It wasn’t clear to me whether the post itself was 9/11 truthism rather than merely using 9/11 truthism as an example. After all, the title was “Seeing patterns where they don’t exist” or something of the kind. I did think it would have been considerably improved (and looked less like preaching) by having a link to the lengthy Litany of 9/11 Conspiracy Evidence rather than incorporating the whole thing in the post.
… Though “And” has stated elsewhere that s/he believes 9/11 was an inside job, so it looks like you were right.
I wasn’t commenting on whether it was OK to make a post about it, but on Eliezer’s description of it as “9/11 truthism”. Sorry if that wasn’t clear.
For what it’s worth, I think the question “how should one evaluate a big messy pile of ambiguous alleged evidence for something?” is a reasonable one, and any number of Things Widely Considered Irrational might make interesting test cases—“9/11 truthism”, ghosts, healing miracles, whatever. But:
Your post clearly gave Eliezer (and also me, for what it’s worth, though I was more inclined to give you the benefit of the doubt) the impression that it was preaching masquerading as a useful case study.
I think the most reliable way to avoid giving that impression is to take steps to make what you write not useful as preaching. (For instance: disclaimers along the lines of “This is the opinion of a tiny minority only, and I happen to be one of them. Discount as you see fit.”)
There are some topics (of which this may be one; I don’t know, but maybe Eliezer does) whose discussion consistently generates more heat than light. It might be entirely reasonable to do away with posts on such topics unless they have very strong counterbalancing virtues.
Admins can edit posts without taking ownership. For anything but an egregious wrong, adding a takedown notice should be preferred to deleting the post.
I can’t see this post on either the recent posts or what’s new lists anymore.
It’s 9/11 truthism. I removed it. There needs to be some way to indicate this on the post itself, I suppose.
It wasn’t clear to me whether the post itself was 9/11 truthism rather than merely using 9/11 truthism as an example. After all, the title was “Seeing patterns where they don’t exist” or something of the kind. I did think it would have been considerably improved (and looked less like preaching) by having a link to the lengthy Litany of 9/11 Conspiracy Evidence rather than incorporating the whole thing in the post.
… Though “And” has stated elsewhere that s/he believes 9/11 was an inside job, so it looks like you were right.
Well… it’s down the memory hole, but it exists. And it will accept comments if anyone feels like a spot of debunking.
So, you think it would be okay to make a post about it as long as I was on the right side of the argument?
I wasn’t commenting on whether it was OK to make a post about it, but on Eliezer’s description of it as “9/11 truthism”. Sorry if that wasn’t clear.
For what it’s worth, I think the question “how should one evaluate a big messy pile of ambiguous alleged evidence for something?” is a reasonable one, and any number of Things Widely Considered Irrational might make interesting test cases—“9/11 truthism”, ghosts, healing miracles, whatever. But:
Your post clearly gave Eliezer (and also me, for what it’s worth, though I was more inclined to give you the benefit of the doubt) the impression that it was preaching masquerading as a useful case study.
I think the most reliable way to avoid giving that impression is to take steps to make what you write not useful as preaching. (For instance: disclaimers along the lines of “This is the opinion of a tiny minority only, and I happen to be one of them. Discount as you see fit.”)
There are some topics (of which this may be one; I don’t know, but maybe Eliezer does) whose discussion consistently generates more heat than light. It might be entirely reasonable to do away with posts on such topics unless they have very strong counterbalancing virtues.
Is 9/11 truthism a specifically banned topic, or is it just too crazy or too offensive?
Are all conspiracy-related topics banned? Can I, for instance, talk about the assassination of JFK?
As a general rule, all of your pet hobbyhorses are banned. Got any other questions?
No, I guess that covers it. When you’re ready to debate anything more difficult than religion’s corpse, let me know.
Is there a way for admins to take ownership of posts, so you could replace the text with a notice saying what was there and why it was removed?
Admins can edit posts without taking ownership. For anything but an egregious wrong, adding a takedown notice should be preferred to deleting the post.
Admins can edit any post.