On reflection I think you’re right that this post isn’t doing the thing I thought it was doing, and have edited my comment.
(For reference: I don’t actually have strong takes on whether you should have chosen a different title given your beliefs. I agree that your strategy seems like a reasonable one given those beliefs, while also thinking that building a Coalition of the Concerned would have been a reasonable strategy given those beliefs. I mostly dislike the social pressure currently being applied in the direction of “those who disagree should stick to their agreements” (example) without even an acknowledgement of the asymmetricity of the request, let alone a justification for it. But I agree this post isn’t quite doing that.)
(Fwiw, I personally disclaim any social pressure that people should avoid mentioning or discussing their disagreements; that’d be silly. I am in favor of building upon areas of agreement, and I am in favor of being careful to avoid misleading the public, and I am in favor of people who disagree managing to build coalitions, but I’m not in favor of people feeling like it’s time to stfu. I think the “misleading the public” thing is a little delicate, because I think it’s easy for onlookers to think experts are saying “i disagree [that the current situation is reckless and crazy and a sane world would put a stop to it]” when in fact experts are trying to say “i disagree [about whether certain technical plans have a middling probability of success, though of course i agree that the current situation is reckless and crazy]”, and it can be a bit tricky to grumble about this effect in a fashion that doesn’t come across as telling people to stfu about their disagreements. My attempt to thread that needle is to remind people that this misunderstanding is common and important, and thus to suggest that when people have a broad audience, they work to combat this misread :-))
On reflection I think you’re right that this post isn’t doing the thing I thought it was doing, and have edited my comment.
(For reference: I don’t actually have strong takes on whether you should have chosen a different title given your beliefs. I agree that your strategy seems like a reasonable one given those beliefs, while also thinking that building a Coalition of the Concerned would have been a reasonable strategy given those beliefs. I mostly dislike the social pressure currently being applied in the direction of “those who disagree should stick to their agreements” (example) without even an acknowledgement of the asymmetricity of the request, let alone a justification for it. But I agree this post isn’t quite doing that.)
(Fwiw, I personally disclaim any social pressure that people should avoid mentioning or discussing their disagreements; that’d be silly. I am in favor of building upon areas of agreement, and I am in favor of being careful to avoid misleading the public, and I am in favor of people who disagree managing to build coalitions, but I’m not in favor of people feeling like it’s time to stfu. I think the “misleading the public” thing is a little delicate, because I think it’s easy for onlookers to think experts are saying “i disagree [that the current situation is reckless and crazy and a sane world would put a stop to it]” when in fact experts are trying to say “i disagree [about whether certain technical plans have a middling probability of success, though of course i agree that the current situation is reckless and crazy]”, and it can be a bit tricky to grumble about this effect in a fashion that doesn’t come across as telling people to stfu about their disagreements. My attempt to thread that needle is to remind people that this misunderstanding is common and important, and thus to suggest that when people have a broad audience, they work to combat this misread :-))
I also disclaim this social pressure! Seems pretty bad IMO (and I have commented myself on the linked tweet thread saying so)