Quirinus_Quirrell comments on Is Kiryas Joel an Unhappy Place? - Less Wrong

20 Post author: gwern 23 April 2011 12:08AM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (186)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: Quirinus_Quirrell 26 April 2011 12:55:37AM 30 points [-]

I sometimes feel like there is a shadowy half-underground group of LWers that is intelligent enough to stay away from bad signalling and has altruistic intentions, but has to deal every now and then with a slight twitch, reading something knowing they can't really state a proper response.

(linked comment) Delusions that are truly widely held and not merely believed to be widely held are far too dangerous to attack. There are sociopolitical Eldritch Abominations that it would serve LW well to stay well clear of and perhaps even pretend they don't exist for the time being.

The next time you feel that way, make yourself another identity, and use it to say the things you wouldn't otherwise. It really is quite liberating. It's very rare for a delusion to really be too strong to attack, especially here; it is only that you fear backlash.

As for the discussion this appeared in, let me get the unpleasant truths out of the way so we can stay meta: Intelligence is mostly heritable! Knowing someone's race conveys nonzero information about their their social status, suitability for jobs, wealth, and criminality! The gender imbalances in many professions are the result of innate differences, not discrimination! When groups with bad values and lower intelligence breed too much, it harms the future! These are all truths that any sufficiently advanced rationalist will recognize. And if you disagree with any of these, please direct your complaints to no one in particular.

Comment author: Strange7 26 June 2011 06:54:30AM 6 points [-]

All the 'unpleasant truths' you list seem to be facets of a single underlying issue of genetics. I consider none of them particularly shocking, especially in the weak forms you use there. Damn near any observable fact related to a given person will 'convey nonzero information about their their [sic] social status," so if you're going to use this persona to say what you otherwise couldn't get away with, how about you fill out your theory with some policy suggestions, or at least more specific predictions?

Comment author: sketerpot 26 June 2011 07:48:46AM *  12 points [-]

Careful; LW doesn't seem to scandalize easily, as this thread hilariously demonstrates as people try to discuss shocking things, and everyone fails to be shocked, so people up the ante by combining cannibalism and pedophilia, and so on, in a positive feedback loop.

Actually, don't be careful. That was a fun thread.

Comment author: [deleted] 23 February 2014 11:18:22PM 0 points [-]

That is an outright brilliant idea, and the next time LW does one of these ridiculous "Everyone post your ever-so-supposedly controversial but rational opinions that actually just amount to outright misanthropy" threads, I'm going to do it.

Comment author: Jiro 23 February 2014 11:57:34PM -2 points [-]

What? No, it's not brilliant, it's nonsensical. "It's very rare for a delusion to really be too strong to attack, especially here; it is only that you fear backlash." Umm... that's what "too strong to attack" means. It doesn't mean that the arguments for it are intellectually devastating--it means that if you attack them, you will get in trouble. In other words, backlash.

Comment author: [deleted] 24 February 2014 06:14:23AM 1 point [-]

"It's very rare for a delusion to really be too strong to attack, especially here; it is only that you fear backlash." Umm... that's what "too strong to attack" means. It doesn't mean that the arguments for it are intellectually devastating--it means that if you attack them, you will get in trouble.

Yes, that's why having a trollacter account mock the whole thing by "playing evil" is funny. It helps that many of these so-called ever-so-controversial "beliefs" are actually evaluative statements wrapped in wannabe-factual trappings.