It still appears to me that you are completely missing the point. I acknowledge that you are getting a lot of upvotes and I’m not, suggesting that other LW readers disagree with me. I think they are wrong, but outside view suggests caution.
I notice one thing I said that was not at all what I intended to say, so let me correct that before going further. I said
“not doing things that would offend X” in his comment is unambiguously not a move in any game being played with X at all.
but what I actually meant to say was
“standing up to X” in his comment is unambiguously not a move in any game being played with X at all.
[EDITED to add:] No, that also isn’t quite right; my apologies; let me try again. What I actually mean is that “standing up to X” and “not doing things that would offend X” are events in two entirely separate games, and the latter is not a means to the former.
There are actually three separate interactions envisaged in Steven’s comment, constituting (if you want to express this in game-theoretic terms) three separate games. (1) An interaction with left-wing entryists, where they try to turn LW into a platform for leftist propaganda. (2) An interaction with right-wing entryists, where they try to turn LW into a platform for rightist propaganda. (3) An interaction with leftists, who may or may not be entryists, where they try to stop LW being a platform for right-wing propaganda or claim that it is one. (There is also (4) an interaction with rightists, along the lines of #3, which I include for the sake of symmetry.)
Steven claims that in game 1 we should strongly resist the left-wing entryists, presumably by saying something like “no, LW is not a place for left-wing propaganda”. He claims that in order to do this in a principled way we need also to say “LW is not a place for right-wing propaganda”, thus also resisting the right-wing entryists in game 2. And he claims that in order to do this credibly we need to be reluctant to post things that might be, or that look like they are, right-wing propaganda, thus giving some ground to the leftists in game 3.
Game 1 and game 3 are entirely separate, and the same move could be a declaration of victory in one and a capitulation in the other. For instance, imposing a blanket ban on all discussion of politically sensitive topics on LW would be an immediate and total victory over entryists of both stripes in games 1 and 2, and something like a total capitulation to leftists and rightists alike in games 3 and 4.
So “not doing things that would offend leftists” is not a move in any game played with left-wing entryists; “standing up to left-wing entryists” is not a move in any game played with leftists complaining about right-wing content on LW; I was trying to say both of those and ended up talking nonsense. The above is what I actually meant.
I agree that steven0461 is saying (something like) that people writing LW articles should avoid saying things that outrage left-leaning readers, and that if you view what happens on LW as a negotiation with left-leaning readers then that proposal is not a strategy that gives you much leverage.
I don’t agree that it makes any sense to say, as you did, that Steven’s proposal involves “standing up to X by not saying anything that offends X”, which is the specific thing you accused him of.
Your comment above elaborates on the thing I agree about, but doesn’t address the reasons I’ve given for disagreeing with the thing I don’t agree about. That may be partly because of the screwup on my part that I mention above.
I think the distinction is important, because the defensible accusation is of the form “Steven proposes giving too much veto power over LW to certain political groups”, which is a disagreement about strategy, whereas the one you originally made is of the form “Steven proposes something blatantly self-contradictory”, which is a disagreement about rationality, and around these parts accusations of being stupid or irrational are generally more serious than accusations of being unwise or on the wrong political team.
The above is my main objection to what you have been saying here, but I have others which I think worth airing:
It is not true that “don’t do anything that the left considers offensively right-wing” gives the left “the ability to prevent arbitrary speech”, at least not if it’s interpreted with even the slightest bit of charity, because there are many many things one could say that no one will ever consider offensively right-wing. Of course it’s possible in theory for any given group to start regarding any given thing as offensively right-wing, but I do not think it reasonable to read steven0461′s proposal as saying that literally no degree of absurdity should make us reconsider the policy he proposes.
It is not true that Steven proposes to “not do anything that the left has decided is offensively right-wing”. “Sufficiently offensive” was his actual wording. This doesn’t rule out any specific thing, but again I think any but the most uncharitable reading indicates that he is not proposing a policy of the form “never post anything that anyone finds offensive” but one of the form “when posting something that might cause offence, consider whether its potential to offend is enough to outweigh the benefits of posting it”. So, again, the proposal is not to give “the left” complete veto power over what is posted on LW.
I think it is unfortunate that most of what you’ve written rounds off Steven’s references to “left/right-wing political entryism” to “the left/right”. I do not know exactly where he draws the boundary between mere X-wing-ism and X-wing political entryism, but provided the distinction means something I think it is much more reasonable for LW to see “political entryism” of whatever stripe as an enemy to be stood up to, than for LW to see “the left” or “the right” as an enemy to be stood up to. The former is about not letting political groups co-opt LW for their political purposes. The latter is about declaring ourselves a political team and fighting opposing political teams.
It still appears to me that you are completely missing the point. I acknowledge that you are getting a lot of upvotes and I’m not, suggesting that other LW readers disagree with me. I think they are wrong, but outside view suggests caution.
I notice one thing I said that was not at all what I intended to say, so let me correct that before going further. I said
but what I actually meant to say was
[EDITED to add:] No, that also isn’t quite right; my apologies; let me try again. What I actually mean is that “standing up to X” and “not doing things that would offend X” are events in two entirely separate games, and the latter is not a means to the former.
There are actually three separate interactions envisaged in Steven’s comment, constituting (if you want to express this in game-theoretic terms) three separate games. (1) An interaction with left-wing entryists, where they try to turn LW into a platform for leftist propaganda. (2) An interaction with right-wing entryists, where they try to turn LW into a platform for rightist propaganda. (3) An interaction with leftists, who may or may not be entryists, where they try to stop LW being a platform for right-wing propaganda or claim that it is one. (There is also (4) an interaction with rightists, along the lines of #3, which I include for the sake of symmetry.)
Steven claims that in game 1 we should strongly resist the left-wing entryists, presumably by saying something like “no, LW is not a place for left-wing propaganda”. He claims that in order to do this in a principled way we need also to say “LW is not a place for right-wing propaganda”, thus also resisting the right-wing entryists in game 2. And he claims that in order to do this credibly we need to be reluctant to post things that might be, or that look like they are, right-wing propaganda, thus giving some ground to the leftists in game 3.
Game 1 and game 3 are entirely separate, and the same move could be a declaration of victory in one and a capitulation in the other. For instance, imposing a blanket ban on all discussion of politically sensitive topics on LW would be an immediate and total victory over entryists of both stripes in games 1 and 2, and something like a total capitulation to leftists and rightists alike in games 3 and 4.
So “not doing things that would offend leftists” is not a move in any game played with left-wing entryists; “standing up to left-wing entryists” is not a move in any game played with leftists complaining about right-wing content on LW; I was trying to say both of those and ended up talking nonsense. The above is what I actually meant.
I agree that steven0461 is saying (something like) that people writing LW articles should avoid saying things that outrage left-leaning readers, and that if you view what happens on LW as a negotiation with left-leaning readers then that proposal is not a strategy that gives you much leverage.
I don’t agree that it makes any sense to say, as you did, that Steven’s proposal involves “standing up to X by not saying anything that offends X”, which is the specific thing you accused him of.
Your comment above elaborates on the thing I agree about, but doesn’t address the reasons I’ve given for disagreeing with the thing I don’t agree about. That may be partly because of the screwup on my part that I mention above.
I think the distinction is important, because the defensible accusation is of the form “Steven proposes giving too much veto power over LW to certain political groups”, which is a disagreement about strategy, whereas the one you originally made is of the form “Steven proposes something blatantly self-contradictory”, which is a disagreement about rationality, and around these parts accusations of being stupid or irrational are generally more serious than accusations of being unwise or on the wrong political team.
The above is my main objection to what you have been saying here, but I have others which I think worth airing:
It is not true that “don’t do anything that the left considers offensively right-wing” gives the left “the ability to prevent arbitrary speech”, at least not if it’s interpreted with even the slightest bit of charity, because there are many many things one could say that no one will ever consider offensively right-wing. Of course it’s possible in theory for any given group to start regarding any given thing as offensively right-wing, but I do not think it reasonable to read steven0461′s proposal as saying that literally no degree of absurdity should make us reconsider the policy he proposes.
It is not true that Steven proposes to “not do anything that the left has decided is offensively right-wing”. “Sufficiently offensive” was his actual wording. This doesn’t rule out any specific thing, but again I think any but the most uncharitable reading indicates that he is not proposing a policy of the form “never post anything that anyone finds offensive” but one of the form “when posting something that might cause offence, consider whether its potential to offend is enough to outweigh the benefits of posting it”. So, again, the proposal is not to give “the left” complete veto power over what is posted on LW.
I think it is unfortunate that most of what you’ve written rounds off Steven’s references to “left/right-wing political entryism” to “the left/right”. I do not know exactly where he draws the boundary between mere X-wing-ism and X-wing political entryism, but provided the distinction means something I think it is much more reasonable for LW to see “political entryism” of whatever stripe as an enemy to be stood up to, than for LW to see “the left” or “the right” as an enemy to be stood up to. The former is about not letting political groups co-opt LW for their political purposes. The latter is about declaring ourselves a political team and fighting opposing political teams.