pnrjulius comments on Every Cause Wants To Be A Cult - Less Wrong

41 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 12 December 2007 03:04AM

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Comment author: pnrjulius 20 April 2012 01:49:19PM 1 point [-]

It's certainly possible to overcompensate for the fundamental attribution error.

This is what I think happens when people say things like "Stalin was just a product of his circumstances." No, he was a manipulative, sadistic psychopath; his circumstances are what made him a world leader and mass murderer instead of a corrupt banker or serial killer.

But in this case, I do think that the admins of Wikipedia are humans of at least normal---if not in fact above-average---moral character, falling prey to their circumstances. Their behavior does not seem SO extreme, SO cruel, that it can't be fit with what we know about normal human beings.