My head feels funny, and I can’t tell whether I have trouble expressing my thoughts clearly or if they’re hopelessly disorganized to begin with. But I feel compelled to attempt sensible replies to your comments, so here goes(Jetzt Mit Bulletpoints!)...
mainstream conservatives feeling unwelcome
In the US context, I would take mainstream to mean religious. In that case, LW is an atheist site, which is only attractive to atheists and religious eccentrics who enjoy arguing with atheists. US demographics being what they are, LW won’t be welcoming to mainstream anyone, though the right end of the political spectrum will be most affected by this.
eclectic, eccentric, and weird right vs. far right
I think the overlap between “weird right” and “far right” (and “weird left” and “far left”) is extensive, to the point that it’s rare to have one without the other. Political intellectuals almost always espouse eclectic and eccentric views, and are almost always on the fringes compared to the political rank-and-file. A politically centrist intellectual is a politically apathetic intellectual. My point here, assuming I have one, is that “he’s weird-whatever” isn’t a rebuttal to “he’s far-whatever.”
meta-contrarianism
I agree with your general point. The difference in my take is that I think LW, especially in earlier times, has tended to express meta-contrarian views that align with the general politics of the techie-right. A rough description of what I’d consider the techie-right cluster: pro-libertarian, anti-gun-control, anti-religion, anti-environmentalist, pro-hard-sciences, pro-evopsych, pro-mainstream-economics, anti-the-rest-of-academia.
That Stalinist Guy
Uh, yeah, well...exception that proves the rule, that was central to my point, but I equivocated “few or no” etc...nah OK, you got me there. I even remembered TGP’s endorsement and still had that obvious hole in my argument. Didn’t know he had ever posted here though.
I think the overlap between “weird right” and “far right” (and “weird left” and “far left”) is extensive, to the point that it’s rare to have one without the other. Political intellectuals almost always espouse eclectic and eccentric views, and are almost always on the fringes compared to the political rank-and-file. A politically centrist intellectual is a politically apathetic intellectual. My point here, assuming I have one, is that “he’s weird-whatever” isn’t a rebuttal to “he’s far-whatever.”
I kind of have to concede this point. I do still think the connotations of the kind of far and weird positions you are likely to see on LW are better matched by the weird left/right rather than the far right/left.
“Even if utterly disagree with them they practically define themselves into demographic irrelevancy and are very unlikely to cause any damage. ”
vs.
“Aggh this is memeticall virulent! Must stomp on their face with my boot for forever!”
Maybe this is because I’m European. In Slovenia calling someone far right is usually always calling that person a dangerous nationalist or even a crypto-fascist. The implied context is that they should be suppressed or arrested since we don’t have free speech. A dope smoking libertarian isn’t called Far Right but a capitalist lap dog. ;)
I agree with your general point. The difference in my take is that I think LW, especially in earlier times, has tended to express meta-contrarian views that align with the general politics of the techie-right. A rough description of what I’d consider the techie-right cluster: pro-libertarian, anti-gun-control, anti-religion, anti-environmentalist, pro-hard-sciences, pro-evopsych, pro-mainstream-economics, anti-the-rest-of-academia.
This seems like a good description and I agree LW is friendly to such stances. I think the main reason for this is that this cluster is disproportionately present among programmers and transhumanists. Many prominent early posters (I can’t help but think of Michael Vassar) obviously fir into that frame as does Eliezer himself to a moderate extent.
Maybe this is because I’m European. In Slovenia calling someone far right is usually always calling that person a dangerous nationalist or even a crypto-fascist. The implied context is that they should be suppressed or arrested since we don’t have free speech. A dope smoking libertarian isn’t called Far Right but a capitalist lap dog. ;)
Yeah, that’s a very different context from the US. I don’t have much direct experience of Slovenia, but I do have some familiarity with Serbia (my Mom’s from there), so I hope you aren’t too offended if my mental model of Slovenia is a smaller, richer, much less screwed up Serbia. In the US, capitalist lap dogs are generally lumped in with dangerous nationalists and crypto-fascists. It doesn’t work the same when you’ve got some experience with really dangerous nationalists, like in 90′s former Yugoslavia.
My head feels funny, and I can’t tell whether I have trouble expressing my thoughts clearly or if they’re hopelessly disorganized to begin with. But I feel compelled to attempt sensible replies to your comments, so here goes(Jetzt Mit Bulletpoints!)...
mainstream conservatives feeling unwelcome
In the US context, I would take mainstream to mean religious. In that case, LW is an atheist site, which is only attractive to atheists and religious eccentrics who enjoy arguing with atheists. US demographics being what they are, LW won’t be welcoming to mainstream anyone, though the right end of the political spectrum will be most affected by this.
eclectic, eccentric, and weird right vs. far right
I think the overlap between “weird right” and “far right” (and “weird left” and “far left”) is extensive, to the point that it’s rare to have one without the other. Political intellectuals almost always espouse eclectic and eccentric views, and are almost always on the fringes compared to the political rank-and-file. A politically centrist intellectual is a politically apathetic intellectual. My point here, assuming I have one, is that “he’s weird-whatever” isn’t a rebuttal to “he’s far-whatever.”
meta-contrarianism
I agree with your general point. The difference in my take is that I think LW, especially in earlier times, has tended to express meta-contrarian views that align with the general politics of the techie-right. A rough description of what I’d consider the techie-right cluster: pro-libertarian, anti-gun-control, anti-religion, anti-environmentalist, pro-hard-sciences, pro-evopsych, pro-mainstream-economics, anti-the-rest-of-academia.
That Stalinist Guy
Uh, yeah, well...exception that proves the rule, that was central to my point, but I equivocated “few or no” etc...nah OK, you got me there. I even remembered TGP’s endorsement and still had that obvious hole in my argument. Didn’t know he had ever posted here though.
I kind of have to concede this point. I do still think the connotations of the kind of far and weird positions you are likely to see on LW are better matched by the weird left/right rather than the far right/left.
“Even if utterly disagree with them they practically define themselves into demographic irrelevancy and are very unlikely to cause any damage. ”
vs.
“Aggh this is memeticall virulent! Must stomp on their face with my boot for forever!”
Maybe this is because I’m European. In Slovenia calling someone far right is usually always calling that person a dangerous nationalist or even a crypto-fascist. The implied context is that they should be suppressed or arrested since we don’t have free speech. A dope smoking libertarian isn’t called Far Right but a capitalist lap dog. ;)
This seems like a good description and I agree LW is friendly to such stances. I think the main reason for this is that this cluster is disproportionately present among programmers and transhumanists. Many prominent early posters (I can’t help but think of Michael Vassar) obviously fir into that frame as does Eliezer himself to a moderate extent.
Yeah, that’s a very different context from the US. I don’t have much direct experience of Slovenia, but I do have some familiarity with Serbia (my Mom’s from there), so I hope you aren’t too offended if my mental model of Slovenia is a smaller, richer, much less screwed up Serbia. In the US, capitalist lap dogs are generally lumped in with dangerous nationalists and crypto-fascists. It doesn’t work the same when you’ve got some experience with really dangerous nationalists, like in 90′s former Yugoslavia.