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steven0461 comments on Some Heuristics for Evaluating the Soundness of the Academic Mainstream in Unfamiliar Fields - Less Wrong
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steven0461:
Fair enough. What we're facing here is the same ongoing conflict of visions about what the range of appropriate topics on LW should be. My opinion is that if the forum as presently constituted isn't capable of handling sensitive topics in a rational manner, and if any topic with even the remotest sensitive implications should therefore be avoided, then the whole project should be written off as a failure and the website reconstituted along the standard guidelines for technical forums (i.e. with a list of precise and strict definitions of suitable technical topics, and rigorous moderation to eradicate off-topic comments).
Certainly, I find it comically absurd that there should be a community of people boasting about their "rationality" who at the same time have to obsessively self-censor to avoid turning their discussions into food fights. I'm surely not alone in this assessment, and the bad PR from such a situation should be a sufficient reason for the owners of LW to undertake some radical steps (in one direction or another) to avoid it.
I'm not sure I understand what you're saying here. Are you saying that there are some points relevant to this discussion that you're reluctant to bring up because they are "a bad idea to talk about"?
I'm not necessarily advocating complete censorship. Special cautionary reminders around political topics and disciplined downvoting might do the trick.
I don't see evidence for bad PR here. I haven't seen anyone cite the politics taboo as a reason to shun LessWrong, and in general it isn't unusual for sites to have rules like this. While it would certainly be embarrassing if the average LessWrong commenter weren't at least a little more rational than the average internet commenter, productive political discussion between internet commenters not pre-selected for agreement is a notoriously hard problem.
If you're worried about bad PR, I suspect there's a better case that bad PR will be caused by LessWrong arriving at conclusions that are true but disreputable.
Sure.
Could someone point me to where the politics taboo is actually articulated? After re-reading Eliezer's post politics is the mindkiller, he identifies many of the pitfalls of discussing gender politics, but I never got the sense that he advocated prohibiting discussion of controversial political subjects:
steven0461:
That is indeed a good point. Still, I do think my original concern is valid too.
In any case, given the opinions exchanged in this discussion (and other similar ones), I do believe that LW is in need of a clearer official policy for what is considered on-topic. I find commenting here a lot of fun, and what I write is usually well received as far as the votes and replies appear to indicate, but occasional comments like yours leave me with an unpleasant impression that a significant number of people might strongly disapprove of my attitudes and choices of topics. I certainly have no desire to do anything that breeds ill will, but lacking clearer rules, it seems to me that this conflict (assuming it's significant) is without an obvious resolution, unless we are to treat any complaint as a liberum veto (which I don't think would be workable as a general principle).
Well, you have sure whetted my curiosity with that. I honestly don't see anything in the post and the subsequent comments that warrants such grave observations, but it might be my failure of imagination.
Apologies if I sounded snippy, or if I demotivated you from commenting. I like your attitudes and topic choices generally; it's just that I'm worried about the effects of creating a precedent for people to be talking about such topics on this particular site. Again, I'm not even confident that the effects are harmful on net, but there seems to have been widespread support of the recommendation to avoid politically charged examples, and it bothered me that people seemed to be letting that slip just because it's what happens by default. In any case, the length of this thread probably suggests I care more about this issue than I actually do, and for now I'll just agree that it would be nice to have clearer rules and bow out.