My concern about repealing the ban on discussing politics is that it risks deteriorating the quality of the discussion here—not only by increasing the risk of flame wars, but more subtly by making other people aware of who they agree with or disagree with on politics, which might make some other discussions more polarized too.
Right now, while browsing a discussion here, I generally have no idea about the politics of those involved, and I kinda like that. If there was a lot of discussion on more divisive subjects, my judgement might be more clouded—“oh, he’s an asshole anyway, I won’t pay attention to him”.
Maybe I’m being too pessimistic about the capacity of the average LessWrong to be be honest with himself and others about his bias.
I would be in favour of opening a separate forum, where LessWrongers log in with different usernames but try to stick to LessWrong conventions. That would avoid the “reputation bleedback” to the main LessWrong, and it makes it easier to cut the limb off if it shows signs of gangrene.
Right now, while browsing a discussion here, I generally have no idea about the politics of those involved, and I kinda like that. If there was a lot of discussion on more divisive subjects, my judgement might be more clouded—“oh, he’s an asshole anyway, I won’t pay attention to him”.
Agreed. And it works the other way too: I like that I can post here, knowing that people will judge my comments on their merit, without taking into account my politics and whether I favor this or that policy.
I never thought of it this way, but you are a counter-example—your values diverge from mine far more than those of liberals, conservatives and libertarians will, yet you still don’t get downvoted to oblivion.
However, this is mitigated by the fact that I don’t think everybody here believes you sincerely want to maximize the number of paperclips (sorry for breaking this difficult truth to you).
However, this is mitigated by the fact that I don’t think everybody here believes you sincerely want to maximize the number of paperclips (sorry for breaking this difficult truth to you).
I imagine Clippy will be quite ok with that—it makes it all the easier to execute (yes, right word) his plan for paperclipification of all space when the time comes....
My concern about repealing the ban on discussing politics is that it risks deteriorating the quality of the discussion here—not only by increasing the risk of flame wars, but more subtly by making other people aware of who they agree with or disagree with on politics, which might make some other discussions more polarized too.
Right now, while browsing a discussion here, I generally have no idea about the politics of those involved, and I kinda like that. If there was a lot of discussion on more divisive subjects, my judgement might be more clouded—“oh, he’s an asshole anyway, I won’t pay attention to him”.
Maybe I’m being too pessimistic about the capacity of the average LessWrong to be be honest with himself and others about his bias.
I would be in favour of opening a separate forum, where LessWrongers log in with different usernames but try to stick to LessWrong conventions. That would avoid the “reputation bleedback” to the main LessWrong, and it makes it easier to cut the limb off if it shows signs of gangrene.
Upvoted for this.
Agreed. And it works the other way too: I like that I can post here, knowing that people will judge my comments on their merit, without taking into account my politics and whether I favor this or that policy.
I never thought of it this way, but you are a counter-example—your values diverge from mine far more than those of liberals, conservatives and libertarians will, yet you still don’t get downvoted to oblivion.
However, this is mitigated by the fact that I don’t think everybody here believes you sincerely want to maximize the number of paperclips (sorry for breaking this difficult truth to you).
I imagine Clippy will be quite ok with that—it makes it all the easier to execute (yes, right word) his plan for paperclipification of all space when the time comes....