I’m thinking it’s not Metz’s job to critique Scott, nor did his article admit to being a critique, but also that that’s a strawman; Metz didn’t publish the name “in order to” critique his ideas. He probably published it because he doesn’t like the guy.
Why doesn’t he like Scott? I wonder if Metz would’ve answered that question if asked. I doubt it: he wrote “[Alexander] aligned himself with Charles Murray, who proposed a link between race and I.Q.” even though Scott did not align himself with Murray about race/IQ, nor is Murray a friend of his, nor does Alexander promote Murray, nor is race/IQ even 0.1% of what Scott/SSC/rationalism is about―yet Metz defends his misleading statement and won’t acknowledge it’s misleading. If he had defensible reasons to dislike Scott that he was willing to say out loud, why did he instead resort to tactics like that?
Not hugely important, but I want to point out because I think the concept is in the process of having its usefulness significantly diluted by overuse: that’s not a straw man. That’s just a false reason.
A straw man is when you refute an argument that your opponent didn’t make, in order to make it look like you’ve refuted their actual argument.
I’m thinking it’s not Metz’s job to critique Scott, nor did his article admit to being a critique, but also that that’s a strawman; Metz didn’t publish the name “in order to” critique his ideas. He probably published it because he doesn’t like the guy.
Why doesn’t he like Scott? I wonder if Metz would’ve answered that question if asked. I doubt it: he wrote “[Alexander] aligned himself with Charles Murray, who proposed a link between race and I.Q.” even though Scott did not align himself with Murray about race/IQ, nor is Murray a friend of his, nor does Alexander promote Murray, nor is race/IQ even 0.1% of what Scott/SSC/rationalism is about―yet Metz defends his misleading statement and won’t acknowledge it’s misleading. If he had defensible reasons to dislike Scott that he was willing to say out loud, why did he instead resort to tactics like that?
(Edit: I don’t read/follow Metz at all, so I’ll point to Gwern’s comment for more insight)
Not hugely important, but I want to point out because I think the concept is in the process of having its usefulness significantly diluted by overuse: that’s not a straw man. That’s just a false reason.
A straw man is when you refute an argument that your opponent didn’t make, in order to make it look like you’ve refuted their actual argument.