I don’t think there’s any point doing armchair diagnoses and accusing people of delusions of grandeur.
I respectfully disagree with this statement, at least as an absolute. I believe that:
(A) In situations in which people are making significant life choices based on person X’s claims and person X exhibits behavior which is highly correlated with delusions of grandeur, it’s appropriate to raise the possibility that person X’s claims arise from delusions of grandeur and ask that person X publicly address this possibility.
(B) When one raises the possibility that somebody is suffering from delusions of grandeur, this should be done in as polite and nonconfrontational way as possible given the nature of the topic.
I respectfully disagree with this statement, at least as an absolute. I believe that:
(A) In situations in which people are making significant life choices based on person X’s claims and person X exhibits behavior which is highly correlated with delusions of grandeur, it’s appropriate to raise the possibility that person X’s claims arise from delusions of grandeur and ask that person X publicly address this possibility.
(B) When one raises the possibility that somebody is suffering from delusions of grandeur, this should be done in as polite and nonconfrontational way as possible given the nature of the topic.
I believe that if more people adopted these practices, this would would raise the sanity waterline.
I believe that the situation with respect to Eliezer and portions of the LW community is as in (A) and that I made a good faith effort at (B).