We’re only getting one side of the story here; and also—taking your account of the facts as the unvarnished truth, for argument’s sake—I can easily see multiple plausible interpretations of the events you describe. Some of them reflect quite negative indeed on the organizers of the mentioned events/groups. Others, likewise, reflect quite negatively on you, and leave the named people largely blameless. I have nowhere near enough information to favor either type of interpretation—though let me say that, on priors, and given my experiences, I don’t find either sort of interpretation to be any more or less plausible than the other.
But there are two comments I’d like to make, that do not depend on which interpretation of your account is the true one.
First: thank you for posting this. We should have more accounts like this. There is far too much insularity and secrecy in and among our “rationalist communities”; more openness would benefit everyone (except those who deserve to be harmed by it).
Second: this is another in a long series of things I have both witnessed and have been told about, over the span of many years, which increasingly convinces me that the idea of “rationalist communities” is, and always has been, fundamentally misguided and detrimental. What is on display in this account are the consequences of conflating social groups (i.e., groups of friends/acquaintances, who enjoy each other’s company and like to engage in general-purpose social activities together) with task groups (i.e., organizations, formally constituted for some purpose, whose membership and activities are subordinate to that purpose). (Note that this characterization does not depend on which interpretation of the OP’s account we favor; it holds in any event short of him making the entire thing up from whole cloth!)
the consequences of conflating social groups with task groups
I run my local group as a split group. Tasks happen and social group stuff happens separately. That seems to keep the problem at bay. I don’t get along with everyone socially, but we come together for tasks.
We’re only getting one side of the story here; and also—taking your account of the facts as the unvarnished truth, for argument’s sake—I can easily see multiple plausible interpretations of the events you describe. Some of them reflect quite negative indeed on the organizers of the mentioned events/groups. Others, likewise, reflect quite negatively on you, and leave the named people largely blameless. I have nowhere near enough information to favor either type of interpretation—though let me say that, on priors, and given my experiences, I don’t find either sort of interpretation to be any more or less plausible than the other.
But there are two comments I’d like to make, that do not depend on which interpretation of your account is the true one.
First: thank you for posting this. We should have more accounts like this. There is far too much insularity and secrecy in and among our “rationalist communities”; more openness would benefit everyone (except those who deserve to be harmed by it).
Second: this is another in a long series of things I have both witnessed and have been told about, over the span of many years, which increasingly convinces me that the idea of “rationalist communities” is, and always has been, fundamentally misguided and detrimental. What is on display in this account are the consequences of conflating social groups (i.e., groups of friends/acquaintances, who enjoy each other’s company and like to engage in general-purpose social activities together) with task groups (i.e., organizations, formally constituted for some purpose, whose membership and activities are subordinate to that purpose). (Note that this characterization does not depend on which interpretation of the OP’s account we favor; it holds in any event short of him making the entire thing up from whole cloth!)
I run my local group as a split group. Tasks happen and social group stuff happens separately. That seems to keep the problem at bay. I don’t get along with everyone socially, but we come together for tasks.