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Eugine_Nier comments on LINK: In favor of niceness, community, and civilisation - Less Wrong Discussion

26 Post author: Solvent 24 February 2014 04:13AM

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Comment author: Pfft 25 February 2014 03:22:44AM *  4 points [-]

Done. I think the most significant point Chu made which didn't come across in the other summaries was that "some ideas are inherently dangerous and must not be allowed to spread", and that neoreaction is among those.

So I guess that a lot of the disagreement come down to how dangerous you believe the ideas are. A big reason I feel comfortable reading Moldbug looking for interesting points of view is that his ideas have lost so thoroughly---regardless of his feelings that black people would be better off as slaves, the probability that slavery will be reinstated in America is basically zero (except perhaps in a complete collapse of civilization). If I believed that discussing Moldbug carried an appreciable risk of destroying modern liberal society, then I wouldn't.

(Indeed, since the pseudo-nazi revival in Greece in recent years, I have felt a bit less comfortable about Moldbug too. Suddenly, liberal democracy seems slightly less secure).

Comment author: Eugine_Nier 25 February 2014 04:01:29AM *  5 points [-]

If I believed that discussing Moldbug carried an appreciable risk of destroying modern liberal society, then I wouldn't.

How sure are you that "modern liberal society" is in fact a good thing? What evidence convinced you to believe this? How sure are you that evidence wasn't fabricated by someone who also thought lying was justified to protect modern liberal society?

Comment author: polymathwannabe 25 February 2014 04:03:45AM 3 points [-]

Upvoted, not because I have anything against modern liberal society, but because we should routinely question our beliefs.

Comment author: Eugine_Nier 25 February 2014 04:42:00AM *  6 points [-]

My point is more than that. It is that by lying for a cause you've made it much harder to properly question any of its beliefs. After all, properly questioning something requires getting accurate data, which is much harder if you're also spreading false data about the subject.