[I]nvolvement in LW pulls people away from non-LWers. One way this happens is by encouraging contempt for less-rational Normals. [...] LW recruiting (hpmor, meetup locations near major universities) appears to target socially awkward intellectuals (incl. me) who are eager for new friends and a “high-status” organization to be part of, and who may not have many existing social ties locally.
I think you’ve got the causation going the wrong way here. LW does target a lot of socially awkward intellectuals. And a lot of LWers do harbor some contempt for their “less rational” peers. I submit, however, that this is not because they’re LWers but rather because they’re socially awkward intellectuals.
American geek culture has a strong exclusionist streak: “where were you when I was getting beaten up in high school?” Your average geek sees himself (using male pronouns here because I’m more familiar with the male side of the culture) as smarter and morally purer than Joe and Jane Sixpack—who by comparison are cast as lunkish, thoughtless, cruel, but attractive and socially successful—and as having suffered for that, which in turn justifies treating the mainstream with contempt and suspicion.
That’s a pretty fragile worldview, though. It’s threatened by any deviations from its binary classification of people, and indeed things don’t line up so neatly in real life. LW’s style of rationality provides a seemingly more robust line of division: on this side you have the people brave and smart enough to escape their heuristics and biases, and on that one you have the people that aren’t, who continue to play bitches and Blunderbores as needed. You may recognize this as a species of outgroup homogeneity.
Where’s the flaw in this line of thinking? Well, practical rationality is hard. A lot harder than pointing out biases in other people’s thinking. But if all you’re looking for from the community is a prop for your ego, you probably aren’t strongly motivated to do much of that hard work; it’s a lot easier just to fall back on old patterns of exclusion dressed up in new language.
I think you’ve got the causation going the wrong way here. LW does target a lot of socially awkward intellectuals. And a lot of LWers do harbor some contempt for their “less rational” peers. I submit, however, that this is not because they’re LWers but rather because they’re socially awkward intellectuals.
American geek culture has a strong exclusionist streak: “where were you when I was getting beaten up in high school?” Your average geek sees himself (using male pronouns here because I’m more familiar with the male side of the culture) as smarter and morally purer than Joe and Jane Sixpack—who by comparison are cast as lunkish, thoughtless, cruel, but attractive and socially successful—and as having suffered for that, which in turn justifies treating the mainstream with contempt and suspicion.
That’s a pretty fragile worldview, though. It’s threatened by any deviations from its binary classification of people, and indeed things don’t line up so neatly in real life. LW’s style of rationality provides a seemingly more robust line of division: on this side you have the people brave and smart enough to escape their heuristics and biases, and on that one you have the people that aren’t, who continue to play bitches and Blunderbores as needed. You may recognize this as a species of outgroup homogeneity.
Where’s the flaw in this line of thinking? Well, practical rationality is hard. A lot harder than pointing out biases in other people’s thinking. But if all you’re looking for from the community is a prop for your ego, you probably aren’t strongly motivated to do much of that hard work; it’s a lot easier just to fall back on old patterns of exclusion dressed up in new language.