Do you mind telling me how you think he’s being uncharitable? I agree mostly with your first two statements. (If you don’t want to put it on this public forum because hot debated topic etc I’d appreciate it if you could PM; I won’t take you down the ‘let’s argue feminism’ rabbit-hole.)
(I’ve always wondered if there was a way to rebut him, but I don’t know enough of the relevant sciences to try and construct an argument myself, except in syllogistic form. And even then, it seems his statements on feminists are correct.)
Do you mind telling me how you think he’s being uncharitable?
For a very quick example, see this Tumblr post. Mr. Alexander finds an example of a neoreactionary leader trying to be mean to a transgender woman inside the NRx sphere, and then shows the vast majority response of (non-vile) neoreactionaries to at least be less exclusionary than that, even though they have ideological issues with the diagnosis or treatment of gender dysphoria. Then he describes a feminist tumblr which develops increasingly misgendering and rude ways to describe disagreeing transgender men.
I don’t know that this is actually /wrong/. All the actual facts are true, and if anything understate their relevant aspects—if anything, I expect Ozy’s understated the level of anti-transmale bigotry floating around the ‘enlightened’ side of Tumblr. I don’t find NRx very persuasive, but there are certainly worse things that could be done than using it as a blunt “you must behave at least this well to ride” test. I don’t know that feminism really needs external heroes: it’s certainly a large enough group that it should be able to present internal speakers with strong and well-grounded beliefs. And I can certainly empathize with holding feminists to a higher standard than neoreactionaries hold themselves.
The problem is that it’s not very charitable. Scott’s the person that’s /come up/ with the term “Lizardman’s Constant” to describe how a certain percentage of any population will give terrible answers to really obvious questions. He’s a strong advocate of steelmanning opposing viewpoints, and he’s written an article about the dangers of only looking at the .
But he’s looking at a viewpoint shown primarily in the <5% margin feminist tumblr, and comparing them to a circle of the more polite neoreactionaries (damning with faint praise as that might be, still significant), and, uh, I’m not sure that we should be surprised if the worst of the best said meaner things than the best of the worst.
I’m not sure he /needs/ to be charitable, again—feminism should have its own internal speakers, I think mainstream modern feminism could use better critics than whoever’s on Fox News next, so on—but it’s an understandable criticism.
((Upvoting the thread starter, but more because one and two are mu statements; either closed questions or not meaningful. Weakly agree on third.))
Being 5% of the group doesn’t mean they are 5% of the influence. The loudest 5% may get to set the agenda of the remaining 95% if the remaining ones are willing to go along with things they don’t particularly care about, but don’t oppose enough to make these things deal-breakers either.
Fortunately, LW is not an appropriate forum for argument on this subject, but for an example of an uncharitable post, see Social Justice and Words, Words, Words.
Do you mind telling me how you think he’s being uncharitable? I agree mostly with your first two statements. (If you don’t want to put it on this public forum because hot debated topic etc I’d appreciate it if you could PM; I won’t take you down the ‘let’s argue feminism’ rabbit-hole.)
(I’ve always wondered if there was a way to rebut him, but I don’t know enough of the relevant sciences to try and construct an argument myself, except in syllogistic form. And even then, it seems his statements on feminists are correct.)
For a very quick example, see this Tumblr post. Mr. Alexander finds an example of a neoreactionary leader trying to be mean to a transgender woman inside the NRx sphere, and then shows the vast majority response of (non-vile) neoreactionaries to at least be less exclusionary than that, even though they have ideological issues with the diagnosis or treatment of gender dysphoria. Then he describes a feminist tumblr which develops increasingly misgendering and rude ways to describe disagreeing transgender men.
I don’t know that this is actually /wrong/. All the actual facts are true, and if anything understate their relevant aspects—if anything, I expect Ozy’s understated the level of anti-transmale bigotry floating around the ‘enlightened’ side of Tumblr. I don’t find NRx very persuasive, but there are certainly worse things that could be done than using it as a blunt “you must behave at least this well to ride” test. I don’t know that feminism really needs external heroes: it’s certainly a large enough group that it should be able to present internal speakers with strong and well-grounded beliefs. And I can certainly empathize with holding feminists to a higher standard than neoreactionaries hold themselves.
The problem is that it’s not very charitable. Scott’s the person that’s /come up/ with the term “Lizardman’s Constant” to describe how a certain percentage of any population will give terrible answers to really obvious questions. He’s a strong advocate of steelmanning opposing viewpoints, and he’s written an article about the dangers of only looking at the .
But he’s looking at a viewpoint shown primarily in the <5% margin feminist tumblr, and comparing them to a circle of the more polite neoreactionaries (damning with faint praise as that might be, still significant), and, uh, I’m not sure that we should be surprised if the worst of the best said meaner things than the best of the worst.
I’m not sure he /needs/ to be charitable, again—feminism should have its own internal speakers, I think mainstream modern feminism could use better critics than whoever’s on Fox News next, so on—but it’s an understandable criticism.
((Upvoting the thread starter, but more because one and two are mu statements; either closed questions or not meaningful. Weakly agree on third.))
Being 5% of the group doesn’t mean they are 5% of the influence. The loudest 5% may get to set the agenda of the remaining 95% if the remaining ones are willing to go along with things they don’t particularly care about, but don’t oppose enough to make these things deal-breakers either.
It also helps if the 5% have arguments for their positions.
See also: http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=2939
Fortunately, LW is not an appropriate forum for argument on this subject, but for an example of an uncharitable post, see Social Justice and Words, Words, Words.
Why? Because people are likely to disagree with you?