I think Wei’s point is at least in part that existing in an environment where he couldn’t escape criticism for his ideas helped shape him into the kind of person who made the valuable contributions he went on to make (regardless of whether he found those moderation conditions comfortable at the time). So it’s not (just) about driving away people with moderation preferences like his, it’s about not providing the kind of intellectual crucible that could produce future Wei Dai-level contributors (regardless of whether those people currently have Wei Dai-style moderation preferences). (iiuc)
Sure, that’s fine. As I said, you can make those structural arguments, but I need to seem them actually made, instead of asserting a correlation from a justice-oriented frame (which Wei has done in some other comments, so it seems fine to continue from there).
I think Wei’s point is at least in part that existing in an environment where he couldn’t escape criticism for his ideas helped shape him into the kind of person who made the valuable contributions he went on to make (regardless of whether he found those moderation conditions comfortable at the time). So it’s not (just) about driving away people with moderation preferences like his, it’s about not providing the kind of intellectual crucible that could produce future Wei Dai-level contributors (regardless of whether those people currently have Wei Dai-style moderation preferences). (iiuc)
Sure, that’s fine. As I said, you can make those structural arguments, but I need to seem them actually made, instead of asserting a correlation from a justice-oriented frame (which Wei has done in some other comments, so it seems fine to continue from there).