Also the punishment (mainly in the form of lowered status and tarnished reputation) that would be foisted upon LW as an institution by the broader society if it were to become a welcoming environment for various kinds of views that aren’t very respectable.
Also: Being habitually mentioned in the same breath with outrageous positions that one has taken in the past. Having such words applied to one as cause people they are repeatedly applied to to be shunned.
What I’m really displeased about is that we are so casually dismissed as troublemakers, arguing in bad faith or tarred with negative characteristics.
Look at our profiles. Look at our comments. You will find many very active and well received posters who you would otherwise consider an asset to the community. And then consider how massively up voted some comments expressing such sentiments are! There are many more who never voice it but share chunks of this proposed map of reality.
Yes many on LessWrong are knee jerk contrarians, but please consider just how large a fraction of reasonable, polite, intelligent, sceptical LW contributors have basically thrown out certain popular overly optimistic ideas out of their model of the world, because the ideas in question just don’t pay rent and and are useful for signalling only. I dare say many, found the departure from some of those ideas more painful and difficult than admitting to themselves that the religion of their childhood was false.
There are different degrees of severity. Being perceived as weird in a nerdy way is low-status, but it’s nothing compared to being perceived as harboring fundamentally evil views. Most notably, the former sort of low status isn’t infectious; you can associate with weird nerdy people without any consequence for the other aspects of your life. Not so when it comes to associating with the latter sort of people.
My question wasn’t what tools of punishment are available, but whether there is actually a substantial amount of such punishment occurring merely for taking non-mainstream views.
Downvoted for invoking the name of the magic in vain, risking summoning its counterpart twin demon to devour us when you had no just cause! None I say!
My purpose in using the word was not to contrast good us to bad them, but rather to emphasize that the action Prismattic disagrees with (that of withholding one’s opinion) is a move forced by an incentive that needn’t itself have been set (and shouldn’t have been set if Prismattic is right that opinion withholding is bad), and so it’s more reasonable for Prismattic to complain to the incentive setters than to the incentive followers. Does that make sense?
The “people aren’t villains of their own narratives” line always struck me as a little glib. Villains believe they’re not villains, but does that mean they falsely believe they’re some particular thing that truly is not a villain, or does it merely mean they correctly believe they’re some particular thing that they falsely believe is not a villain (fail to label as villainous)? In my intuition these are two different things and the saying uses the plausibility of the disjunction of the two things to suggest only the first thing. Clearly villains usually gain some sort of satisfaction from their role in the world, perhaps even moral satisfaction, but that’s not the same thing as there having been a good-faith effort to be a hero. I don’t know, I may just be confused here.
Anyway, what matters is who’s a villain in God’s narrative (in the atheist sense of God). :)
it’s more reasonable for Prismattic to complain to the incentive setters than to the incentive followers.
I disagree with this, at least it’s not at all obvious.
does that mean
It means that at least on LW, they would also describe their behavior as rational (in certain contexts where reason is seen as an enemy, not everyone would be claiming the title “rational”).
these are two different things and the saying uses the plausibility of the disjunction of the two things to suggest only the first thing.
People punishing norm violations aren’t the villains of their own narratives, they think they’re responding rationally.
Which does not necessarily mean we should change the way we treat them. They can tell themselves whatever story they like. And by punishing them appropriately they will either change their behavior or, perhaps most importantly, those witnessing the punishment will avoid the behavior that visibly invokes community disapproval.
It sounds, then, as though you should be talking to the people punishing norm violations, not to the people responding rationally to such punishment.
Who is punishing? (In the context of Lesswrong)
Lowered karma. Rebuke. Deletion of posts. We might have some form of banning. Might want to check the wiki.
Also the punishment (mainly in the form of lowered status and tarnished reputation) that would be foisted upon LW as an institution by the broader society if it were to become a welcoming environment for various kinds of views that aren’t very respectable.
Also: Being habitually mentioned in the same breath with outrageous positions that one has taken in the past. Having such words applied to one as cause people they are repeatedly applied to to be shunned.
What I’m really displeased about is that we are so casually dismissed as troublemakers, arguing in bad faith or tarred with negative characteristics.
Look at our profiles. Look at our comments. You will find many very active and well received posters who you would otherwise consider an asset to the community. And then consider how massively up voted some comments expressing such sentiments are! There are many more who never voice it but share chunks of this proposed map of reality.
Yes many on LessWrong are knee jerk contrarians, but please consider just how large a fraction of reasonable, polite, intelligent, sceptical LW contributors have basically thrown out certain popular overly optimistic ideas out of their model of the world, because the ideas in question just don’t pay rent and and are useful for signalling only. I dare say many, found the departure from some of those ideas more painful and difficult than admitting to themselves that the religion of their childhood was false.
I know I did.
Update accordingly.
Aren’t we already?
There are different degrees of severity. Being perceived as weird in a nerdy way is low-status, but it’s nothing compared to being perceived as harboring fundamentally evil views. Most notably, the former sort of low status isn’t infectious; you can associate with weird nerdy people without any consequence for the other aspects of your life. Not so when it comes to associating with the latter sort of people.
My question wasn’t what tools of punishment are available, but whether there is actually a substantial amount of such punishment occurring merely for taking non-mainstream views.
Downvoted for invoking the name of the magic in vain, risking summoning its counterpart twin demon to devour us when you had no just cause! None I say!
What should I have said instead? “Incentive-followingly”? Maybe the fashion pendulum has swung too far toward not using the word.
“Calmly”, “by punishing the punishment”, “to the substance of the matter regardless of punishment”.
People punishing norm violations aren’t the villains of their own narratives, they think they’re responding rationally.
My purpose in using the word was not to contrast good us to bad them, but rather to emphasize that the action Prismattic disagrees with (that of withholding one’s opinion) is a move forced by an incentive that needn’t itself have been set (and shouldn’t have been set if Prismattic is right that opinion withholding is bad), and so it’s more reasonable for Prismattic to complain to the incentive setters than to the incentive followers. Does that make sense?
The “people aren’t villains of their own narratives” line always struck me as a little glib. Villains believe they’re not villains, but does that mean they falsely believe they’re some particular thing that truly is not a villain, or does it merely mean they correctly believe they’re some particular thing that they falsely believe is not a villain (fail to label as villainous)? In my intuition these are two different things and the saying uses the plausibility of the disjunction of the two things to suggest only the first thing. Clearly villains usually gain some sort of satisfaction from their role in the world, perhaps even moral satisfaction, but that’s not the same thing as there having been a good-faith effort to be a hero. I don’t know, I may just be confused here.
Anyway, what matters is who’s a villain in God’s narrative (in the atheist sense of God). :)
I disagree with this, at least it’s not at all obvious.
It means that at least on LW, they would also describe their behavior as rational (in certain contexts where reason is seen as an enemy, not everyone would be claiming the title “rational”).
Clever.
Which does not necessarily mean we should change the way we treat them. They can tell themselves whatever story they like. And by punishing them appropriately they will either change their behavior or, perhaps most importantly, those witnessing the punishment will avoid the behavior that visibly invokes community disapproval.
“Straightforwardly,” perhaps, or “shortsightedly” if you want to speak ill of them.