I expect in the near-ish future to publish a thing. That thing references an idea that someone had and published on LW. I believe (having seen a credible accusation) that person has acted unethically and illegally, in ways irrelevant to the idea.
I currently intend to mention this belief, either in a footnote or a comment, along the lines of “this isn’t relevant but I believe _” (and link to why I believe that). But I feel like doing so has the potential to stir up drama, and have a bunch of people telling me I shouldn’t have said anything?
(Maybe relevant: in a kinda-similar situation, I recently had someone tell me I shouldn’t have brought something up. But the situations were different in that I thought the thing clearly was relevant, that time, and bringing it up was clearly reasonable of me. It was frustrating, and I might have over-updated on how likely that kind of thing is to happen.)
Me to explain my current thinking, which I’ll do in an answer;
Others to give their own thoughts, and perhaps persuade me that I shouldn’t say anything.
Assuming I do mention the thing, I can link here when I do and hopefully avoid the drama that might not have happened anyway.
Note that a blanket “do/don’t mention”, based on what I’ve said so far, feels unlikely to be very helpful here. I think there are probably situations compatible with what I describe where mentioning is good, and situations compatible with what I describe where mentioning is not good. The question is how we decide which is which.
[Question] When to mention irrelevant accusations?
I expect in the near-ish future to publish a thing. That thing references an idea that someone had and published on LW. I believe (having seen a credible accusation) that person has acted unethically and illegally, in ways irrelevant to the idea.
I currently intend to mention this belief, either in a footnote or a comment, along the lines of “this isn’t relevant but I believe _” (and link to why I believe that). But I feel like doing so has the potential to stir up drama, and have a bunch of people telling me I shouldn’t have said anything?
(Maybe relevant: in a kinda-similar situation, I recently had someone tell me I shouldn’t have brought something up. But the situations were different in that I thought the thing clearly was relevant, that time, and bringing it up was clearly reasonable of me. It was frustrating, and I might have over-updated on how likely that kind of thing is to happen.)
So in the spirit of why I’m punching you, here’s a space for
Me to explain my current thinking, which I’ll do in an answer;
Others to give their own thoughts, and perhaps persuade me that I shouldn’t say anything.
Assuming I do mention the thing, I can link here when I do and hopefully avoid the drama that might not have happened anyway.
Note that a blanket “do/don’t mention”, based on what I’ve said so far, feels unlikely to be very helpful here. I think there are probably situations compatible with what I describe where mentioning is good, and situations compatible with what I describe where mentioning is not good. The question is how we decide which is which.