I gave it a strong downvote, not because it’s a meme, but because it’s a really bad meme that at best adds nothing and at worst muddies the epistemic environment.
“They hate him because he tells them the truth” is a universal argument, therefore not an argument.
If it’s intended not as supporting Eliezer but as caricaturing his supporters, I haven’t noticed anyone worth noticing giving him such flawed support.
Or perhaps it’s intended as caricaturing people who caricature people who agree with Eliezer?
It could mean any of these things and it is impossible to tell which, without knowing through other channels your actual view, which reduces it to a knowing wink to those in on the know.
And I haven’t even mentioned the comparison of Eliezer to Jesus and “full speed ahead and damn the torpedoes” as the Sanhedrin.
Thanks for the feedback! I think it’s a great meme but it probably reads differently to me than it does to you. It wasn’t intended to be support for either “side.” Insofar as it supports sides, I’d say the first part of the meme is criticism of Eliezer and the last part is criticism of those who reject His message, i.e. almost everyone. When I made this meme, it was months ago right after Yudkowsky wrote the time article and then went on podcasts, and pretty much everyone was telling him to shut up (including the people who agreed with him! Including me!)
Insofar as it supports sides, I’d say the first part of the meme is criticism of Eliezer
The comic does not parse (to my eyes and probably most people’s) as the author intending to criticize Eliezer at any point
Insofar as it supports sides, I’d say [...] the last part is criticism of those who reject His message
Only in the most strawman way. It basically feels equivalent to me to “They disagree with the guy I like, therefore they’re dumb / unsympathetic”. There’s basically no meat on the bones of the criticism
Thanks for your feedback also. It is understandable that this was your reaction. In case you are curious, here is what the comic meant to me:
--Yudkowsky is often criticized as a sort of cult leader. I don’t go that far but I do think there’s some truth to it; there are a bunch of LessWrongers who basically have a modern-day religious ideology (albeit one that’s pretty cool imo, but still) with Yudkowsky as their prophet. Moreover, in the context of the wider word, Yudkowsky is literally a prophet of doom. He’s the weird crazy man who no one likes except for his hardcore followers, who goes around telling all the powerful people and prestigious thought leaders that they are wrong and that the end is nigh.
--Humorously to me, though, Yudkowsky’s message is pretty… aggressive and blunt compared to Jesus’. Yudkowsky isn’t a sunshine and puppies and here-is-a-better-way prophet, he’s a “y’all are irrational and that’s why we’re gonna die” prophet. (I mean in real life he’s more nuanced than that often but that’s definitely how he’s perceived and the perception has basis in reality). I think this is funny. It’s also a mild criticism of Yudkowsky, as is the cult thing above.
--The rest of the meme is funny (to me) because it’s literally true, to a much greater extent than this meme format usually is. Usually when I see this meme format, the thing the Prophet says is a “spicy take” that has truth to it but isn’t literally true, and usually the prophet isn’t real or being told to shut up, and usually insofar as they are being told to shut up it isn’t *because* the prophet’s words are true, but despite their truth. Yet in this case, it is literally true that Yudkowsky’s audience is irrational (though to be clear, pretty much the whole world is irrational to varying degrees and in varying ways, including myself) and that that’s why we’re all going to die (if the whole world, or at least the large parts of it Yudkowsky is attempting to address i.e. US elite + academia + tech + government + nerds) was significantly less irrational then all this AGI risk would be way way lower. Moreover it is literally true that people are telling him to shut up—literally I myself recommended that, and various of my friends who agree with him on most things told him that, and obviously the people who disagree with Yudkowsky also say that often. Finally and most humorously to me, the reason most people reject his message is because they are irrational. Maybe this is controversial but whatever it’s what I believe; I think that people are not rational agents, indeed are pretty irrational pretty often, and that if they were more rational then they’d on average be much more sympathetic to the core claims Yudkowsky is making. So, the reason they reject his message is because it is true. Neat. I’ve never seen an instance of this meme/comic that was so literal before.
I gave it a strong downvote, not because it’s a meme, but because it’s a really bad meme that at best adds nothing and at worst muddies the epistemic environment.
“They hate him because he tells them the truth” is a universal argument, therefore not an argument.
If it’s intended not as supporting Eliezer but as caricaturing his supporters, I haven’t noticed anyone worth noticing giving him such flawed support.
Or perhaps it’s intended as caricaturing people who caricature people who agree with Eliezer?
It could mean any of these things and it is impossible to tell which, without knowing through other channels your actual view, which reduces it to a knowing wink to those in on the know.
And I haven’t even mentioned the comparison of Eliezer to Jesus and “full speed ahead and damn the torpedoes” as the Sanhedrin.
Thanks for the feedback! I think it’s a great meme but it probably reads differently to me than it does to you. It wasn’t intended to be support for either “side.” Insofar as it supports sides, I’d say the first part of the meme is criticism of Eliezer and the last part is criticism of those who reject His message, i.e. almost everyone. When I made this meme, it was months ago right after Yudkowsky wrote the time article and then went on podcasts, and pretty much everyone was telling him to shut up (including the people who agreed with him! Including me!)
Lesson learned.
Sharing my impression of the comic:
The comic does not parse (to my eyes and probably most people’s) as the author intending to criticize Eliezer at any point
Only in the most strawman way. It basically feels equivalent to me to “They disagree with the guy I like, therefore they’re dumb / unsympathetic”. There’s basically no meat on the bones of the criticism
Thanks for your feedback also. It is understandable that this was your reaction. In case you are curious, here is what the comic meant to me:
--Yudkowsky is often criticized as a sort of cult leader. I don’t go that far but I do think there’s some truth to it; there are a bunch of LessWrongers who basically have a modern-day religious ideology (albeit one that’s pretty cool imo, but still) with Yudkowsky as their prophet. Moreover, in the context of the wider word, Yudkowsky is literally a prophet of doom. He’s the weird crazy man who no one likes except for his hardcore followers, who goes around telling all the powerful people and prestigious thought leaders that they are wrong and that the end is nigh.
--Humorously to me, though, Yudkowsky’s message is pretty… aggressive and blunt compared to Jesus’. Yudkowsky isn’t a sunshine and puppies and here-is-a-better-way prophet, he’s a “y’all are irrational and that’s why we’re gonna die” prophet. (I mean in real life he’s more nuanced than that often but that’s definitely how he’s perceived and the perception has basis in reality). I think this is funny. It’s also a mild criticism of Yudkowsky, as is the cult thing above.
--The rest of the meme is funny (to me) because it’s literally true, to a much greater extent than this meme format usually is. Usually when I see this meme format, the thing the Prophet says is a “spicy take” that has truth to it but isn’t literally true, and usually the prophet isn’t real or being told to shut up, and usually insofar as they are being told to shut up it isn’t *because* the prophet’s words are true, but despite their truth. Yet in this case, it is literally true that Yudkowsky’s audience is irrational (though to be clear, pretty much the whole world is irrational to varying degrees and in varying ways, including myself) and that that’s why we’re all going to die (if the whole world, or at least the large parts of it Yudkowsky is attempting to address i.e. US elite + academia + tech + government + nerds) was significantly less irrational then all this AGI risk would be way way lower. Moreover it is literally true that people are telling him to shut up—literally I myself recommended that, and various of my friends who agree with him on most things told him that, and obviously the people who disagree with Yudkowsky also say that often. Finally and most humorously to me, the reason most people reject his message is because they are irrational. Maybe this is controversial but whatever it’s what I believe; I think that people are not rational agents, indeed are pretty irrational pretty often, and that if they were more rational then they’d on average be much more sympathetic to the core claims Yudkowsky is making. So, the reason they reject his message is because it is true. Neat. I’ve never seen an instance of this meme/comic that was so literal before.