VoiceOfRa comments on Open thread, Oct. 5 - Oct. 11, 2015 - Less Wrong

7 Post author: MrMind 05 October 2015 06:50AM

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Comment author: VoiceOfRa 12 October 2015 09:59:32PM 5 points [-]

Well, in other forums he suggested that women have systematically less intelligence than men.

Well, the evidence strongly indicates that is in fact the case, at least at the high end.

a local bigot

Could you define what you mean by bigot? Because, the definitions I've heard tend to boil down to "someone who applies Bayesian reasoning to humans".

Comment author: MrMind 13 October 2015 07:39:44AM 1 point [-]

Well, the evidence strongly indicates that is in fact the case, at least at the high end.

Quoted from Wikipedia: "One study did find some advantage for women in later life, while another found that male advantages on some cognitive tests are minimized when controlling for socioeconomic factors. The differences in average IQ between men and women are small in magnitude and inconsistent in direction."

It seems a very thin thread to hang such a heavy prior, and it looks a lot more like a conclusion that someone wants desperately to be true.

Could you define what you mean by bigot?

Sure. I used it in the sense of: "aa is uncommonly out of synch with the contemporary sensibility about personal freedom, and refuses to explain why he believes what he believes".

Comment author: VoiceOfRa 13 October 2015 08:35:31PM 4 points [-]

Sure. I used it in the sense of: "aa is uncommonly out of synch with the contemporary sensibility about personal freedom,

So expressing contrarian opinions is grounds for banning?

and refuses to explain why he believes what he believes".

Except he did explain why he believes what he does.

Comment author: MrMind 14 October 2015 07:50:47AM 1 point [-]

So expressing contrarian opinions is grounds for banning?

As always, it's a matter of degree and interaction on how well argumented your position is.
So yes, you can express a sufficiently contrarian opinion that would lead to banning. "All women should be treated as sex slaves", for example, is such an opinion.

Except he did explain why he believes what he does.

I asked aa at least twice, possibly more, what evidence he had for his assertions and got nothing back. Can you point me to a place where he did so? A post mortem would still be useful.

Comment author: VoiceOfRa 14 October 2015 08:49:36PM 2 points [-]

So yes, you can express a sufficiently contrarian opinion that would lead to banning. "All women should be treated as sex slaves", for example, is such an opinion.

But I don't think even you would argue that the reason for banning that opinion is its contrariness.