s more appealing to the libertarian/free-speech-absolutism/independent-thinker vibe than trying to be truthseeking. Well, that and that it claims several things that apply to me since I think some things should be censored. (E.g., “The most independent-minded people do not censor anyone at all.” → you’re not independent-minded since you want to censor some things.)