because it encourages hypocrisy and the thinking of thoughts for reasons other than that they are true
In particular, this comment seems to suggest that EY considers public opinion to be more important than truth. Of course this is a really tough trade-off to make. Do you want to see the truth no matter what impact it has on the world? But I think this policy vastly overestimates the negative effect posts on abstract violence have. First of all, the people who read LW are hopefully rational enough not to run out and commit violence based on a blog post. Secondly, there is plenty of more concrete violence on the internet, and that doesn’t seem to have to many bad direct consequences.
the people who read LW are hopefully rational enough not to run out and commit violence based on a blog post
Anyone can read LW. There is no IQ test, rationality test, or a mandatory de-biasing session before reading the articles and discussions.
I am not concerned about someone reading LW and commiting a violence. I am concerned about someone commiting violence and coincidentally having read LW a day before (for example just one article randomly found by google), and police collecting a list of recently visited websites, and a journalist looking at that list and then looking at some articles on LW.
Shortly, we don’t live on a planet full of rationalists. It is a fact of life that anything we do can be judged by any irrational person who notices. Sure, we can’t make everyone happy. But we should avoid some things that can predictably lead to unnecessary trouble.
In particular, this comment seems to suggest that EY considers public opinion to be more important than truth. Of course this is a really tough trade-off to make. Do you want to see the truth no matter what impact it has on the world? But I think this policy vastly overestimates the negative effect posts on abstract violence have. First of all, the people who read LW are hopefully rational enough not to run out and commit violence based on a blog post. Secondly, there is plenty of more concrete violence on the internet, and that doesn’t seem to have to many bad direct consequences.
Anyone can read LW. There is no IQ test, rationality test, or a mandatory de-biasing session before reading the articles and discussions.
I am not concerned about someone reading LW and commiting a violence. I am concerned about someone commiting violence and coincidentally having read LW a day before (for example just one article randomly found by google), and police collecting a list of recently visited websites, and a journalist looking at that list and then looking at some articles on LW.
Shortly, we don’t live on a planet full of rationalists. It is a fact of life that anything we do can be judged by any irrational person who notices. Sure, we can’t make everyone happy. But we should avoid some things that can predictably lead to unnecessary trouble.