Chu's position -- at least, as presented at Yvain's blog -- seems to dip into the realm of being a guardian of truth. To me, that position is always scary... even if it comes from the "good guys".
I would personally suggest that anyone considering this issue seriously read the multitude of comments Chu made on the JKaufmann blog post thing. It may or may not change your mind but its solid evidence, and its easily accessible. If you took the time to read Yvain's post, the 2-10 minutes, depending on your reading speed, to read all of Chu's comments in their original context is time well spent.
Scott, known on LessWrong as Yvain, recently wrote a post complaining about an inaccurate rape statistic.
Arthur Chu, who is notable for winning money on Jeopardy recently, argued against Scott's stance that we should be honest in arguments in a comment thread on Jeff Kaufman's Facebook profile, which can be read here.
Scott just responded here, with a number of points relevant to the topic of rationalist communities.
I am interested in what LW thinks of this.
Obviously, at some point being polite in our arguments is silly. I'd be interested in people's opinions of how dire the real world consequences have to be before it's worthwhile debating dishonestly.