I searched and it doesn’t look like anyone has discussed this criticism of LW yet. It’s rather condescending but might still be of interest to some: http://plover.net/~bonds/cultofbayes.html
I don’t think “condescending” touches accurately upon what is going on here. This seems to be politics being the mindkiller pretty heavily (ironically one of the things they apparently think is stupid or hypocritical). They’ve apparently taken some of the lack of a better term “right-wing” posts and used that as a general portrayal of LW. Heck, I’m in many ways on the same political/tribal group as this author and think most of what they said is junk.. Examples include:
Members of Lesswrong are adept at rationalising away any threats to their privilege with a few quick “Bayesian Judo” chops. The sufferings caused by today’s elites — the billions of people who are forced to endure lives of slavery, misery, poverty, famine, fear, abuse and disease for their benefit — are treated at best as an abstract problem, of slightly lesser importance than nailing down the priors of a Bayesian formula. While the theories of right-wing economists are accepted without argument, the theories of socialists, feminists, anti-racists, environmentalists, conservationists or anyone who might upset the Bayesian worldview are subjected to extended empty “rationalist” bloviating. On the subject of feminism, Muehlhauser adopts the tactics of an MRA concern troll, claiming to be a feminist but demanding a “rational” account of why objectification is a problem. Frankly, the Lesswrong brand of “rationality” is bigotry in disguise.
A variety of interesting links are included in that paragraph. Most noteworthy, every word in `extended empty “rationalist” bloviating’ links to a different essay, with “rationalist” linking to this, which criticizes rhetorical arguments made throughout the standard political spectrum.
A number of essays are quoted in ways that look like they are either being quoted in an out of context fashion or in a way that is consistent with maximally uncharitable interpretations. The section about race and LW easily falls into this category (and is as far as I can tell, particularly ironic given that as far as I can tell, there has been more explicit racism on LW before).
Similarly, while I stand fairly strongly as one of the people here who really don’t like PUA, it is clear that calling it a “de facto rape methodology” is simply inaccurate.
At least a few points bordered on almost satire of a certain sort of argument. One obvious paragraph in that regard is:
Yudkowsky believes that “the world is stratified by genuine competence” and that today’s elites have found their deserved place in the hierarchy. This is a comforting message for a cult that draws its membership from a social base of Web entrepreneurs, startup CEOs, STEM PhDs, Ivy leaguers, and assorted computer-savvy rich kids. Yudkowsky so thoroughly identifies himself with this milieu of one-percenters that even when discussing Bayesianism, he slips into the language of a heartless rentier. A belief should “pay the rent”, he says, or be made to suffer: “If it turns deadbeat, evict it.”
I’ll let others who want to spend the time analyze everything that’s off about that paragraph.
Another fun bit:
The main reason to pay attention to the Lesswrong cult is that it has a lot of rich and powerful backers. The Singularity Institute is primarily bankrolled by Yudkowsky’s billionaire friend Peter Thiel, the hedge fund operator and co-founder of PayPal, who has donated over a million dollars to the Institute throughout its existence [4]. Thiel, who was one of the principal backers of Ron Paul’s 2012 presidential campaign, is a staunch libertarian and lifelong activist for right-wing causes. Back in his undergrad days, he co-founded Stanford University’s pro-Reagan rag The Stanford Review, which became notorious for its anti-PC stance and its defences of hate speech. The Stanford experience seems to have marked Thiel with a lasting dislike of PC types and feminists and minorities and other people who tend to remind him what a shit he is. In 1995, he co-wrote a book called The Diversity Myth: ‘Multiculturalism’ and the Politics of Intolerance at Stanford, which was too breathtakingly right-wing even for Condi Rice; one of his projects today is the Thiel’s Little Achievers Fellowship, which encourages students to drop out of university and start their own businesses, free from the corrupting influence of left-wing academics and activists.
Apparently Thiel is to certain groups the same sort of boogeyman that the Koch brothers are to much of the left and George Soros is to some on the right. I find it interesting to see one of the rare examples of someone actually using “PC” as a positive term, and actually made me briefly wonder if this was satire.
There are handful of marginally valid points here but they get completely lost in the noise, and they aren’t by and large original points. I do think however, that some aspects of the essay might raise interesting thought exercises, such as explaining everything that’s wrong with footnote 2.
Perhaps by “which became notorious for its anti-PC stance and its defences of hate speech” he means “notorious for being so anti-PC that it defended hate speech”? I think that’s pretty accurate. (Bond’s weak tea 2011 link doesn’t defend hate speech, but argues that it is often a false label.)
I’d take the author’s “anti-PC” to mean something like “seeing ‘political correctness’ everywhere, and hating it.”
For instance, there are folks who respond to requests for civil and respectful behavior on certain subjects — delivered with no force but the force of persuasion — as if those requests were threats of violence, and as if resistance to those requests were the act of a bold fighter for freedom of speech.
one of the rare examples of someone actually using “PC” as a positive term
My English teacher used “Political Correctness” as a positive term, which surprised me too, though I guess in the context of a teacher who’s supposed to avoid discussing politics in class it does make sense to use it as an explicit norm.
I searched and it doesn’t look like anyone has discussed this criticism of LW yet. It’s rather condescending but might still be of interest to some: http://plover.net/~bonds/cultofbayes.html
I’d more go with “incoherent ranting” than “condescending”.
I once read a chunk of Bond’s site after running into that page; after noting its many flaws (including a number of errors of fact, like claiming Bayes tried to prove God using his theorem when IIRC, that was Richard Price and he didn’t use a version of Bayes theorem), I was curious what the rest was like.
I have to say, I have never read video game reviews which were quite so… politicized.
It’s written by a mindkilled idiot whose only purpose in life seems to be finding the least charitable interpretation of people he hates, which probably means everyone except his friends, assuming he has any. There are millions of such idiots out there, and the only difference is that this one mentioned LW in one of his articles. We shouldn’t feed the trolls just because they decided to pay attention to us.
There are people who believe that one of the best works of English literature is an unfinished Harry Potter fanfic by someone who can barely write a comprehensible English sentence.
Starting with the very first paragraph… uhm, strawmanning mixed with plain lies… why exactly should anyone spend their limited time reading this?
I searched and it doesn’t look like anyone has discussed this criticism of LW yet. It’s rather condescending but might still be of interest to some: http://plover.net/~bonds/cultofbayes.html
I don’t think “condescending” touches accurately upon what is going on here. This seems to be politics being the mindkiller pretty heavily (ironically one of the things they apparently think is stupid or hypocritical). They’ve apparently taken some of the lack of a better term “right-wing” posts and used that as a general portrayal of LW. Heck, I’m in many ways on the same political/tribal group as this author and think most of what they said is junk.. Examples include:
A variety of interesting links are included in that paragraph. Most noteworthy, every word in `extended empty “rationalist” bloviating’ links to a different essay, with “rationalist” linking to this, which criticizes rhetorical arguments made throughout the standard political spectrum.
A number of essays are quoted in ways that look like they are either being quoted in an out of context fashion or in a way that is consistent with maximally uncharitable interpretations. The section about race and LW easily falls into this category (and is as far as I can tell, particularly ironic given that as far as I can tell, there has been more explicit racism on LW before).
Similarly, while I stand fairly strongly as one of the people here who really don’t like PUA, it is clear that calling it a “de facto rape methodology” is simply inaccurate.
At least a few points bordered on almost satire of a certain sort of argument. One obvious paragraph in that regard is:
I’ll let others who want to spend the time analyze everything that’s off about that paragraph.
Another fun bit:
Apparently Thiel is to certain groups the same sort of boogeyman that the Koch brothers are to much of the left and George Soros is to some on the right. I find it interesting to see one of the rare examples of someone actually using “PC” as a positive term, and actually made me briefly wonder if this was satire.
There are handful of marginally valid points here but they get completely lost in the noise, and they aren’t by and large original points. I do think however, that some aspects of the essay might raise interesting thought exercises, such as explaining everything that’s wrong with footnote 2.
Someone using ‘Political Correctness’ as a positive term?
(Warning: Political comedy)
Perhaps by “which became notorious for its anti-PC stance and its defences of hate speech” he means “notorious for being so anti-PC that it defended hate speech”? I think that’s pretty accurate. (Bond’s weak tea 2011 link doesn’t defend hate speech, but argues that it is often a false label.)
I’d take the author’s “anti-PC” to mean something like “seeing ‘political correctness’ everywhere, and hating it.”
For instance, there are folks who respond to requests for civil and respectful behavior on certain subjects — delivered with no force but the force of persuasion — as if those requests were threats of violence, and as if resistance to those requests were the act of a bold fighter for freedom of speech.
My English teacher used “Political Correctness” as a positive term, which surprised me too, though I guess in the context of a teacher who’s supposed to avoid discussing politics in class it does make sense to use it as an explicit norm.
I’d more go with “incoherent ranting” than “condescending”.
Worthless ranting.
His footnote 3 is particularly telling:
In other words, this is soup of the soup.
Looking at the other articles on his site, they’re all like that. I would say that this is someone who does not know how to learn.
I once read a chunk of Bond’s site after running into that page; after noting its many flaws (including a number of errors of fact, like claiming Bayes tried to prove God using his theorem when IIRC, that was Richard Price and he didn’t use a version of Bayes theorem), I was curious what the rest was like.
I have to say, I have never read video game reviews which were quite so… politicized.
It’s written by a mindkilled idiot whose only purpose in life seems to be finding the least charitable interpretation of people he hates, which probably means everyone except his friends, assuming he has any. There are millions of such idiots out there, and the only difference is that this one mentioned LW in one of his articles. We shouldn’t feed the trolls just because they decided to pay attention to us.
Starting with the very first paragraph… uhm, strawmanning mixed with plain lies… why exactly should anyone spend their limited time reading this?