I wouldn’t call him that, and not because I have any doubt about his trustworthiness. It’s the other word, “source”, that I wouldn’t apply. He’s a professional SF author. His business is to entertain with ideas, and his blog is part of that. I wouldn’t go there in search of serious analysis of anything, any more than I would look for that on RationalWiki. Both the article in question and the comments on it are pretty much on a par with RationalWiki’s approach. In fact (ungrounded speculation alert), I have to wonder how many of the commenters there are RW regulars, there to fan the flame.
I wouldn’t call him that, and not because I have any doubt about his trustworthiness. It’s the other word, “source”, that I wouldn’t apply. He’s a professional SF author. His business is to entertain with ideas, and his blog is part of that. I wouldn’t go there in search of serious analysis of anything, any more than I would look for that on RationalWiki. Both the article in question and the comments on it are pretty much on a par with RationalWiki’s approach. In fact (ungrounded speculation alert), I have to wonder how many of the commenters there are RW regulars, there to fan the flame.
Stross is widely read, cited, and quoted approvingly, on his blog and off (eg. Hacker News). He is a trusted source for many geeks.
RationalWiki’s new coat-of-arms is a troll riding a basilisk.