My understanding is that the epistemic concern is “after writing the affordance widths post, he would tell young women he needed to do BDSM stuff they weren’t comfortable with in order to stay within his affordance width.” And similar things for some of his other posts. I’m not sure why the OP was so vague about this.
We believe that Brent is fundamentally oriented towards helping people grow to be the best versions of themselves. In this way he is aligned with CFAR’s goals and strategy and should be seen as an ally.
In particular, Brent is quite good at breaking out of standard social frames and making use of unconventional techniques and strategies. This includes things that have Chesterton’s fences attached, such as drug use, weird storytelling, etc. A lot of his aesthetic is dark, and this sometimes makes him come across as evil or machiavellian.
Brent also embodies a rare kind of agency and sense of heroic responsibility. This has caused him to take the lead in certain events and be an important community hub and driver. The flip side of this is that because Brent is deeply insecure, he has to constantly fight urges to seize power and protect himself. It often takes costly signalling for him to trust that someone is an ally, and even then it’s shaky.
Brent is a controversial figure, and disliked by many. This has led to him being attacked by many and held to a higher standard than most. In these ways his feelings of insecurity are justified. He also has had a hard life, including a traumatic childhood. Much of the reason people don’t like him comes from a kind of intuition or aesthetic feeling, rather than his actions per se.
“Everything bad that happened as a result of Brent’s actions is someone else’s fault. He only wants the best things to happen, but to allow that, everyone else needs to trust him first. Because bad people not trusting him is one of those things that make him do the things he regrets. Seriously, stop pointing out how Brent’s actions hurt people; don’t you see the pain this causes him?”
I knew a guy who did things similar to what Brent is accused of, and his PR was pretty similar. He also had a blog with complaints about his suffering and unfairness of the world. None of his written thoughts hinted at the possibility of him changing his own behavior; it was always how other people should accomodate him better.
My opinion on the articles is that they are a “fruit of the poisonous mind”. No matter how true or insightful, the text is optimized for some purpose. If you believe there is something valuable there, the only safe way is to throw the text away and try expressing the valuable idea using your own words, your own metaphors, and your own examples, as if the original text had never existed. Then you might notice e.g. that sometimes the space of action is not one-dimensional, however people are often blind about some options they have.
My understanding is that the epistemic concern is “after writing the affordance widths post, he would tell young women he needed to do BDSM stuff they weren’t comfortable with in order to stay within his affordance width.” And similar things for some of his other posts. I’m not sure why the OP was so vague about this.
Edit: and he also managed to fool members of CFAR with a similar line.
Reading the ACDC conclusion, it feels like:
“Everything bad that happened as a result of Brent’s actions is someone else’s fault. He only wants the best things to happen, but to allow that, everyone else needs to trust him first. Because bad people not trusting him is one of those things that make him do the things he regrets. Seriously, stop pointing out how Brent’s actions hurt people; don’t you see the pain this causes him?”
I knew a guy who did things similar to what Brent is accused of, and his PR was pretty similar. He also had a blog with complaints about his suffering and unfairness of the world. None of his written thoughts hinted at the possibility of him changing his own behavior; it was always how other people should accomodate him better.
My opinion on the articles is that they are a “fruit of the poisonous mind”. No matter how true or insightful, the text is optimized for some purpose. If you believe there is something valuable there, the only safe way is to throw the text away and try expressing the valuable idea using your own words, your own metaphors, and your own examples, as if the original text had never existed. Then you might notice e.g. that sometimes the space of action is not one-dimensional, however people are often blind about some options they have.