On a meta level, I have a narrative that goes something like: LessWrong tried to be truth-seeking, but was scared of discussing the culture war, so blocked that off. But then the culture war ate the world, and various harms have come about from not having thought clearly about that (e.g. AI governance being a default left-wing enterprise that tried to make common cause with AI ethics). Now cancel culture is over and there are very few political risks to thinking about culture wars, but people are still scared to. (You can see Scott gradually dipping his toe into the race + IQ stuff over the past few months, but in a pretty frightened way. E.g. at one point he stated what I think is basically his position, then appended something along the lines of “And I’m literally Hitler and should be shunned.”)
I read your comment as conflating ‘talking about the culture war at all’ and ‘agreeing with / invoking Curtis Yarvin’, which also conflates ‘criticizing Yarvin’ with ‘silencing discussion of the culture war’.
This reinforces a false binary between totally mind-killed wokists and people (like Yarvin) who just literally believe that some folks deserve to suffer, because it’s their genetic destiny.
This kind of tribalism is exactly what fuels the culture war, and not what successfully sidesteps, diffuses, or rectifies it. NRx, like the Cathedral, is a mind-killing apparatus, and one can cautiously mine individual ideas presented by either side, on the basis of the merits of that particular idea, while understanding that there is, in fact, very little in the way of a coherent model underlying those claims. Or, to the extent that there is such a model, it doesn’t survive (much) contact with reality.
[it feels useful for me to point out that Yarvin has ever said things I agree with, and that I’m sympathetic to some of the main-line wokist positions, to avoid the impression that I’m merely a wokist cosplaying centrism; in fact, the critiques of wokism I find most compelling are the critiques that come from the left, but it’s also true that Yarvin has some views here that are more in contact with reality]
edit: I agree that people should say things they believe and be engaged with in good faith (conditional on they, themselves, are engaging in good faith)
I don’t think the risks of talking about the culture war have gone down. If anything, it feels like it’s yet again gotten worse. What exactly is risky to talk about has changed a bit, but that’s it. I’m more reluctant than ever to involve myself in culture war adjacent discussions.
On a meta level, I have a narrative that goes something like: LessWrong tried to be truth-seeking, but was scared of discussing the culture war, so blocked that off. But then the culture war ate the world, and various harms have come about from not having thought clearly about that (e.g. AI governance being a default left-wing enterprise that tried to make common cause with AI ethics). Now cancel culture is over and there are very few political risks to thinking about culture wars, but people are still scared to. (You can see Scott gradually dipping his toe into the race + IQ stuff over the past few months, but in a pretty frightened way. E.g. at one point he stated what I think is basically his position, then appended something along the lines of “And I’m literally Hitler and should be shunned.”)
I read your comment as conflating ‘talking about the culture war at all’ and ‘agreeing with / invoking Curtis Yarvin’, which also conflates ‘criticizing Yarvin’ with ‘silencing discussion of the culture war’.
This reinforces a false binary between totally mind-killed wokists and people (like Yarvin) who just literally believe that some folks deserve to suffer, because it’s their genetic destiny.
This kind of tribalism is exactly what fuels the culture war, and not what successfully sidesteps, diffuses, or rectifies it. NRx, like the Cathedral, is a mind-killing apparatus, and one can cautiously mine individual ideas presented by either side, on the basis of the merits of that particular idea, while understanding that there is, in fact, very little in the way of a coherent model underlying those claims. Or, to the extent that there is such a model, it doesn’t survive (much) contact with reality.
[it feels useful for me to point out that Yarvin has ever said things I agree with, and that I’m sympathetic to some of the main-line wokist positions, to avoid the impression that I’m merely a wokist cosplaying centrism; in fact, the critiques of wokism I find most compelling are the critiques that come from the left, but it’s also true that Yarvin has some views here that are more in contact with reality]
edit: I agree that people should say things they believe and be engaged with in good faith (conditional on they, themselves, are engaging in good faith)
I don’t think the risks of talking about the culture war have gone down. If anything, it feels like it’s yet again gotten worse. What exactly is risky to talk about has changed a bit, but that’s it. I’m more reluctant than ever to involve myself in culture war adjacent discussions.