As I mentioned in a previous interview, I think these labels get thrown around as insults without being based on anything substantive:
ZMD: So there’s also this problem of different groups slandering each other. I mentioned in the memoir that there were a couple years when I was collaborating with Michael Vassar and some of his friends on a lot of intellectual stuff. I still consider myself friends with Ben Hoffman and Jessica Taylor. I don’t talk to Michael very much these days. We chatted briefly at a conference the other month. But there’s some people who call us “the Vassarites” with cultish insinuations in a way that just sort of seems like slander, because from the inside, like, what? We’re different people who talk to each other sometimes, what is the alleged problem here, exactly?
Changed “cult leader” to “cult leader type”. I think the fact that he was manipulative and caused negative outcomes in several people including drug-induced psychosis is well-established.
the fact that he [...] caused negative outcomes in several people including drug-induced psychosis is well-established
No, it isn’t: see Scott Alexander’s followup comment in which he reports that he “interviewed many of the people involved” and that his “main conclusion is that I was wrong about Michael making people psychotic.”
situation considered complicated, calling it pure selection effect is cope at best, enabling at worst. calling it pure causality would be a ridiculous witch hunt. truth is messier and counterfactuals are hard.
As I mentioned in a previous interview, I think these labels get thrown around as insults without being based on anything substantive:
Changed “cult leader” to “cult leader type”. I think the fact that he was manipulative and caused negative outcomes in several people
includingdrug-induced psychosisis well-established.No, it isn’t: see Scott Alexander’s followup comment in which he reports that he “interviewed many of the people involved” and that his “main conclusion is that I was wrong about Michael making people psychotic.”
situation considered complicated, calling it pure selection effect is cope at best, enabling at worst. calling it pure causality would be a ridiculous witch hunt. truth is messier and counterfactuals are hard.
Thanks for the correction, I try to avoid drama and sometimes it means I miss correction comments and such.
I’m still wary of the process but don’t really want to engage more