Perhaps the most successful example, Pick-up artists, are out of limits for this community because their terminals are deemed offensive.
“out of limits for this community”? Huh? PUA fans are a significant and vocal part of this community. Sure, they receive some criticism, but so do cryonics advocates, utilitarians, believers in the ‘scary idea’, and one-boxers. There is no consensus on terminal values here, nor even, beyond a vague Bayesianism, on the algorithms and methods of rationality. Only an agreement that such things are important and a loose sense of community in helping each other to explore these questions.
So what does rationality have to offer to the common man to gain their support?
I think this is a good question. Most inspirational rationalist manifestos appeal more to intellectuals than to your ‘common man’. I would like to see more attempts to answer this question. My own suggestion would be to focus on the Litany of Tarski. Our slogan should be “Don’t let yourself be treated as a fool.” The trouble is that the conspiracy theory salesmen had already established a strong foothold in this market.
I recall there was a PUA-related fuss early in the site’s life and the outcome was for articles to be discouraged (though not outright banned). Can anyone confirm or deny this?
I’m relatively new here, so I can neither confirm nor deny. But it seems that you are saying that practical articles like this one are discouraged. Why would anyone discourage that? :)
There was, in the Summer of ’09. This post is quite good, as Alicorn presents a good summary, and links to other prominent top-level posts.
Essentially, a lot of words were spake in anger, and PUA seemed to be the mind-killer. Eventually, everyone dropped the topic, but I’m not sure anyone really won. If you’ll forgive the crass labels, the anti-PUA side semi-banished PUA from LW, but the pro-PUA side ensured that a lot of people still find it useful/etc., and simply decline from discussing it out of concern for the peace.
“out of limits for this community”? Huh? PUA fans are a significant and vocal part of this community. Sure, they receive some criticism, but so do cryonics advocates, utilitarians, believers in the ‘scary idea’, and one-boxers. There is no consensus on terminal values here, nor even, beyond a vague Bayesianism, on the algorithms and methods of rationality. Only an agreement that such things are important and a loose sense of community in helping each other to explore these questions.
I think this is a good question. Most inspirational rationalist manifestos appeal more to intellectuals than to your ‘common man’. I would like to see more attempts to answer this question. My own suggestion would be to focus on the Litany of Tarski. Our slogan should be “Don’t let yourself be treated as a fool.” The trouble is that the conspiracy theory salesmen had already established a strong foothold in this market.
I recall there was a PUA-related fuss early in the site’s life and the outcome was for articles to be discouraged (though not outright banned). Can anyone confirm or deny this?
I’m relatively new here, so I can neither confirm nor deny. But it seems that you are saying that practical articles like this one are discouraged. Why would anyone discourage that? :)
There was, in the Summer of ’09. This post is quite good, as Alicorn presents a good summary, and links to other prominent top-level posts.
Essentially, a lot of words were spake in anger, and PUA seemed to be the mind-killer. Eventually, everyone dropped the topic, but I’m not sure anyone really won. If you’ll forgive the crass labels, the anti-PUA side semi-banished PUA from LW, but the pro-PUA side ensured that a lot of people still find it useful/etc., and simply decline from discussing it out of concern for the peace.
Thanks.