Well, I figure if people that have been proven rational in the past see something potentially dangerous, it's not proof but it lends it more weight. Basically that the idea of there being something dangerous there should be taken seriously.
Hmm, what I meant was that it being deleted isn't evidence of foul play, since it'd happen in both instances.
I don't see any arguments against except for surface implausibility?
Free expression doesn't trump everything. For example, in the Riddle Theory story, the spread of the riddle would be a bad idea. It might occur to people independently, but they might not take it seriously, at at least the spread will be lessened.
I'm not sure if it turned out for the better, deleting it, because people only wanted to know more after its deletion. But who knows.
Riddle theory is fiction.
In real life, humans are not truth-proving machines. If confronted with their Godel sentences, they will just shrug - and say "you expect me to do what?"
Fiction isn't evidence. If anything it shows that there is so little real evidence of ideas so harmful that they deserve censorship, that people have to make things up in order to prove their point.
Some research says that lurkers make up over 90% of online groups. I suspect that Less Wrong has an even higher percentage of lurkers than other online communities.
Please post a comment in this thread saying "Hi." You can say more if you want, but just posting "Hi" is good for a guaranteed free point of karma.
Also see the introduction thread.