The rise of the popularity of a platform does not imply that those who migrate to it en masse grew more numerous, only that they prefer this particular form of expression.
Groupthink is a thing. Emergent communities are a thing. Tumblr isn't just a publishing platform, it's a social platform, and that makes it meaningful to talk about "Tumblr" as a social entity rather than a purely technical tool. And when looked at in that light, Tumblr (the community, or more specifically the radical politics community as opposed to e.g. the catpic community) almost certainly radicalized many people who wouldn't otherwise have gotten involved; naturally there would have been other centers of radical politics and other vectors of radicalization if David Karp had been hit by a bus back in 2004, but that's not the world we live in. Similarly, MySpace played a role in the rise of indie music by exposing people to it through social-media channels.
We're typing this on Less Wrong, dude. I can hardly think of a clearer example of online movement-building. Do you really think that this community -- movement, cult, hugbox, whatever you want to call it -- would look much like it does now if Eliezer had stayed on the SL4 list, or gone straight to publishing a book?
We're typing this on Less Wrong, dude
So do you think there is a causal connection between the number of unique pageviews on LW and the state of AI research (size of programs, funding, etc) out in the real world?
Through LessWrong, I've discovered the no-reactionary movement. Servery says that there are some of you here.
I'm curious, what lead you to accept the basic premises of the movement? What is the story of your personal "conversion"? Was there some particular insight or information that was important in convincing you? Was it something that just "clicked" for you or that you had always felt in a vague way? Were any of you "raised in it"?
Feel free to forward my questions to others or direct me towards a better forum for asking this.
I hope that this is in no way demeaning or insulting. I'm genuinely curious and my questioning is value free. If you point me towards compelling evidence of the neo-reactionary premise, I'll update on it.