Daenerys, since there seems to be some uncertainty:
Are you saying that you would prefer if LessWrong increased the height of it’s metaphorical wall, keeping out “anti-feminist or biorealist assholes”?
Or are you saying that the model of a public forum is inherently “a great way to drive off women and minorities”, and thus you don’t use LessWrong and don’t care about the moderation policy much?
I’ve seen different people reading your comment different ways.
Much closer to the latter. I am not making any policy recommendations about LW moderation. I don’t really care, since I’m not on LW anymore (except for things like this where people ask me specifically something).
I said that one of the reasons I prefer Facebook is that it’s a walled garden. I did NOT say that I want LessWrong to be a walled garden. I would think neo-reactionaries would support the idea of just going to the place that has the rules you like/ voting with your feet.
I do think there can be public forums that do not drive off women and minorities, which is where I disagree with your second statement.
I do not think all biorealists or antifeminists are assholes. I thought EUGINE was an asshole. He was also a biorealist. So he was a biorealist asshole. I’ve already made a comment about that, but people keep saying that I said that anyways. And quoting only me saying “biorealist assholes”. I DO think biorealists and anitfeminists have to be especially epistemically polite (and generally polite) if they want to have any chance of people actually engaging with their ideas.
As an example:
Christian asshole: Fred Phelps Christian not-an-asshole: Leah Libresco
Skeptic asshole: Penn Jilette Skeptic not-an-asshole: All the CFAR people
See how I consider “assholeness” as an unrelated trait to whether or not I agree with a viewpoint. If there were prolific skeptic assholes, they would drive off religious users. If there were prolific Christian assholes they would drive of skeptic and LGBTQ users. All assholes tend to drive off all non-assholes.
This whole “OMG! daenerys says all biorealists are assholes and should be banned11!!!!!1” reaction feels like people are willfully misinterpreting me, putting words in my mouth, and using tiny quotes completely out of context (like “biorealist asshole”) Especially AFTER I wrote a comment clarifying that I meant ONLY what I said an nothing else. This is another reason I don’t LW. Commenting on LW is like reading the comments on a general website. Sometimes you get the impulse to do it, but as soon as you do you immediately remember why you don’t. Note that I’m again, only EXPLAINING why I don’t use LW, and am NOT demanding moderation changes.
ETA: Also, MugaSofer, I commend (and upvote) you for doing the Right Thing… When a discussion partner says something that you could interpret two ways, and Interpretation A is sane, but Interpretation B would cause you to get super-offended and launch a multi-comment barrage, the polite (non-asshole) thing to do is just to ask if they meant A or B, and NOT to just assume B and get offended and launch the multi-comment barrage. Especially when A is the literal interpretation and B requires quite a bit of twistiness to get to.
I did NOT say that I want LessWrong to be a walled garden.
[...]
I do think there can be public forums that do not drive off women and minorities, which is where I disagree with your second statement.
I do not think all biorealists or antifeminists are assholes. I thought EUGINE was an asshole. He was also a biorealist. So he was a biorealist asshole.
Excellent, I agree wholeheartedly. Thank you for clarifying.
MugaSofer, I commend (and upvote) you for doing the Right Thing… When a discussion partner says something that you could interpret two ways, and Interpretation A is sane, but Interpretation B would cause you to get super-offended and launch a multi-comment barrage, the polite (non-asshole) thing to do is just to ask if they meant A or B, and NOT to just assume B and get offended and launch the multi-comment barrage.
Now, in fairness, I wouldn’t characterize people misunderstanding as willful, assholeish misunderstanding. Applying the Principle of Charity is the reason I understood you in the first place, right?
As I said, different people interpreted your phrasing in different ways; your phrasing was genuinely ambiguous regarding whether the operative word was “asshole” or “biorealist”. I guess this shows our default assumptions about … sentences?
Thanks for the Rationality Compliment, I’m flattered :)
Much closer to the latter. I am not making any policy recommendations about LW moderation. I don’t really care, since I’m not on LW anymore (except for things like this where people ask me specifically something).
I said that one of the reasons I prefer Facebook is that it’s a walled garden. I did NOT say that I want LessWrong to be a walled garden. I would think neo-reactionaries would support the idea of just going to the place that has the rules you like/ voting with your feet.
I do think there can be public forums that do not drive off women and minorities, which is where I disagree with your second statement.
I do not think all biorealists or antifeminists are assholes. I thought EUGINE was an asshole. He was also a biorealist. So he was a biorealist asshole. I’ve already made a comment about that, but people keep saying that I said that anyways. And quoting only me saying “biorealist assholes”. I DO think biorealists and anitfeminists have to be especially epistemically polite (and generally polite) if they want to have any chance of people actually engaging with their ideas.
As an example:
Christian asshole: Fred Phelps
Christian not-an-asshole: Leah Libresco
Skeptic asshole: Penn Jilette
Skeptic not-an-asshole: All the CFAR people
See how I consider “assholeness” as an unrelated trait to whether or not I agree with a viewpoint. If there were prolific skeptic assholes, they would drive off religious users. If there were prolific Christian assholes they would drive of skeptic and LGBTQ users. All assholes tend to drive off all non-assholes.
This whole “OMG! daenerys says all biorealists are assholes and should be banned11!!!!!1” reaction feels like people are willfully misinterpreting me, putting words in my mouth, and using tiny quotes completely out of context (like “biorealist asshole”) Especially AFTER I wrote a comment clarifying that I meant ONLY what I said an nothing else. This is another reason I don’t LW. Commenting on LW is like reading the comments on a general website. Sometimes you get the impulse to do it, but as soon as you do you immediately remember why you don’t. Note that I’m again, only EXPLAINING why I don’t use LW, and am NOT demanding moderation changes.
ETA: Also, MugaSofer, I commend (and upvote) you for doing the Right Thing… When a discussion partner says something that you could interpret two ways, and Interpretation A is sane, but Interpretation B would cause you to get super-offended and launch a multi-comment barrage, the polite (non-asshole) thing to do is just to ask if they meant A or B, and NOT to just assume B and get offended and launch the multi-comment barrage. Especially when A is the literal interpretation and B requires quite a bit of twistiness to get to.
Excellent, I agree wholeheartedly. Thank you for clarifying.
Now, in fairness, I wouldn’t characterize people misunderstanding as willful, assholeish misunderstanding. Applying the Principle of Charity is the reason I understood you in the first place, right?
As I said, different people interpreted your phrasing in different ways; your phrasing was genuinely ambiguous regarding whether the operative word was “asshole” or “biorealist”. I guess this shows our default assumptions about … sentences?
Thanks for the Rationality Compliment, I’m flattered :)