There was also nothing about dating on LW back when I had the discussion I’ve referred to with the person who thought (and probably still thinks) that a big driver behind the appeal of LW is sexism.
I’m having trouble understanding what this would mean. Why would a big driver behind LW’s appeal be sexism?
As I’ve said in another comment, the person I’ve mentioned is highly intelligent, a data scientist, effective altruist, signed the Giving-what-we-can pledge, and now runs their own business.
If someone can look at LW, with its thousands of posts discussing futurism, philosophy, rationality, etc, and come away concluding that the appeal of the site is sexism (as opposed to an interest in those topics), I feel tempted to just write off their views.
Sure, you can find some sexist posts or commenters here or there (I seem to remember a particular troll whom we eventually vanquished with the switchover from LW 1.0 to LW 2.0). But to think that they’re the norm, or that it’s a big part of the general appeal of the site?
To conclude that, it seems like you’d either have to have gotten an extremely biased sample of LW (and not been thoughtful enough to realize this possibility on your own), or you’d have to have some major blindspots in your thinking about these things, causing you to jump to bizarre conclusions.
In either case, it seems like the issue is more with them than with LW, and all else equal, I wouldn’t feel much drive to cater to their opinion. (Even if they’re otherwise an intelligent and productive individual.) People can just have blindspots, and I don’t think you should cater to the people with the most off-base view of you.
Am I missing something? Do you think their view was more justified than this? Or do you just think it’s worth paying more costs to cater to such people, even if you agree that they’re being unreasonable?
Do you think their view was more justified than this?
A clear no. I think their position was utterly ridiculous. I just think that blind spots on this particular topic are so common that it’s not a smart strategy to ignore them.
Why would a big driver behind LW’s appeal be sexism?
I don’t think this currently is true for LW myself, but if a space casually has, say, sexist or racist stuff in it, people looking can be like “oh thank god, a place I can say what I really think [that is sexist or racist] without political correctness stopping me” and then that becomes a selling point for people who want to talk about sexist or racist stuff. Suspect the commenter means something like this.
I’m having trouble understanding what this would mean. Why would a big driver behind LW’s appeal be sexism?
If someone can look at LW, with its thousands of posts discussing futurism, philosophy, rationality, etc, and come away concluding that the appeal of the site is sexism (as opposed to an interest in those topics), I feel tempted to just write off their views.
Sure, you can find some sexist posts or commenters here or there (I seem to remember a particular troll whom we eventually vanquished with the switchover from LW 1.0 to LW 2.0). But to think that they’re the norm, or that it’s a big part of the general appeal of the site?
To conclude that, it seems like you’d either have to have gotten an extremely biased sample of LW (and not been thoughtful enough to realize this possibility on your own), or you’d have to have some major blindspots in your thinking about these things, causing you to jump to bizarre conclusions.
In either case, it seems like the issue is more with them than with LW, and all else equal, I wouldn’t feel much drive to cater to their opinion. (Even if they’re otherwise an intelligent and productive individual.) People can just have blindspots, and I don’t think you should cater to the people with the most off-base view of you.
Am I missing something? Do you think their view was more justified than this? Or do you just think it’s worth paying more costs to cater to such people, even if you agree that they’re being unreasonable?
A clear no. I think their position was utterly ridiculous. I just think that blind spots on this particular topic are so common that it’s not a smart strategy to ignore them.
I don’t think this currently is true for LW myself, but if a space casually has, say, sexist or racist stuff in it, people looking can be like “oh thank god, a place I can say what I really think [that is sexist or racist] without political correctness stopping me” and then that becomes a selling point for people who want to talk about sexist or racist stuff. Suspect the commenter means something like this.
Thanks. That does seem like the most likely interpretation.