But “I had an e-mail exchange with an anonymous rapist, and here are some quotes” would suffice, whereas “Here’s an article by a person I disagree with” implies some degree of respect for the defended position.
I think that depends on the people in the discussion. If you discuss among high status folk where everyone agrees that all the participants of the discussion have reasonable views then there no problem to point to articles with crazy views.
If you discuss in a group where there a chance that someone actually supports the crazy view you have to be more careful.
I mostly agree with what you are saying, but I’m not sure what the phrase “high status” is intended to add. High status is not the same as “clear thinking” or “rationally weighing the evidence”—and it is dangerous to pretend otherwise.
Whether or not I’m clear thinking doesn’t depend on the group in which I’m operating. The views that I can espouse do depend on my social status within the group. If I’m high status I’m not constrained to argue views that are socially accepted. I can argue views based on their intellectual merits.
Fellow members in the group will value me for arguing views based on their intellectual merits without any consideration of respecting ideas. If I’m operating in a low status enviroment it’s more important to signal respect to popular ideas and disrespect to the wrong ideas.
Of course I can also say that I don’t care about the approval. If I fail to give respect to the right ideas on LessWrong it won’t have much bad implications for my daily life.
If I’m however arguing in a sphere where the approval of other people matter, it effects the views that I can publically espouse.
The website is public and has a rather large audience. Moreover, it talks about misandry (and generally gender from a male perspective) a lot, and therefore has originally tried hard to distance itself from those who call themselves Men’s Rights Activists.
I think that depends on the people in the discussion. If you discuss among high status folk where everyone agrees that all the participants of the discussion have reasonable views then there no problem to point to articles with crazy views.
If you discuss in a group where there a chance that someone actually supports the crazy view you have to be more careful.
I mostly agree with what you are saying, but I’m not sure what the phrase “high status” is intended to add. High status is not the same as “clear thinking” or “rationally weighing the evidence”—and it is dangerous to pretend otherwise.
Whether or not I’m clear thinking doesn’t depend on the group in which I’m operating. The views that I can espouse do depend on my social status within the group. If I’m high status I’m not constrained to argue views that are socially accepted. I can argue views based on their intellectual merits.
Fellow members in the group will value me for arguing views based on their intellectual merits without any consideration of respecting ideas. If I’m operating in a low status enviroment it’s more important to signal respect to popular ideas and disrespect to the wrong ideas.
Of course I can also say that I don’t care about the approval. If I fail to give respect to the right ideas on LessWrong it won’t have much bad implications for my daily life. If I’m however arguing in a sphere where the approval of other people matter, it effects the views that I can publically espouse.
The website is public and has a rather large audience. Moreover, it talks about misandry (and generally gender from a male perspective) a lot, and therefore has originally tried hard to distance itself from those who call themselves Men’s Rights Activists.
Considering the article in question didn’t actually defend his actions, I’m not sure why.