Many of the users on LW have their real names and reputations attached to this website. If LW were to come under this kind of loosely coordinated memetic attack, many people would find themselves harassed and their reputations and careers could easily be put in danger. I don’t want to sound overly dramatic, but the entire truth seeking and AI safety project could be hampered by association.
That’s why even though I remain anonymous, I think it’s best if I refrain from discussing these topics at anything except the meta level on LW. Even having this discussion strikes me as risky. That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t discuss these topics at all. But it needs to be on a place like r/TheMotte where there is no attack vector. This includes using different usernames so we can’t be traced back here. Even then, the reddit AEO and the admins are technically weak points.
Ah. Many people on Less Wrong use real names or traceable pseudonyms. If Less Wrong becomes associated with [unspeakable] then anyone who uses [traceable name] on Less Wrong could, by association, be threatened by a mob regardless of whether [traceable name] in particular endorses [unspeakable] because terrorist mobs are not known for their precise discrimination of targets.
I’ll quote myself:
Ah. Many people on Less Wrong use real names or traceable pseudonyms. If Less Wrong becomes associated with [unspeakable] then anyone who uses [traceable name] on Less Wrong could, by association, be threatened by a mob regardless of whether [traceable name] in particular endorses [unspeakable] because terrorist mobs are not known for their precise discrimination of targets.
You illustrate this with a real-world example.