bad things that happened are a significant fraction of the community early on
I’d like to read an impartial account, which would specify how large each fraction actually was.
For instance, if I remember correctly, in some survey 2% of Less Wrong readers identified as neoreactionaries. From some perspective, 2% is too much, because the only acceptable number is 0%. From a different perspective, 2% is less than the Lizardman’s Constant. Also, if I remember correctly, a much larger fraction of LessWrong readership identified on the survey as communist, and yet for some reason there are no people writing blogs or Wikipedia articles about how Less Wrong is a communist website. Or a socialist website. Or a Democrat website. Or… whatever else was in the poll.
The section on Zizians is weird, because it correctly starts with saying that Zizians opposed MIRI and CFAR… and yet concludes that the this is evidence that people attracted to rationalism are disproportionately prone to death spirals off the deep end. Notice the sleight of hand: “people attracted to you” technically includes your enemies who can’t stop thinking about you. -- Using the same rhetorical trick: Westboro Baptist Church is evidence that people attracted to (the topic of) homosexuality are often crazy. Also, by the same logic, every celebrity is responsible for her stalkers.
There are cases when the rationalist community actually promoted harmful people and groups, such as Vassar or Leverage. I’d like to read a serious analysis of how and why that happened, and how to prevent something like that in future. But if another Ziz appears in future, and starts recruiting people in another crazy cult opposed to rationalists, I am not sure how exactly to prevent that.
I’d like to read an impartial account, which would specify how large each fraction actually was.
For instance, if I remember correctly, in some survey 2% of Less Wrong readers identified as neoreactionaries. From some perspective, 2% is too much, because the only acceptable number is 0%. From a different perspective, 2% is less than the Lizardman’s Constant. Also, if I remember correctly, a much larger fraction of LessWrong readership identified on the survey as communist, and yet for some reason there are no people writing blogs or Wikipedia articles about how Less Wrong is a communist website. Or a socialist website. Or a Democrat website. Or… whatever else was in the poll.
The section on Zizians is weird, because it correctly starts with saying that Zizians opposed MIRI and CFAR… and yet concludes that the this is evidence that people attracted to rationalism are disproportionately prone to death spirals off the deep end. Notice the sleight of hand: “people attracted to you” technically includes your enemies who can’t stop thinking about you. -- Using the same rhetorical trick: Westboro Baptist Church is evidence that people attracted to (the topic of) homosexuality are often crazy. Also, by the same logic, every celebrity is responsible for her stalkers.
There are cases when the rationalist community actually promoted harmful people and groups, such as Vassar or Leverage. I’d like to read a serious analysis of how and why that happened, and how to prevent something like that in future. But if another Ziz appears in future, and starts recruiting people in another crazy cult opposed to rationalists, I am not sure how exactly to prevent that.